Addressing Trauma Through Wellness
Widening Our Approach
Over Covenant House’s 30 years of working with New Orleans’ at-risk youth, we have learned how critically important wellness is to our residents’ recoveries.
One of the most systemic challenges facing New Orleans is the serious behavioral health problems of our young people. Sadly, 85% of the youth Covenant House cares for have experienced severe trauma or PTSD. Among our residents, 90% have been physically and/or sexually abused, 25% are survivors of trafficking/sexual labor, 40% have active substance addictions, and 40% of our young men were previously incarcerated.
Wellness is truly the foundation for our young people’s success, ensuring they have the internal resources to draw on when they face future life hardships. When youth have healthy wellness practices, they are more equipped to overcome adversity and continue to heal and thrive.
This fall, we are taking definitive steps to do more for our residents. Thanks to Serve Louisiana, we are excited to welcome our new Wellness and Volunteer Events Coordinator, Kristin Miller, to our team.
Kristin will be serving full-time to expand our wellness programming for our residents, ensuring that all of our wellness instructors are trained in trauma-informed care. With Kristin’s help, we will be able to provide more robust programming for mental health and wellness specifically geared toward our residents dealing with behavioral health, substance abuse, and trauma. Much like a hospital, our care doesn’t stop at the emergency room. Our new program will provide our residents with a stronger foundation for long-term success through a full-bodied slate of individual and group wellness activities.
Are you a certified yoga instructor? Do you lead guided meditations? Contact Kristin at kmiller@covenanthouse.org to see how you can get involved in our Wellness Program.
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Meet Kristin
K
ristin is a Wisconsin native and has engaged in several public health initiatives. Recent undergraduate from University of Wisconsin La Crosse with a degree in Public Health & Community Health Education and minor in Biology, she is passionate about providing holistic, preventative health programs. She has experience in garden and nutrition program planning, implementing, and evaluating and is working to achieve her Community Health Education Specialist (CHES) and yoga certification.
In her free time, she enjoys being active outside and exploring the city. She is excited to work along great staff and volunteers to enhance the wellness and engagement opportunities for our incredible residents.
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Serve Louisiana
Serve Louisiana is Louisiana’s longest-running AmeriCorps program and one of more than 400 AmeriCorps National Service programs across the U.S. Each service year, we partner talented young leaders with nonprofits, public schools, grassroots efforts and community initiatives in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans areas. Serve Louisiana members work full-time for 11 months to help our partner organizations build greater capacity to serve local children, families and communities.
You can learn more about this service-learning program at www.servelouisiana.org.
