Posts by Jennifer Baublitz
Audiences help validate veterans’ stories
Acting out may be discouraged for toddlers, but for veterans, it helps.
The Brookfield Institute has taken steps in this direction through our Veterans Storytelling Project. We’re encouraging veterans to talk about their experiences, sometimes on video, and share them with others in whatever forms they’re comfortable with.
But others are taking their stories to the stage and we — among many others — applaud them.
Read MoreNew help for veterans takes flight
Lilly Love credits birds with saving her life.
The U.S. Coast Guard veteran, profiled in a recent New York Times Magazine story, said a white cockatoo with a red headdress caught her attention on one of her repeated trips to West Los Angeles Veterans Administration Medical Center. The cockatoo itself was an abandoned pet, as were the other exotic, colorful and chattering birds.
Turns out parrots are highly attuned birds, with brain skills and emotional responses quite like ours. They understand hundreds of words and use them appropriately. They “get” concepts like absence and boredom. And the parrots at the VA hospital in California had suffered trauma — twice actually. They’d been separated from their native habitat, then they’d been ditched by their owners.
Read MoreVeterans Storytelling Project announced
BROOKFIELD, MASS. — A new project aims to draw stories out of veterans while drawing them into their communities.
The Veterans Storytelling Project, a program from The Brookfield Institute, uses trained volunteers to help veterans tell their stories, a proven method for reducing PTSD while helping family members, friends and neighbors understand their loved ones better.
This story, by Vietnam veteran John Sacco, launched the project.
Read MoreVets Help Vets
Veterans of all ages are encouraged to consider helping other service members by participating in a Steering Committee for “new” veteran services in the greater Ware area. Veterans, along with their friends or family members, civic or church leaders or others interested in veterans’ issues are invited to participate in this Steering Committee. This Committee…
Read MoreTrauma Resilience Training Conducted at Lesley University
Beverly Prestwood-Taylor, D.D., was recently named an Adjunct Faculty member at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. Dr. Prestwood-Taylor and Dr. Chhabra, an Associate Professor at Lesley, co-taught the five-day Trauma Resilience Training (STAR) program on campus from August 24-28, 2015. This inaugural STAR training was well attended and received. Future training programs are being planned…
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