Members of Women Healing Hearts Group at Yale School of Medicine’s SEICHE Center, with Saunders (center, seated) in brown turtleneck. Over her 18 years of marriage, Monya Saunders was routinely battered, pistol-whipped, and stomped on with Timberlands, she said. When her former husband started beating her in front of their young daughter, she stabbed him multiple times. She didn’t kill him. She was incarcerated. “I’ve been in the jailhouse, the crazy house, the halfway house, the crack house, everywhere you could think of,” Saunders told the 20 women assembled for the Women’s Healing Hearts support group at the Yale School of Medicine’s SEICHE Center for Health Justice last week. “I’ve had DCF snatch my kids right from me. And here I am.” As lead community health worker and critical case manager with the Transitions Clinic since 2017, Saunders connects people recently released from prison with healthcare and social services, and conducts qualitative research with the SEICHE Center used to develop tools for improving the physical and mental well-being of women leaving incarceration. She educates incoming Yale nurses, social workers, and medical students on the stigma faced by the incarcerated population. She accompanies clients to court and to DCF, and visits them at halfway houses. “We don’t just guide people home,” she said. “We walk beside them.” For the last six years, she’s been leading the lunchtime bi-weekly support group which she and Lisa Puglisi, a Yale School of Medicine internal medicine doctor and addiction specialist, as well as Transitions Clinic director, founded during the pandemic. “We were in quarantine and we thought about the women in the clinic who were in active addiction or were in a domestic violence relationship and in lockdown with their abusers,” she said. They created a Zoom group where the members checked in with each other and developed strategies to protect themselves, creating safe words they could text Saunders and Puglisi in the event they were in danger.   Once the quarantine was lifted, the women of Healing Hearts started meeting in person. Its ongoing purpose, according to Saunders: “To chop it up about things that are going on, to share resources with each other,” — in short, “to encourage, enrich, and empower.” “What’s going on, beautiful?” Saunders asked a woman, as she went around the table, checking in with each member. “Not gonna lie, I’m struggling,” the woman said, the lasagna on her paper plate untouched. She was staying at a transitional house and had applied “everywhere,” she said. She couldn’t find work. “I don’t know if they saw my record, or what, but I always had a job, always. Never not worked. Even in jail I worked.” “Not to cut you off, but are y’all familiar with the MATCH Program?” Tajuana Peoples said from across the table, referring to a training initiative that provides paid manufacturing skills to job seekers, including individuals transitioning from incarceration. Peoples, a Healing Hearts OG who has fought addiction and done some jail time, was a recent graduate of the five-week training program. She said she had found a job with a business in Branford. “They help people like us, so don’t feel like there’s nothing out there for you, and once you graduate, they help you find a job,” she said. “They are not going to leave you.” “Honestly, I usually hate group therapy,” said a woman beside her. “But the best thing I got out of shit like this is there are second-chance programs with corporations looking just for people with felonies.” “That’s right,” Saunders said. “When Yale said they were interested in me working here, I was like, ‘Wait a minute. You know I’ve been in jail?’” Then, she realized, “we are their degree. Who would you rather hear from? Have you ever been to prison? Have you ever been on drugs? Have you ever been dragged down the street? I’d rather rock with somebody who’s been there.” She turned to the group. “You all earned a degree. Maybe you don’t have student loans, but you have knowledge, you have experience, you have overcome things that were designed to kill you, these employers see that. They see how motivated you are with a second chance to get things right.” “They also get tax credits,” someone said. “That’s right too,” Saunders said.   “Right now I’m just looking for stability in life,” said another woman. She was chronically homeless, she said. She had been in an abusive relationship for years that landed her in the hospital. “I almost lost my life,” she said.She was in a custody battle. “I’m gonna give you my number, and I’m going to help you,” said Saunders. Along with primary care services, mental health services, and resources like resume building, the Transitions Clinic provides pro bono legal support from Yale Law School students under the direction of a Yale attorney for civil issues. “I’m here today to encourage all of you because I’ve been there,” said Saunders, who now has custody of her kids and a college degree. “To get your life back on track takes support, it takes pushing. A lot of times we can’t push ourselves ‘cause we think we’re not worth it. That’s what we’ve been told for so long. “Don’t give up on yourself. Everyone else—our families, society—has. We women are so much stronger, so much more, than we realize.”   “Yes we are,” said Peoples, the recent MATCH graduate. “Yes we are.” The post Community Health Worker Helps Women Rebuild Lives appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less