Mindful on Purpose

Welcome to the MINDFUL ON PURPOSE PODCAST where we explore taboo topics with innovators and experts working on the frontline to inform and inspire. In this episode, we will discuss the state of domestic violence in the Caribbean and specifically Trinidad and Tobago. Ms. Robinson is the founder of a women's domestic violence shelter in Trinidad. She will discuss some of her accomplishments, struggles, and action items first responders and clinicians can begin doing today to have a greater impact on vulnerable women and children. BIO Delores ‘Del’ Robinson, advocate, caregiver, counselor, policymaker, net-weaver, mother- hen, superwoman, organizer, these are some of the ‘labels’ given to her at the grassroots level. After over a decade of working in a Diplomatic Mission, in 2001 Delores went back to her roots – the women’s movement, where, for over thirty years she has been an active member, first with Sistren Theatre Collective of Jamaica; then with Women Working for Social Progress where she has been a member since 1988 and currently serves as a Council member with responsibility for Administration and Finance; and seven years with Advocates for Safe Parenthood; Improving Reproductive Equity (ASPIRE). She served as a Board member on a number of Non-Governmental Organisations including The Network of NGOs for the Advancement of Women of Trinidad & Tobago; Community Action Resource -CARe. Co-Chair for the Trinidad & Tobago Group of Professional Association (TTGPA) Social Outreach Committee. The UN Women CSW Committee of NGOs for Latin America and the Caribbean, (CoNGO CSW LAC) where she is currently Co-Vice Chair for the English-Speaking Caribbean. In February of 2018, she was elected Global Grassroots Women’s Representative on the Huairou Commission Governing Council. She is one of two NGO Co-Chairs for the Ministry of Health of T&T Mental Health & Psychosocial Services technical working group (MHPSS TWG) that was commissioned in May of 2020 to assist with Mental health issues coming out of the COVID 19 Pandemic. In September of 2021, she was appointed Board Member of the National AIDS Coordinating Committee (NACC) by the cabinet of the Republic Trinidad & Tobago. From 2007 to the present, Ms. Robinson has been a volunteer Cultural Liaison Officer with the Emancipation Support Committee of Trinidad and Tobago. She has extensive training in protocol and logistics, having volunteered her services for both CHOGM and the Summit of the Americas Conferences in Trinidad & Tobago, as well as Protocol Officer for arriving delegates to the Caribbean Regional Colloquium on Women in Leadership Conference in Trinidad & Tobago. In September of 2012, Delores was inducted as a Rotarian and in 2015 she became the second female President (in the Club’s 32-year history) of the Rotary Club of St. Augustine West. In 2016-17 she served as her Club’s first female and Trinidad and Tobago’s only female Assistant District Governor for Rotary District 7030. Delores is the Founder and Co-Director of Grassroots Organisations Operating Together in Sisterhood in Trinidad and Tobago (GROOTS T&T). In 2014, after realizing that her Caribbean grassroots sisters’ voices were not being heard at CSW, Del formed a group to ‘give voice to the voiceless’ at CSW. From 2015 to 2019 Caribbean Sisters in Unity Core Group (CSUCG) has been hosting parallel events at CSW conferences giving voice to the Caribbean Grassroots women. One of her landmark achievements in advocacy was her lobbying for Jamaican married women living outside of Jamaica to be able to pass their nationality on to their children. Delores would stop at nothing in her quest for such archaic law to be changed. She raised her concerns with Deputy and High Commissioners as well as the then Prime Minister. Today, her son is the first Caribbean recipient of Jamaican Citizenship via his mother as a married woman living outside of Jamaica. Host: Christina M. Blackburn, MS

Welcome to the MINDFUL ON PURPOSE PODCAST where we explore taboo topics with innovators and experts working on the frontline to inform and inspire.

In this episode we will discuss how culturally competent and "bias aware" clinicians can prevent the retraumatization of victims of domestic abuse.

Guest:  Dr. Hannibal Person is an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and he is a member of the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology & Hepatology at Seattle Children’s Hospital. He is the medical director of the Brain-Gut Health Program and specializes in evaluating and treating children with chronic gastrointestinal symptoms. 

He graduated from Duke University School of Medicine in 2013 and completed his training in pediatrics, psychiatry, and child & adolescent psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 2018. He completed his training in pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology, & nutrition at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 2021. 

Dr. Person is passionate about racial equity in healthcare practice, having designed several curricula to foster the anti-racist transformation of medicine. He is currently researching the efficacy of these interventions as well as examining areas of racial health inequity in pediatric gastroenterology practice.

Points of discussion:

Host: Christina M. Blackburn, MS is the Founder & Chief @ Vanguard Medicine Inc. and Speranza Human Compassion/The Institute for Human Compassion. Since 2012, our team of 29 dedicated scientists, engineers, researchers, survivors, and SMEs have conducted research, designed curricula, and engineered emergency medicine point-of-care solutions - that educate and support first responders and frontline clinicians in caring for victims of violent crimes, specifically victims of domestic abuse.

Welcome to the MINDFUL ON PURPOSE PODCAST where we discuss unexplored topics with survivors, innovators, clinicians, and professionals on the frontline of IPV/DV and Child Endangerment to inform and inspire you to be a part of the solution for those in crisis.

Guest:  The Honorable Karen Gopee

Judge Gopee was born in Trinidad and immigrated to the United States when she was one. She grew up in East NY, Brooklyn and attended local public schools including Franklin K. Lane HS. She earned her BA from Binghamton University majoring in Political Science, Sociology and Women’s Studies and her JD from St. John’s Law School.

She began her legal career at the Kings County District Attorney’s Office. For eight years she prosecuted Misdemeanor and Felony matters, from arrest to trial, supervised junior assistants and specialized in cases involving domestic violence and child abuse, speaking up for those without a voice.

Interested in working closer to the community and helping court involved individuals get back on track, she accepted the Principal Court Attorney position with Judge Calabrese at the Red Hook Community Justice Center, a multi-jurisdictional Community Court acclaimed for innovative problem-solving techniques. There, she worked with the Office of Court Administration, the Center for Court Innovation and community organizations to implement programs that diverted youth from criminal and/or family court and helped individuals access mental health and substance abuse programs in lieu of incarceration. She also worked closely with NYCHA residents to facilitate repairs, address rent arrears and prevent eviction.

The programs that Judge Gopee is most proud of include ‘Making the Change’ an anti- violence workshop to address gangs, guns and bullying; and ‘Saturday Night Lights,’ a collaboration with the Manhattan and Brooklyn District Attorney’s offices, the Police Department and local community centers to provide professional basketball training as well as mentoring to youth on Friday and Saturday nights. She partnered with Project Boost to inner-city youth the opportunity to attend Broadway Shows, Concerts and Sporting events and visit museums. She co-created programs designed to improve Police/Community relationships, enhance educational and employment opportunities and lower recidivism.

In December of 2015, Mayor Di Blasio appointed her as the first Indo-Caribbean Judge in New York. Judge Gopee has handled Misdemeanor and Felony matters in Queens Criminal Court, presided over pretrial hearings, bench and jury trials and published a dozen decisions. She worked with the Queens District Attorney’s office to implement the Queens Treatment Intervention Program to offer screening and treatment to low level offenders suffering from opioid addiction. Since the 2018 launch there has been hundreds of successful participants.

Judge Gopee was the Chair to the American Bar Association Criminal Justice ADR and Restorative Justice Committee, current President, former Executive VP and founding member of South Asian Indo- Caribbean Bar Association of Queens, launched in 2017 and currently serves as the Treasurer of the Asian American Judges Association of NY. She is a recipient of the Meritorious Award by the ABA, the Community Impact Award by the Indo-Caribbean Alliance, the Pioneering Indo-Caribbean Woman Award by the East Indian Diaspora Heritage Committee of New York and has received citations from the Mayor and the Queens Borough President for her volunteer work.

Host: Christina M. Blackburn, MS is the Founder & Chief @ Vanguard Medicine Inc. and Speranza Human Compassion/The Institute for Human Compassion - both provide education and targeted solutions for intimate partner and gender-based violence and child endangerment to end the cycle of abuse, save lives, and promote safe homes for women and children in crisis.

Welcome to our MINDFUL ON PURPOSE PODCAST where we explore topics with innovators and experts working on the ground to inform and inspire you.  This DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS MONTH we are speaking with Nhakia Outland. 

Nhakia Outland (she/her/hers) is the founder of Prevention Meets Fashion Inc. She is a Black, queer, mother of three. She is a social worker, sex educator, sex therapist and adjunct professor at several schools of social work. She has an extensive background in direct service, training and speaking, advocacy, consulting and community organizing. Nhakia is passionate about finding creative and innovative ways to engage Black, LGBTQIA+ communities. Nhakia’s work focuses on the intersection of fashion, sexual health and reproductive health through a model she created called F.A.C.E (fashion, advocacy, community and education). To learn more, visit www.preventionmeetsfashion.org

To learn more about our work at Speranza Human Compassion Project, please visit:

www.speranzaproject.org | https://www.instagram.com/theinstituteforhumancompassion/ | https://www.facebook.com/SHCP2016/

https://twitter.com/speranzaproject | https://www.linkedin.com/company/speranza-human-compassion-project/

Email me anytime @ [email protected]

We are excited to have with us Shandra Woworuntu and Rahana Rampersad of Mentari Human Trafficking Survivor Empowerment Program Inc. based in New York. Mentari is a 501c3 nonprofit that was founded in 2014 by Shandra Wowowruntu, with a team of anti-trafficking advocates, to provide prevention, mentor, and empowerment programs for survivors of gender based violence, abuse, exploitation and human trafficking. Mentari empowers survivors so that they actively reintegrate into society. Mentari partners with local organizations to expand these programs.

In this episode we will learn about Shandra's story as a survivor of domestic violence and human trafficking, how she overcame horrific abuses and is now thriving, and how she is now helping other survivors through her work as a member of the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking and Mentari.

Rahana Rampersad has been an advocate and leader at Mentari for over 3-years. We will learn how she got involved with Mentari and hear about the impact she has been able to make both in the US and abroad.

Key Points of Learning: 

For more information on Mentari and how you can get involved, please visit:  https://www.mentariusa.org/

Thank you for joining us for our third episode of Mindful on Purpose. During this episode you will get a sneak peek into the lives of four women from different backgrounds with different experiences as victims of domestic abuse by an intimate partner. We will discover what they experienced through their journey, how they overcame adversity, and how they are now thriving and giving back.  "The Danger of the Single Story" originated with a TED Talk given in 2009 by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or group of people, we risk critical misunderstandings. This can be the case for many victims of domestic abuse.  There is often a single narrative told about who victims are, what they look like, their ethnic background, their education level, and their socioeconomic status. This single story often hurts victims making it hard for women in crisis to get the necessary help.

This episode will begin with Christina Blackburn, then we will hear from Shavona Warrington, Julia Hartman, and we will end with Priya Bathija. 

Christina Blackburn is the founder of Speranza Human Compassion Project www.speranzaproject.org a nonprofit created to prevent and end violence against women and children by educating and empowering the frontline. She is also the founder of www.mindfulcareglobal.com a gender-based violence clinical decision support and learning management system for emergency medicine.

Shavona Warrington is the founder and CEO of Ladies of Lavender, Inc., Queens, NY, a company that supports victims of intimate partner and domestic violence, sex trafficking, and sexual assault through emergency transportation and resources. "We advocate against violence and serve as a support for those affected by it as well as hold community events throughout the year. I am an author, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, community activist, healthcare frontliner AND mom of 3."

Julia Hartman is a Los Angeles based Life Coach, Professor, Speaker and Licensed Social Worker. Using therapeutic techniques as a foundation in her practice combined with the ability to identify barriers that prevent clients from evolving and reaching their goals, Julia has provided clients with the practical and transformational tools needed to create lasting change. As a University professor and motivational speaker she explains things in a way that helps clients to understand and discover themselves while providing the motivation needed to take action.

Priya Bathija is vice president of Strategic Initiatives for the American Hospital Association. In that role, she leads AHA’s efforts to guide hospitals as they promote value and affordability by implementing strategies that improve outcomes, lower costs and enhance patient experiences. She also leads the organization’s work on maternal and child health, social determinants, and is a member of AHA’s Health Equity Strategies team.

Formerly, Priya served as AHA’s policy expert on inpatient payment, graduate medical education, rural hospital issues, and spearheaded the AHA’s exploration of innovative delivery and payment system reforms to ensure access to essential health care services in vulnerable communities.

Prior to joining AHA, she practiced health care law and served as hospital counsel for MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., and associate general counsel at ProMedica Health System in Toledo, Ohio.

Visit us @ www.speranzaproject.org

*Warning violence is discussed in this episode.

Welcome to the second episode of Mindful on Purpose. In this episode we will interview Clinical Psychologist, Valentina Nikulina, PhD on adverse childhood experiences and how they impact domestic violence victims into adulthood. With the COVID-19 pandemic and many women and children sheltering in place with their abusers, how this will impact their overall wellbeing and what we will see as far as behavioral and adverse health outcomes in the forthcoming 12-36 months.

Key discussion points:

Valentina Nikulina, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Queens College and The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is also a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in the treatment of children and adolescents and trauma sequelae. Her recent research examines the long-term consequences of experiencing childhood adversity for a range of outcomes including neuropsychological functioning, antisocial behavior, and intimate partner violence. A related line of work examines the reasons survivors of sexual violence choose to talk about sexual victimization experiences or keep these to themselves. Her research is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and PSC-CUNY. The ultimate goal of Dr. Nikulina's research is to aid the development of more effective interventions for survivors of childhood adversity and sexual violence.

RESOURCE SHEET - CLICK HERE

For more information on our programming and training please visit us at: 

www.humancompassion.live, www.speranzaproject.org, www.vanguardmedicine.org

Or you may contact us at [email protected]

In this episode we will discuss the prevalence of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in victims of domestic violence and explore what every clinician & frontline professional needs to know.

Guest: Olivia DeJoie, MA Neuroscience | Host: Christina M. Blackburn, MS

Bio: Olivia DeJoie, MA is an advocate for mental health and women’s rights. Currently residing in Boston, she works in research investigating the causes and effects of PTSD, aimed at finding treatments for this and other mental health disorders.

Host: Christina Blackburn, MS is the Founder and Chief at Vanguard Medicine Inc. and Speranza Human Compassion/The Institute for Human Compassion - both initiatives provide innovative targeted solutions for intimate partner gender-based violence and child endangerment to end the cycle of abuse, save lives, and promote safe homes for women and children in crisis.