Thank you to everyone who attended our Pottstown Trauma Informed Community Connection meeting. It was great to see all of the interest and support of the work in Pottstown. Thank you to Mica Patterson for writing a great article in the Mercury. Please see below and click on link for full story.
Community Urged to Take Part in Pottstown Childhood Trauma Initiative
POTTSTOWN >> “Do you know anyone who has been divorced? I bet most of us could say yes. That is a person or a family that has been impacted by trauma.”
Mary Rieck, coordinator for a Pottstown kindergarten readiness program called PEAK, opened a community meeting about childhood trauma explaining how common trauma is. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines trauma as a difficult experience that leads to mental and emotional problems. Rieck leads a committee called the Pottstown Trauma Informed Community Connection, which aims to bring awareness about the impacts of difficult childhood experiences and what can be done about it.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study shows that adverse childhood experiences, commonly known as ACEs, can lead to lifelong challenges in mental, social and physical health. These experiences include divorce, physical neglect, domestic violence and more. Rieck said these types of experiences aren’t an “us versus them issue” or about anyone’s socioeconomic status. All kinds of people have experienced trauma as a child, she said.
“So it’s really about all of us working here together in Pottstown to figure out how we can we support our children and our families,” Rieck said.
About 130 people of different area organizations came to the community meeting last week which was held at the Montgomery County Community College Pottstown campus. Attendees of the meeting viewed a video of a local resident who shared her experience of childhood trauma. In the video, Marissa Kullman explains that at 14 she became addicted to pain medication after being hit in the face with a paint ball. The addiction eventually led to her use of heroin.
“I always said that I worked full time, I had a car, I had insurance on it, I had a cellphone, I had a place to live so I never really considered myself a drug addict because I was a functioning drug addict; little did I know,” Kullman reveals in the video.
It’s was Kullman’s own drug dealer that convinced her to get help by telling her she had a problem. So in her early 20s, Kullman checked into Creative Health Services, then the hospital and then a rehabilitation center. She said her connection with others helps keep her sober. Kullman’s story is the first of many to come about how individuals in Pottstown are breaking the cycle of ACEs, adverse childhood experiences. These stories will be published on the Pottstown Trauma Informed Community Connection website www.pottstownmatters.org.
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