Addressing mental health and trauma in at-risk youth populations can help curb violence in the community, and one local organization is doing just that by offering former and current gang members resources they need.
"There's just so much trauma that then leads to actions that create cycles of violence in our community," said Mark Culliton, co-founder and CEO of Boston Uncornered, on Greater Boston.
"There's a lot of trauma," he added. "Both existing, pre-existing trauma and new trauma that comes with the violence that's seen in our communities." Boston Uncornered gets to the root of that by hiring formerly gang-involved people to engage youth and also offer mental health services.
Eleanor Forbes is Boston Uncornered's first director of mental health. She said many young adults that get involved in violence experienced trauma during childhood, such as poverty, absent parents or parents with substance abuse, so kids start to look for a family out in the streets.
Forbes said she uses unconventional and unique therapy techniques so that kids "feel like this is a fun way to do therapy without feeling like there's something really wrong."
She said gang violence hits close to home, so transitioning her experiences to other families is helpful.
"You have to walk into all these family settings with authenticity and one thing that helps me with that is, I'm a child of trauma. I have a severe family history of trauma, absent father, mom with substance issues that was in her past," explained Forbes.
Watch: Boston nonprofit helps former gang members with mental health skills
