At nineteen, I am part of a generation that has had to come to terms with the fact that the world can be an ugly, broken place. Growing up in a golden age of technology and communication, we received the benefits of innovation at the price of our naivety and optimism. We could hear news from anywhere instantaneously, but so much of it was bad, and it kept getting worse. We were handed a bleak image of not only our planet but of each other. Volunteering for Mutual Ground has begun to show me a better side of the world and the people in it.

Every year as the hustle and bustle of the holiday season begins, staff at Mutual Ground are also focusing on the task of spreading joy to our clients. The Winter Wonderland Shoppe is Mutual Ground’s largest client centered event. Each year the event provides over 100 client families with gifts and winter wear for the holiday season.

Filipino Americans make up the second largest Asian American group in America. However, the history between America and the Philippines has often been lost with time.

Mutual Ground provides a free 8-week program open to the community called the Nurturing Families Program (NFP), an evidence based, strength-based, family focused, and trauma informed curriculum. The program is designed for parents of all ages, with one or multiple children, and children with special needs. The programs objective is to focus on strengthening parenting skills through self-discovery, application, and realization. Nurturing Families allows parents to identify generational parenting practices and how culture impacts parenting in order to guide a new generation of parents with healthy parenting ideology.

An article recently caught my attention because it talked about how volunteering could increase a person's life expectancy. I decided to look into this further, having known for some time that engagement with the world enhances our well-being as we age. However, I did not realize the significance volunteering had on a person's mental and physical health.

There are many benefits that come from a regular yoga practice, including improved strength, balance, and flexibility. Yoga can relieve arthritis symptoms; some doctors even recommend it as a first line of treatment for back pain. Yoga supports heart health and good sleep hygiene. Yoga and meditation are great ways to connect with your community, boost energy, focus, and mood, and relieve stress [Hopkins Medicine]. Some forms of yoga can also help to heal complex and developmental trauma and PTSD [TCTSY]. Yoga is a holistic healing tool recognizing that body, mind, and spirit operate and heal as one.

For someone who is in survival mode after trauma, the idea of self-care can seem laughable. Because when you’re surviving, you’re putting everything you’ve got into staying functional, either mentally or physically or both…most often both. What we do after trauma sets the tone for the days to come.

In the 21st century, the world of mental health maintains varying discourse regarding stigma, accessibility, and its overall importance on both individual and community levels. Mutual Ground Inc. is an agency that understands the degree of impact that trauma can have on an individual’s mental health. Trauma changes the way the brain and body work, so it is important to intervene and work towards healing or coping.

As I prepare to leave Mutual Ground, Inc at the end of the month, I’ve been reflecting on what a privilege it has been to serve our community over these 23 years as an intern, legal advocate, Legal Advocacy Program Manager and, finally, as CEO.

Teens are no different than adults in the wish to be appreciated, valued and accepted. We all also share varied abilities and circumstances that enable us to set and keep boundaries; an important barrier to an abusive relationship.

Two serious issues experienced by people on a daily basis have a strong correlation.  Domestic abuse, also referred to as "domestic violence" or "intimate partner violence", is a pattern of behavior in any relationship that is used to exert power and control over an intimate partner.  This controlling, abusive behavior comes in many forms.  It may be physical, psychological, emotional, intimidation, sexual, and/or coercion to use substances.  Substance abuse is a term used to describe pattern use of a substance that causes significant problems and distress.  There is a definite link between the two. 

When we face trauma or experience things that threaten our mental and emotional health, it’s normal to go inward where we feel safe. But often what we’ve experienced has an adverse effect on how we view ourselves and changes what “inside” might look like. Sexual Violence, Domestic Violence and other violent traumas have a way of systematically shutting down healthy responses and mindsets we once had. The good news is that we are all capable of forming or recreating a foundation that’s strong and built with tough materials regardless of our upbringing or adversities that we’ve gone through.

Victimization presents itself differently amongst victims of both Domestic and Sexual violence. Several aspects of a survivor’s life are lost or changed after becoming a victim. There can be loss of control, stability, and overall safety. Professionals in the field often discuss the tools used in gaining power and control in a relationship, such as: isolation, abuse, and manipulation. One might ask, “Where can victims go to seek help when they have no where else to turn, and no one else to support them?”

Mutual Ground would like to recognize National Recovery Month. National Recovery Month is observed every September and was established in 1989 by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA). The purpose of National Recovery Month is to educate the public about mental health services and substance use treatments. This yearly awareness event strives to educate the public to help reduce stigma and also to celebrate those who identify as a person in recovery.

The concept of “trauma” means something different to everyone. It’s a word that carries an incredibly subjective interpretation. What is extremely traumatic to one, can be belittled, shrugged off and minimized by another, which raises the question, what exactly counts as trauma?

Growing up in a Mexican household, mental health and emotions was not a topic that was often spoken about. I’ve come to realize throughout the years, by having conversations with others, that it wasn’t only the household that I grew up in that didn’t often talk about mental health; but other households as well, in specific households of those that identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color).

Nowadays, the month of June is widely known and celebrated as Pride month, an entire month dedicated to the visibility and support of the LGBTQ+ community! Personally, as a transgender non-binary and queer person, I look forward to June every year, as it is a wonderful reminder of how many people out there see and love the community I am proudly a part of.

Last June I began working at Mutual Ground in the position of Volunteer Administrator. One very large part of this role is working with in-kind donations. These donations come from families, individuals, civic and church groups, etc. The types of donations we get differ widely, from diapers and snack foods to broken cell phones and running shoes. The one constant of each of these donations is they are given to us by someone with the best of intentions. Everyone who gives hopes that their donation is being used to help the life of someone else.

As a follow-up from last year’s April blog post, of which I was inspired by, we know that sexual assault of all kinds is still extremely prevalent in our world. After all, programs and agencies like Mutual Ground wouldn’t need to exist if sexual violence was eradicated entirely, or at the very least, wasn’t as prevalent as it still is.

From being a one-week celebration to becoming a month-long celebration, in the month of March we celebrate the contributions women have made to culture, history, and society. This year the theme of Women’s History Month is “Women Providing Healing, Promoting Hope.” A theme to highlight the work of caregivers and frontline workers during this ongoing pandemic and also a recognition of the thousands of ways that women of all cultures have provided both healing and hope throughout history.