When residents of some of the city’s most violent neighborhoods need mental health treatment, they often seek help from social service and community organizations in their neighborhoods — help that can be hard to find. Exposure to violence and living in poverty can be traumatizing experiences that often trigger mental illness in people living in these low-income communities. Teleza Rodgers of the North Lawndale neighborhood is getting by, thanks to counseling from I AM ABLE Center for Family Development on Chicago’s West Side. But she didn’t always have support to deal with the trauma in her life.
This video was produced as part of the Social Justice News Nexus, an initiative at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism that brings together reporters, community watchdogs and journalism students to cover issues that affect Chicago. Learn more at sjnnchicago.org. The Social Justice News Nexus is supported by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.