Social Work found me! I didn’t look for Social Work, it was in me. I actually tried to “run” from being a Social Worker. Having a childhood interrupted by Social Workers from child-welfare on multiple occasions; I was not inspired. What I saw was grumpy old people with pens, note pads and lots of questions […]
It’s been a few years since I’ve been a teenager, but I do remember how intense social media began blowing up. It came in all avatars: Snapchat, Instagram, Kik, and Facebook. As a kid, my dad always warned me about social media, and how desperately he wanted me to stay off of it. “Keep your […]
The first time I saw the signs of child abuse, I was five years old. Two children down the street from my house, a typical suburban neighborhood. I wish I could remember their names. Instead, I remember seeing the strangle marks on the boy’s neck. He was about my age, and his sister was a […]
Happy New Year! Usually, people tell you not to dwindle on the past, but let’s talk about 2020 for a moment. From the millions of lives that suddenly changed due to the pandemic to the Black Lives Matter movement, 2020 provided valuable lessons for everyone. Personally, I never realized how much I took my freedom […]
He who has a “why” to life can bear almost any “how”. – Friedrich Nietzsche In this time of giving and gratitude we are also looking at a time that we have been calling “unprecedented”. A time of quarantine, “social distance”, school closures/re-openings, the reorientation of home to work and work to home, the uncertainty […]
My parents recently rediscovered dozens of old cassettes filled with videos from my childhood; the toddler in me, whom I had long forgotten about, was reawakened by the memories trapped in these cassettes. I watched in amazement as mini-me ran around the house, absolutely free of all worries and stress, and happily babbled on in […]
As we all hunker down for a smaller and more intimate holiday season, we at Color Me SAFE are most grateful for the children and families we help. Children are at the center of what we do. Making a family, community and society that is safe and healthy for them. We also think of the […]
As a 17-year-old, I sometimes wonder whether I have lived long enough to harbor real regrets. Let’s put aside everything for a moment. Let’s put it all away and just look at ourselves. Can you remember what you were like as a kid? Maybe what you were like when you were 17, my age! Were […]
It’s a strange sort of confidence we humans have. You know, this unknown and often illogical feeling that everything will be fine. Life is so unpredictable; it’s so unreliable… and I always think about this but if it wasn’t for HOPE, we wouldn’t be able to take another step forward. With that said, I want to […]
“If you struggle for these 4 years, you will be happy for the rest of your life.” I can’t tell you how many times I have heard those words before, along with, “they are your friends but also the people you need to compete with at the end of the day” and “use this opportunity […]