Meet Jacquilyn Davis
Jacquilyn Davis imagines a world without stigma. As a mixed race woman, she knows firsthand how stigma and intersectionality can negatively impact people’s behaviors and feelings about themselves and others. But she remains hopeful that, with effort and kindness, we can all continue to chip away at the negativity in the world and embrace […]
Meet Jennifer Korwitz
#LetsFaceIt In fiction, families are often portrayed as the most supportive of a character in trouble. In real life, that is not always the case. It’s a behavior that Jennifer Korwitz hopes sharing her story will help change. An art student working on her second bachelor’s degree to become an art therapist, Korwitz was seven […]
Meet Quyên Trương
#LetsFaceIt Quyên Trương knows firsthand how a life of holding back, of keeping secrets, can take a toll on health, both physical and mental. She has also seen how a lack of access and understanding of available medical resources can exacerbate recovery. Change, she says, is long overdue. A refugee from Vietnam, Trương and her family […]
Meet Sacha Armstrong-Crocket
#LetsFaceIt Sacha Armstrong-Crocket may be a real estate agent in her career, but her passion for housing goes far beyond buying and selling properties. She is also a community activist focused on ending housing segregation and racism. In addition to being co-chair of Middletown’s anti-racism task force, Armstrong-Crocket has founded the Connecticut Home Collective. As […]
Meet Kathy Flaherty
#LetsFaceIt Lawyer Kathy Flaherty knows stigma from both sides of the bench if you will. Not only has she made a career of helping people with disabilities overcome legal issues, but she has faced the stigma and challenges of having a mental health diagnosis firsthand, both personally in an involuntary hospitalization and professionally as a […]
Meet Delmonti Porter
#LetsFaceIt “What always runs through my mind when we go places with participants is they’re stigmatized. They’re looked at side-eyed,” he says. “It runs through my mind that there but for the grace of God go I. Any illness can fall on any of us. That keeps me grounded. It helps me realize that I […]
Meet Amy Jaffe Barzach
#LetsFaceIt As a society, we intellectually understand loss that comes from death. What we are less adept at understanding and facing is loss in its many other forms. And that’s something Amy Jaffe Barzach hopes her story can help change. Barzach and her husband Peter lived the loss that is every parent’s nightmare. Their son, […]
Meet Jamie McDonald
#LetsFaceIt Restaurateur Jamie McDonald wants people to know that sometimes what you see on the outside is not at all what’s going on inside. The owner of the Bear’s Smokehouse franchise, McDonald knows this because for decades he tried to put a good face on depression, anxiety, trauma, and ultimately, alcoholism. It didn’t work. Now […]
Meet Vern Montoute
#LetsFaceIt Say the word yoga and most people think of calm, accepting environments, places where all are welcomed and embraced as they explore spiritual understanding through a series of poses and meditation. It’s a definition that works, but not for everyone. For people of color, yoga is still a place where they can often feel […]
Meet Kailey MarcAurele
#LetsFaceIt When we break an arm or learn we have cancer, we typically have no issue sharing the news and the story around it. Substitute cancer for something like bipolar disease or crippling depression, however, and suddenly story sharing is verboten. Kailey MarcAurele has lived that dichotomy. She began suffering from depression in middle school […]
