community - Disaster Minded (Page 2)

An assembly line of gardeners work together to plant pink and yellow flowers in a long brick planter

community

How to Heal When Life Feels Like the Environment That Harmed You

Regaining our sense of agency is another way of saying regaining the sense of power we lost in the environment(s) that harmed us

A stalk of purple flowers grows tall through rows of yellow flowers, standing out

community

Asking for Help When You Don’t Conform to Social Expectations

Here’s what “trans rights are human rights” really means -- for everyone

A woman's hand holds a pen over paper on a wooden desk beside a notebook and a mug.

child-abuse

To Protect Our Children, We First Need to Heal Ourselves

The predatory men I engaged with recognized I was starved for connection. Our support structures need to realize this, too.

A man dressed as Spiderman and wearing a yellow jacket shows card tricks to a group of childr

child-abuse

How American Hero Narratives Keep Us From Solving Social Crises — or Healing

We insist on “rescuer” narratives at the expense of developing agency for our children and ourselves

A Latin child with dark hair and a red shirt gazes at the camera with suspicion.

child-abuse

5 Things “Stranger Danger” Education Got Wrong, and 1 It Gets Right

How emphasizing “stranger danger” hamstrung a generation’s understanding of threats to child safety

White cutouts on a gray background contain black text with words like "Trauma," "Self-esteem," "Hopelessness," etc

child-abuse

How Generational Trauma Compounds Child and Intimate Partner Abuse

Learning to fit in and not make waves might have been considered a form of “practice” for adult womanhood. We paper over our needs, preferences, and sense of autonomy when we learn they’re antithetical to our survival.

A lone figure walks a gray wooden boardwalk nestled among brown marsh reeds on a cloudy day.

child-abuse

Why It’s More Critical Now Than Ever to Tell Our “Not That Bad” Abuse Stories

Knowing what it looks, sounds, acts, and feels like before it becomes criminal can help us heal — and know what to look for. Our future may depend on it.

A brown pigeon stands on pavement among gray pigeons, the only one in a shaft of light

community

Asking for Help When Help Feels Few and Far Between

At a time when I feel less fearful of healthy confrontation, others seem to fear it from me — a sign of a deeply dysfunctional society

A white man's hands hold the hands of an elderly woman in a blue skirt, seated in a wheelchair

community

Need Help? Look for the Strings Attached (Before They Strangle You)

Receiving assistance shouldn’t stand on the back of your submission to authority

community

Do You Really Want People to “Just Ask for Help”?

When resources are scarce and getting scarcer, ‘help’ can be conflated with ‘power' — and people need community, not rescuers

community

How to Learn to Trust, Even When You're Afraid

Because the risk of not trusting is greater than the risk of trusting the wrong people

A white man in the background reaches his hand toward a woman's in the foreground.

community

Reaching Out for Help When Everything Tells You to Pull Back

Why should I ask? Why should anyone answer? I am coming to this first post still recovering from a pretty bad trigger. My son spoke to me in a way that called to mind many less fortunate interactions with men over the years. I felt criticized and judged as less