Resilience
How to Help a Child Name Their Feelings
Children are small people with very big emotions. Although they can show you what they are feeling, most children have yet to attach a name to their feelings and have not learned healthy ways of dealing with their emotions. As children grow, they face many challenges and obstacles. Therefore, it is important to promote healthy…
Read MoreCelebrating Fathers and Changing Lives at Cure Violence’s Fatherhood Sessions
For Johnny Brown, Fatherhood Session Coordinator at CHRIS 180’s Violence Prevention Program, helping fathers is a calling. “All of us are on this journey of being fathers,” Johnny shared. “We work with participants to learn the life skills to be able to work, stay out of trouble and start talking about what it takes to…
Read MoreBringing a Mother’s Love to Children in Foster Care
Valancia Abdullah considers it her calling to care for youth who some may think of as “challenged.” After working with special needs students at Atlanta Public Schools, in 2000, she joined CHRIS 180’s foster care program. She serves as a Resident Assistant. The kids affectionately refer to her as Ms. Val. “The RA to me…
Read MoreGiving back from home: Serving with CHRIS 180 virtually
I closed my laptop at 5:00 p.m. on a Friday and did my now very familiar quarantine routine of moving from my makeshift desk at the kitchen table to the couch in the living room. I scrolled through Netflix (and Hulu, HBO & Amazon) before finally just putting on the same show I always watch.…
Read MoreFinding a Sense of Control Amidst the Uncontrollable
If this year has taught me anything, it is that there is a lot of stuff I cannot change. That realization has brought on frequent feelings of powerlessness, helplessness and frustration. It has also sometimes brought about anger, sadness and a downright desire to just throw my hands up in the air and say, “forget…
Read MoreSeason of Change
The cool breeze in the mornings lets us know that autumn is around the corner. I have not always been ready for this newness because I love the summer months and do not want to say goodbye to the warmth of the sun, the flowers, butterflies, lightning bugs, BBQs, late evenings and beach trips. There…
Read MoreFinding Balance
Around the age of 12, I lifted my hands from the handlebars of my bike for the first time and rode down the street behind my friends who also rode with “no hands”. It was quite the accomplishment at that time. We rode everywhere on our bikes — to friends’ houses, the pond, the pool,…
Read MoreWhat’s Your Story?
Stories tell us something about ourselves, others, and our experiences. Our therapists have the pleasure to sit with all kinds of people at different stages of their life and hear their stories. One approach CHRIS 180 clinicians often take with clients is to listen to the stories you share about yourself, others, and your experiences.…
Read MoreJoy
Joy. Such a small word. A word that seems out of place in a world rocked by death, destruction, violence and oppression. An experience that seems so far away as we are struggling to survive, or fight racism, or cure and prevent disease, or heal ourselves and others, or all the above. And we are…
Read MoreChoose Joy
The world is completely chaotic right now. Everyday something changes. Abnormal is the new normal and for many of us the uncertainty of it all is making it hard to be optimistic. Yes, even those of us irritatingly happy people have found it hard to remain hopeful at times. I have decided that that’s okay.…
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