Justice In Action

Guiding our clients toward recovery from substance use disorder The opioid epidemic has increased the demand for effective recovery services, and Justice Resource Institute's Mary Chao is leading the organization's training program for clinicians and other staff members to aid them in helping clients recover. Chao has been with JRI for nine years and works with the agency's health, training and community-based services divisions, developing and coordinating substance use programming throughout the agency. She works closely with clients ages 12 to 24 and the JRI clinicians who help them to address problematic substance use. Problematic use of substances, including opioids, cannabis and alcohol, often accompanies other problems, including homelessness, sexual abuse and violence that JRI programs also address. Chao and JRI use ACRA (Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach), an evidence-based treatment model that focuses on developing relationships with clients to help them understand what motivates them to use drugs or alcohol and looks to increase opportunities for clients to do “social, fun things” with the goal of helping them reduce or eliminate substance use. But recovery doesn't necessarily mean lifelong abstinence from drugs or alcohol. “Abstinence is definitely not the only way to be in recovery,” she said. “Someone with substance use disorder can struggle for years, even decades….It's important to recognize that relapse doesn't mean failure.” In addition, while substance use by youth and young adults can be frightening for friends and family,  “Not every person who uses a substance needs treatment.” The need for treatment becomes clearer when substance use has a serious effect on their life or the lives of others. And it is important that treatment for substance use disorder be integrated into a client's overall care plan. “Recovery is possible for everyone, and every family, and every community,” Chao said. Listen here to our conversation with Mary Chao about substance use disorder, treatment and recovery.

Mental health clinicians are often reluctant to treat people who have intellectual and developmental differences (IDDs) for fear of doing something that could worsen rather than improve the client's condition. In this episode  of Justice in Action, two JRI clinicians, Dr. Jacquelyn Kraps, Metrowest Area Director and Clinical Director of Outpatient Services, and Bailey McCombs, Licensed Metal Health Counselor and Expressive Arts Therapist, talk about the rewards and challenges of working with children with a range of differences, from autism spectrum disorder to chromosomal differences, cognitive challenges, and traumatic brain injury. Dr. Kraps and McCombs have helped establish the Developmental Differences Specialty Team to assist other JRI therapists to work effectively with clients with both IDDs and mental health needs, including complex trauma. Services for those individuals have long been siloed because they have been seen as separate and distinct. JRI is breaking new ground by having a single provider address the entirety of the client's service needs. Treating clients with both complex trauma and IDDs draw heavily on a therapist's creativity, flexibility, and powers of observation, Dr. Kraps and McComb say. Sometimes it requires teasing out which problems are caused by trauma and which are part of the individual's developmental difference. They advise other clinicians to be curious, open, and willing to say the wrong thing. If an approach doesn't work, they can always shift course.  Sometimes a client — especially a non-verbal client — can communicate most successfully by writing, drawing, or moving their body. Individuals with IDDs deserve effective treatment for mental health needs, which they are at least as likely to experience as the rest of the community, and they can enjoy positive, healthier outcomes with the right therapeutic approach. For more information, visit jri.org. A note about language: IDD often stands for intellectual and development disabilities. JRI choses to use the word differences instead of disabilities to be as inclusive as possible, and honors that each individual and family get to decide how they identify.

Few social service agencies are as committed as JRI to improving treatment through research and data. In today's episode of Justice in Action, we talk to Hilary Hodgdon, Research Director at Justice Resource Institute, and Lia Martin, Senior Associate Director of Quality Management. Together, they are part of a data and research division that is unusual among social service agencies for its size and scope. JRI clients suffer from complex trauma. On average, a child or adolescent seeing a JRI therapist has experienced three different types of trauma, such as neglect, physical abuse or psychological abuse. That number rises to five or six for clients in residential programs. In addition, these young people may face racism or other types of bias  These traumas can affect children's attachment to their parents or other caregiver, as well as how they think of themselves in the world and whether they see the world as a safe or dangerous place. The data that Hilary and Lia gather and analyze help guide, assess and improve treatments for these young victims of complex trauma. JRI also uses the data to evaluate the effectiveness of its programs. The heart of the data and research work is the Client Assessment Tracking System, or CATS, a tool developed by JRI to gather and analyze information about clients and families. Hilary and Lia use the data not only to support the work of JRI clinicians and programs, but also to examine specific research questions, such as how gender, race and an individual's personal history with trauma affect treatment outcomes. They learned, for instance, that while females tend to present with more and stronger symptoms than males, both genders benefit equally from trauma-informed care. Smaller agencies that lack a complete research department of their own also benefit from JRI's research program. Clinicians from those agencies can feed their clients' data into CATS and benefit from the analysis in the treatment of their clients. In addition, Hilary and Lia are having a nationwide impact on trauma-informed care through training, presentations and the peer-reviewed articles they write and publish. For more information on JRI's data and research work, visit jri.org

Staff of Justice Resource Institute don't shy away from talking about tough issues like racial justice, immigration policy or vaccine hesitancy. They lead the way. JRI's “Courageous Conversations” initiative brings together groups of employees and managers —usually about 50 attend each virtual meeting — to discuss the most difficult topics that come to them, either from fellow employees or from the clients and communities they serve throughout the region. The initiative grew out of Listen, Learn, Lift, a program started in Lynn to have frank conversations with local youth about racial justice and other tough topics. The conversations and the actions taken as a result were so successful that JRI staff decided to spread the word — and the work — throughout the organization. Staff set the agendas for the bi-monthly Zoom meetings, invite guest speakers and run the meetings. JRI executives give their full support to the initiative, which is in line with the agency's core value of furthering social justice. To keep the discussions civil and productive, the group uses a Unity Agreement that outlines principles everyone agrees to uphold at the meetings and that ensure that people are listened to respectfully and feel safe to express themselves honestly. Employees say it builds trust for the entire organization because people feel they are being respected, listened to, and encouraged. JRI, with over 2,500 employees in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, runs programs helping individuals and families experiencing trauma. It is one of the largest social service agencies in New England. JRI is happy to share what “Courageous Conversations” has taught them and how the program works. In this Justice In Action podcast, listen here to JRI staff members Dalene Basden, Director of Family and Community Engagement; Matthew Peiken, Northeast Regional Director; and Amanda Marte, Director of the Young Parent Support Program and an outpatient therapist in the Lawrence and Lowell region, as they discuss “Courageous Conversations.” Visit jri.org to learn more about Justice Resource Institute and its programs.  

More than 8,400 Massachusetts children are in foster care, and the need is growing as the financial and emotional strain of the Covid-19 pandemic and the state's opioid crisis continue to take a toll on children and families. Listen to Bob Costa, program director for JRI's Intensive Foster Care program, and Courtney Edge-Mattos, who is the senior home finder for the program, talk about Justice Resource Institute's foster care program. The program oversees foster families who provide care for children whom the state's Department of Children and Families and the state's court system have found are in imminent danger because of challenges in their permanent homes. That trouble may range from domestic violence to sexual abuse to drug addiction; and the foster care program provides a temporary stay with foster families while troubles are addressed in their permanent homes. The goal in each case is to reunite children with their birth parents or relatives, and foster parents often maintain close contact with children and their families after they are reunited. That is because children need a permanent relationship with at least one trusted adult, says Costa. Often that permanent relationship is with foster parents who “stand in the gap” for traumatized children in need of temporary care, said Edge-Mattos. Those children undergo state-required training, plus JRI's specialized training in working with traumatized children. JRI provides support for their foster parents, providing money for school clothing and holiday gifts, in addition to the state's daily stipend. In addition, a group called the Foster Friends of JRI, which has a Facebook page, often provides additional support for children and foster parents. The JRI Intensive Foster Care program has foster homes available for LGBTQ+ children, and Costa says the Intensive Foster Care program is seeking foster parents to help serve the growing need for foster care. If you are interested in learning more about the program or if you are interested in learning more about becoming a foster parent, visit jri.org/fostercare

We all need the people in our lives who know us and care about us, who celebrate our successes and comfort us in hard times. These are the people we call when we get a new job, lock our keys in the car or are facing a big decision. Permanent, supportive connections are especially important in childhood, when parents, coaches, mentors and teachers help children develop their identity and values, help them know who they are, develop their strengths and set goals in their life. For a long time, however, social services didn’t recognize the importance of permanency for the children in their care. In this podcast, Meredith Rapoza, division director of permanency and latency services for JRI, and Rachel Arruda, JRI division director of Family Networks and JRI’s service navigator, talk about how social service professionals have come to recognize the importance of permanency in the development and ultimate success of children. They discuss how JRI is ensuring that all the children in its care develop at least one permanent connection. We’re also joined by Jason Galli, who entered the social services system from birth, and found permanency for himself despite being moved from foster home to foster home and facility to facility. Now a husband, father and someone dedicated to helping children and youth as a partner with JRI, he offers his story of incredible resilience. For more information about permanency and how you can become a permanent connection to a child, please visit jri.org/lifelongconnections.

Between 700 and 800 cases of child sexual abuse are referred on average each year to the Children’s Advocacy Center of Bristol County, which provides treatment and support to victims and their families. But in the past year, the number of referrals has dropped to about 250 cases. That isn’t necessarily good news, however, as it reflects the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw lengthy periods when schools were closed, and athletic teams and other activities were suspended. As a result, people who are required under the law to report suspected cases of child sexual assault have had only irregular contact with children they normally see, which often means that cases go unreported. CAC mental health clinicians Brittannie Moroz and Jillian Allen shared CDC data stating one in four girls and one in 13 boys under age 18 suffer trauma as a result of child sexual abuse. Those children are some of the approximately 75,000 Bristol County children age 16 and younger believed to have suffered trauma from abuse, violence, addiction in their homes or other causes of childhood trauma. Depending on the age of the child, trauma often manifests itself in both physical and emotional symptoms, from trouble sleeping to anger and acting out, anxiety and depression, or changes in appearance or behavior. The CAC helps by offering not only traditional talk therapy but also other physical forms of treatment that can help children relieve physical, emotional and psychological symptoms associated with trauma by giving them tools to manage those symptoms. Soon, they hope to also offer trauma-sensitive yoga as well. “Every child experiences trauma so differently and every child is so unique,” said Allen. “You may have a child who is really withdrawn and isolated…as opposed to a child who is angry and lashing out.” The CAC works with teachers to help them recognize signs of potential abuse, something more and more schools are building into teacher training programs.  “Traumatic stress symptoms are actually very treatable,” said Moroz. Treatment begins with building a relationship with each child to help re-establish trust and to build confidence. An expansion of the CAC’s facility in Fall River will provide more room for offering trauma-informed treatments meant to help those children feel safe and overcome the symptoms of abuse. Learn more about what the Children’s Advocacy Center of Bristol County is doing and how they provide trauma informed treatment to children affected by child abuse.

Trauma-sensitive yoga helps sufferers use their bodies to heal their spirits Jennifer Turner was a voice student at the New England Conservatory of Music when her instructor approached her during a rehearsal. “You,” her instructor observed, “aren’t in your body.” It took her a while before she understood what her instructor meant, but when she did, it would change her life. She took yoga classes, and the body control that yoga encouraged her to heal from her own trauma she still was carrying. It was, she said, “like coming home.” The awakening guided her to a new calling: using yoga to help people who had suffered psychological trauma from physical and emotional abuse or neglect, and helping them reconnect with their bodies. Today, Turner is the co-director of Justice Resource Institute’s Center for Trauma and Embodiment, where she and co-director and founder Dave Emerson use Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) to help victims of physical or sexual abuse, neglect or other trauma use their bodies to heal their minds and spirits. She recently edited and co-wrote a book about her work. It’s called “Embodied Healing: Survivor and Facilitator Voices from the Practice of Trauma-Sensitive Yoga.” The book, available online through Amazon and Barnes & Noble, describes her work and research and recounts “what it’s like to heal.” Included are the observations and research findings of yoga facilitators trained in trauma-sensitive yoga that has helped sufferers of complex trauma heal their hearts, minds and bodies. Complex trauma can produce a host of symptoms, from racing heartbeat to changes in breathing, hyper-vigilance about any change in their physical environment, depression and anxiety, loss of control of their own bodies or even the loss of feeling in their bodies. TCTSY helps clients reconnect and exert control over their bodies — something that Turner describes as “reinhabiting” their bodies after deep psychological trauma, usually at the hands of a trusted parent or guardian, coach, teacher or religious figure who abused the power of their position to manipulate their victims.   The techniques of TCTSY, which involve a yoga facilitator who suggests rather than instructs and who never touches a student, are being taught at hundreds of places around the globe, sometimes as a supplement to traditional forms of “talk therapy” and sometimes in the absence of talk therapy. The principles of TCTSY are used in more and more traditional yoga classes because facilitators recognize that many of their students come to yoga to help them heal from trauma in their own lives. “The goal isn’t yoga,” Turner said. “The goal is reclaiming your body through yoga.” You can listen to Jennifer Turner discuss her work here. And you can purchase her book at amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com. If you’d like to try a TCTSY class, please visit www.traumasensitiveyoga.com or www.jri.org/tctsy-classes.

Helping the healer when their work unearths old symptoms of trauma Adam Edwards cares about the caregivers. As Justice Resource Institute’s Training and Instructional Design Specialist, he supports JRI staff as they care for some of the over 10,000 children and adults who are clients of the more than 120 programs JRI operates in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Edwards notes that about 85 percent of all people in helping professions — including health and human service workers, first responders, health care workers and educators — report experiencing symptoms of vicarious trauma. That means they are impacted by the work and often times also share some of the physical, mental and emotional symptoms experienced by the clients with whom they work. It’s a type of burnout that can occur when our physiological systems become overwhelmed. It might take the form of sleeplessness, depression, anger or melancholy in a helping professional’s career, the result of years of caring for clients and communities who have been impacted by trauma. But what about those helping professionals who not only hear about the trauma of other people but who themselves suffered sexual abuse, domestic violence or neglect, or who experienced the effects of homelessness or drug or alcohol addiction in their own lives or within their families? Those are the people who Edwards, himself a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, says have had a “first-person encounter with trauma and carry that experience into their work helping other people.” Edwards’s goal is to help create a space where they can recognize, prepare for and manage the associated physical, mental and emotional impact of their own trauma that might be unearthed while helping others.  There is a perceived risk for some of these staffers in stepping forward that they may experience stigma, personal and professional scrutiny, uncertainty and fear. Edwards describes what he does as helping those “wounded healers” when they need support and assistance to be able to continue their work with JRI’s clients, while taking care of themselves and building their own resilience.  Listen to the conversation with Adam Edwards about his work with these “wounded healers” in our Justice In Action podcast here. To learn more about JRI’s work or to explore employment opportunities, visit them at jri.org.

It’s easy to find Caroline Dunlap and the Harm Reduction team at JRI’s Program RISE. They’re the ones wearing backpacks while meeting people in downtown Framingham, dispensing care and concern, along with vital supplies, to the region’s active drug users.  "We are trying to fill in the gap” for services to people who are part of a “stigmatized population” who inject, smoke or snort opioids or other drugs and run the risk of dying from drug overdose, becoming homeless, or contracting HIV or Hepatitis C or infection from sharing used needles, Dunlap says. The team’s services range from giving out socks and winter clothing, teaching drug users how to use Narcan, also known as naloxone, to reverse the effects of an overdose, helping people sign up for the SNAP program (Food Stamps) or deciding to enter a detox or treatment program. “Our main goal is to provide compassionate care” — without pressure — to people who often live on the margins because they use drugs, Dunlap says.  Harm reduction originated in the 1980s in response to the AIDS epidemic. Many of AIDS’ early victims lived on the streets, injected drugs, were gay or transgender or were sex workers largely ignored or even scorned by others. Because government offices and policy usually did not provide for their needs (needle exchange programs were illegal) people found ways to care for one another. “We are all that we have and it’s up to us to protect each other,” she says. Needle exchange programs have sharply reduced the number of new AIDS cases: between 2000 and 2014, HIV infection rates fell 91 percent among Massachusetts intravenous drug users, Dunlap says. Dunlap went to college to study environmental science in order to become a park ranger, but she moved from Massachusetts to the San Francisco Bay Area and was drawn to harm reduction work, in part because of her own struggles with depression. Dunlap’s team of three or four meet 15 to 30 clients a week at their offices, but they also walk around downtown Framingham with backpacks and wearing shirts and jackets that read “Harm Reduction Staff” with the program’s phone numbers and talking to people on the street. They give out essentials to help the people they meet: hygiene supplies, kits for safer drug use, wound care kits.  Program RISE is also introducing a mobile van that will allow drug users to exchange syringes, get Narcan training or get tested for HIV and sexually transmitted infections. “Harm reduction is more than just needles,” Dunlap says.  The trauma associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, related unemployment and family strains are a factor in the rising overdose rates, she believes. Yet people have a hard time talking about it. “Drugs provide an out for people in traumatic circumstance,’ Dunlap says. “There’s so much stigma around drugs that people often are hesitant to ask for help…Anyone can suffer from addiction” but often people don’t recognize the cost of habitual drug use until it affects a child, husband, coworker, parent or friend.  “It’s hard to be empathetic until it’s your kid (but) you never know who around you is in trouble,” she says. “We are here to look out for each other. I’m definitely alive because someone looked out for me.”  You can find Program RISE on Instagram at metrowest_harmreduction, on Facebook at Program RISE or on the website at www.jri.org/rise.

Justice Resource Institute (JRI) has teamed up with William James College, New England’s largest school of psychology, to create an innovative degree completion program for JRI staff. Marc Abelard, director of the Behavioral Health Service Corps, director of the Bachelor in Psychology & Human Services Completion Program and co-director of the Child & Adolescent Mental Health Initiative at William James; Ed Powell, JRI vice president of community engagement and executive director at STRIVE Boston, and Tonya Morris, a survivor mentor and training specialist with JRI’s  My Life My Choice and a recent graduate of William James College, talk about the program and the unusual level of support it provides for students. Morris, who works with young victims of abuse, sex trafficking and other traumas, was one of four JRI employees to earn a bachelor’s degree in May as part of the program’s first graduating class. A single mother who works full time, Morris said she was thrilled at the opportunity to complete her education, but uneasy about entering the classroom again after decades away. Support from JRI and William James College was key to achieving her goal and becoming effective in working with her clients. “If I didn’t get what I got from William James College I would have not been able to handle the cases I’m handling now,” she said. She plans to tackle her master’s degree next. Money and time are the main barriers for many when returning to school. Abelard says the program addresses both. Generous reimbursements from JRI and William James scholarships mean JRI employees can earn a degree at no cost to them. In addition, JRI provides employees the flexibility they need to fit classes and studying into lives filled with work and family obligations, while William James College offers the hands-on academic support to ensure they succeed. Powell said the program encourages entry level staff members to see their work at JRI as a career, not just a job. Because entry level workers are often people of color, the program also helps address issues of racial equity and structural racism, while ensuring that the JRI staff reflect the diversity of the clients they serve. Training this workforce has become more critical as baby boomers retire and leave Massachusetts with a severe shortage of social service professionals. The William James College program enables JRI to train and retain employees of the future.  In fact, through the Boston STRIVE program that Powell directs, someone without a high school degree could earn a GED, get hired by JRI, use a tuition reimbursement program to earn an associate’s degree at a community college and then go onto William James for a bachelor’s and master’s. “By giving folks the education they need, it gives us a chance to elevate people who otherwise might not have had this opportunity,” he said.

For a child who has suffered long-term trauma from abuse or neglect, the world doesn’t feel like a safe place. And children who suffer from such complex trauma often face challenges when it comes to forming relationships with others, acting out with anger or suffering silently from depression. Enter Meredith Norton, a licensed social worker in Massachusetts, an equine-assisted therapist and riding instructor and lifelong horse lover. She is the director of JRI’s Trot On, an equine-assisted therapy program at Furnace Brook Farm in Marshfield, MA. Trot On matches young clients suffering from complex trauma with well-trained, tranquil horses to form relationships that teach those clients emotional regulation and self-control, empathy and communication skills. “The human/animal bond is so important because it naturally supports (emotional) regulation and naturally supports helping calm stress levels,” Norton says. “Animals naturally reduce (people’s) stress hormones when they are interacting with humans. Children suffering from complex trauma sometimes benefit from non-traditional forms of therapy — like equine-assisted therapy. “Horses are living biofeedback machines,” Norton says. “If you’re calm and relaxed, your horse is going to reflect that in their energy….Horses are herd animals seeking that connection” with people. Trot On is not only about riding. Clients learn to care for their horses, communicate with them verbally and non-verbally, and learn to read their horse’s cues and respond appropriately. Those skills can help heal a wounded child. “Think of a young child learning development tasks — learning to walk, learning to read, learning to feed themselves — and all of the brain’s energy is going into forming those developmental skills,” Norton says. “But if they’re impacted by chronic stress, the brain is going to focus on safety responses, so the brain is going to develop differently in response to all that.” Trauma can affect a child’s ability to form and maintain relationships, succeed in school, manage her emotional state and behavior toward others. Treating that trauma is essential to healing that child. Riding is about movement and synchronization between horse and rider. That movement can help a child better understand the cues from her own body and her horse. “Horses are living biofeedback machines,” Norton says. “If you’re calm and relaxed, your horse is going to reflect that in their energy….Being able to form a relationship with a horse who is non-judgmental, as all animals are, can be a lovely precursor to (forming) human relationships,” Norton says.   Learn about Trot On, JRI’s equine-assisted therapy program, by visiting them at https://jri.org /trot-on

The COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests sweeping across the United States have especially affected black and Hispanic populations, adding emotional trauma to individuals and families. Dr. Kerry-Ann Williams, a psychiatrist who is the medical director for the children’s residential programs operated by Justice Resource Institute (JRI), was interviewed on “Justice In Action,” a podcast series by JRI. She often works with children who have been traumatized by physical, sexual and emotional abuse. She says that clients of color can be resistant to help because they are mistrustful of medical professionals due to a long history of unequal treatment. Black Americans in the last century sometimes were the victims of medical experiments and denied treatment for illness as part of medical studies. Williams also hosts a Sunday morning radio show, “Black Mental Health Matter,” on 98.1, The Urban Heat, in Boston. She takes calls and interviews experts to provide information and counsel for people needing help. Topics include depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorder and other issues of special significance to black people and people of color. Williams, who was born in Jamaica and moved to Texas as a college freshman at Baylor University, discusses systemic racism, cultural literacy and making the medical profession more responsive to the needs of people of color. To learn more about JRI, one of New England’s largest social service agencies serving children and their families in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, visit them at JRI.org

Most would agree that we live in a sex-saturated culture. So why do we find it so hard to talk about sex? Deborah Jackson, Clinical Training and Developmental Specialist for JRI, trains clinicians and staff to handle sexualized behavior that young clients are exhibiting (or thinking about exhibiting). “We come with our own personal beliefs. We come with our own morals. We come with our own personal histories,” she says. Jackson was a featured guest on Justice in Action, a podcast series hosted by JRI, (Justice Resource Institute) the leading social service agency in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. She says that how effective clinicians or staff are often depends on their own attitudes about sex and about “sexualized behaviors that are normative for every stage of development.”  For example, 4-year-olds who feel overwhelmed or overtired sometimes will stroke their genitals to calm themselves. “For a little kid it doesn’t feel any different than stroking their arm or their hair (or carrying around) a blanket or teddy bear,” she says. “(But) we don’t want them doing it in the mall when they’re tired and mommy’s made them shop too much.”  For older children in their early to mid-teens, sending nude or partially nude photos is normative behavior — that is, something that a “great number of people are doing.” Jackson recommends that adults try not to overreact to such behavior, but seek to make it comfortable for children to talk about, if only to listen and then remind them, “These are not our values. There are some safety risks” that come from sending out nude photos that could end up on the internet or in the hands of adults looking to exploit children for sex.  “The conversation needs to be more than ‘Just stop it,’” she says. Adults’ discomfort means most children never get to have “frank, honest conversations with their parents about sex.”  And sex education in most public schools is inadequate, Jackson says, noting that only 24 states require that the schools teach even the basics.  So for many children, what they learn about sex comes from their friends — or the internet. The average age of a child’s first exposure to explicit online photos or videos is 11, Jackson says. Jackson will conduct training about handling sexualized behavior on April 10, and we invite you to visit the JRI website at www.jri.org/events to learn more.

At least one in five teen-agers will get a sexually explicit photo this year — most of those images sent to them via texts, emails and smart phone applications. Many of those images will come from people they know, but some will be from people they meet online through social networking applications that make it easy for users to share photos and videos. And while that sexualized content might be normal behavior among teens curious about their emerging sexuality, increasing numbers of social media applications and online gaming features can expose children to sexual predators who used the internet to identify potential victims, form online relationships within them and sometimes extort sexual favors from them. That was the message from JRI professionals who work with children who have been victims of online sexual exploitation or who are at risk of becoming victims. Meredith Rapoza, Division Director of Permanency and Latency Services at JRI; Katryn Haley-Little, Clinical Director at My Life My Choice, a program of JRI helping children who have been exploited or who are deemed to be at risk; and Michelle Loranger, Executive Director of the Children's Advocacy Center of Bristol County, were guests on JRI’s weekly podcast series, “Justice in Action: Making a Difference as Leaders in Social Justice.” And while the victims of sexual exploitation are “disproportionately female…(the problem) crosses all genders and identities,” says Loranger. The explosion of online applications make it imperative that parents and legal guardians monitor their children’s use of the internet, engage them in honest discussions about both the positive impact of the internet and social media that allow people to find information almost immediately and connect with others online and the potential harm that affects thousands of children and teens each year. More than half of U.S. children own a smart phone by age 11, and about 84 percent of teens own one. That gives them access to a world of useful information. It also gives them access to sites that can pose danger. “More than half of those (children) exploited sexually met their assailant online,” says Haley-Little. That means parents must stay alert and model appropriate use of online tools and games. “If you’re going to allow your child to have access to some kind of electronic device, you’ve got to start thinking about ‘Is this device safe,’” says Rapoza. Advice to parents and guardians? Keep the communications line open, look for changes in children’s behavior and encourage children to speak up if they are asked to share contact information, photographs or videos with strangers.

Justice Resource Institute President and CEO Andy Pond discusses his organization’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests sweeping the nation as part of JRI’s podcast series “Justice In Action.” The novel coronavirus outbreak and the nationwide protests over the killing of black Americans by police are part of the “same frame” — that is, problems related to systemic racism that leaves people of color more likely to get sick and to die from the COVID-19 epidemic that has already killed more than 117,000 Americans as of this writing, and more likely to be victims of police brutality. “I have an obligation to talk about it and it’s an opportunity to show what side we’re on,” says Pond. People of color are three times more likely to die from COVID-19, he says, and it’s not because they are biologically more vulnerable. “It’s a difference in history and the systematic inequities that exist in our health care system,” along with other cultural and economic factors, Pond says. “While we have done, I think, a lot, we have not done enough,” he says. “The answer can never be we’ve done enough.” Throughout the course of the COVID-19 outbreak, JRI staff have gone above and beyond for their clients, many of whom have suffered trauma and need the help and support of JRI’s more than 120 programs serving children and families in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. “They’re here because they care about the kids and adults they are working with,” Pond says. “There is a lesson in persistence and perseverance in the face of adversity.” Even though the challenges are enormous, Pond is hopeful about the future and about the lasting effects of the pandemic and the broadly based protests sweeping the country to demand an end to systemic racism. “Real change doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen,” he says.

JRI is one of the largest social justice/human services agencies in New England, serving between 20,000 and 25,000 people each year in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Nearly 70 percent of those served by JRI (Justice Resource Institute) are children and families in need of shelter, full-time residential services, mental health care, help for HIV/AIDS, support for transgendered youth, and a myriad of other challenges. Here is some of what JRI’s chief executive officer, Andy Pond, and chief operating officer, Mia DeMarco, said about trying to make a difference in the lives of some of our most vulnerable and traumatized citizens. You can listen to the entire podcast here. The beginning The Medicare and Medicaid Act of 1965 encouraged states to begin “deinstitutionalizing” mentally ill and developmentally delayed citizens from big state hospitals where tens of thousands of patients were kept locked away and, in many cases, neglected and mistreated. “‘Warehouse’ would be a kind word [for the conditions inside those state hospitals]. Treatment wasn’t part of the process,” said Pond. Enter JRI and many other non-profit agencies to pick up the slack. They ensured that there were treatment options for people being released to receive care in less restrictive, community-based settings. The mission  CEO Pond describes the expanding JRI mission as attempting to reduce the “quotient of human misery….everyone has a right to the pursuit of happiness.” That means helping foster families care for traumatized children who have often known abuse and neglect, moms and kids who have been forced from their homes, youths referred by the juvenile justice system and many others. “If you can think of a social issue or need, we probably provide a service for that family or individual,” says DeMarco. She was drawn to the field when she was assaulted by a teen-aged girl while working as a direct care counselor when she was in nursing school. “I realized the pain so many people carry around that we just can’t see,” she said. Pond added, “The history and mission have pretty much stayed the same since the beginning. What’s expanded is the scope….We don’t have a good elevator pitch because you can’t stay on an elevator that long.” “Incredibly caring and compassionate” People who work for human service agencies like JRI are people who care about others and about making a difference in the lives of their neighbors. DeMarco said, “People who do this work are just incredibly caring and compassionate.” For the past decade, JRI has been named one of the best employers in Massachusetts (and recently in Connecticut) because of the financial support it provides for employees’ education and opportunities for professional advancement. But it’s more than just financial support and a career boost. It is the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of other people, the chance for personal growth alongside others who share a passion for the JRI mission. JRI invites people interested in exploring a career in social justice to visit the JRI website, https://jri.org.