East St. Louis trauma center reflects on a year of counseling children and families
It’s Thursday morning, and LaToiya Fowler is trying to make sure her kids are ready for the day. Understandably, they frequently interrupt her during an interview with the BND.
She tries to get them to take a shower, but she’s interrupted again by a call from the doctor’s office. She had to reschedule some of her children’s appointments and informs the person on the other end of the call that she’ll “have to bring all of them because I don’t have a babysitter.”
The single mom of seven always has her hands full.
“I feel like I have million-dollar babies,” Fowler, 36, said about ensuring her kids have what they need while being a single parent living in a one-bedroom apartment. “I don’t care if they feel like they’re worthless or less than worthless. I tell them that they’re going to have opportunities that I did not have.”
The Fowler family is one of 25 families that are currently being helped by East St. Louis School District 189’s Wraparound Wellness Center. The center, which launched a year ago, was created to be an expansion (to evenings and weekends) of the counseling services that the district already provides through its Family and Community Engagement (FACE) Center.
Composed of about 20 staff members, which include school psychologists, nurses, social workers and counselors, the Wraparound Wellness Center aims to provide a holistic approach to addressing trauma that affects children in East St. Louis. The center also formed a street response team titled Support on Scene (SOS) that local law enforcement often dispatches to provide support to bystanders on crime scenes where children are present.
But Dr. Tiffany Gholson, director of the Wraparound Wellness Center, knows that trauma doesn’t start and stop at violent crimes. Living in a one-bedroom apartment with several siblings and a single mom, like Fowler’s children, can have the same emotional repercussions as witnessing a murder.
“Most of our kids have been witnesses to violence,” Gholson said. “The majority was domestic violence, and some of that can involve guns, but what we know we need to do is focus on (is) more healthy relationships in general, restoring relationships, building relationships, building community and gun safety.”
In the past six months, Gholson said her team has received seven calls for her Support on Scene team to a crime scene and has helped 32 youth from referrals from the Illinois State Police’s Public Safety Enforcement Group.
LaToyia Fowler’s 14-year-old son, who attends Mason-Clark Middle School, was one of them. He ran away from his home twice last year. Gholson immediately wanted to step in. Her center has offered financial assistance to the family and connected LaToyia with parenting classes and other resources. Her son is back home and in a wrestling program at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center, thanks to the Wraparound Wellness Center.
“They live in a one-bedroom and there are a lot of people, and I just think he needed to get away,”Gholson said. “Wrestling has given him an outlet to be out of the house (and) doing something productive.”
LaToiya said she and Gholson talk at least once a week. She describes Gholson as a “supermom”.
“She’s committed not only to me and dozens of other people,” Fowler said. “What she does for us—she helps us. She knows she can’t fix it all, but it’s a give-and-take ordeal. When she finds the family, she gives them the opportunity to connect again and then gives them the resources to help put us back together.”
A renewed focus
As the center approaches its second year, Gholson is focused on building more community partnerships and expanding its services, including having more of a presence at Gordon Bush Alternative School and creating a “comfort corner” at East St. Louis City Hall, where the Public Safety Enforcement Group is housed. Gholson hopes to start the comfort corner next month.
She said it would create a calm environment for children who are picked up by law enforcement and are waiting to have a conversation with someone.
Creating a child advocacy center is also in the works for the Wraparound Wellness Center.
Located in various states, child advocacy centers (CACs) provide a safe space for children to detail their experiences with trauma. Gholson hopes to establish the child advocacy center in the summer. It would be housed in the school district’s Family and Community Engagement Center, and be the first child advocacy center in East St. Louis.
“When a kid is sexually abused or has witnessed an extremely violent act, they don’t want to re-traumatize the child by having them retell the story multiple times,” Gholson said about one of the purposes of a child advocacy center. “They interview them at a CAC, which has a two-way mirror, and so the certified therapist is interviewing the child but on the other side of the mirror in the other room might be law enforcement, DCFS, parents, etc. The interview is put on a CD and given to the state’s attorney’s office and that’s one way that they can use it in future court proceedings so children don’t have to testify, etc.”
Along with new services, Gholson said she’s excited about the center’s partnership with the Illinois State Police’s Public Safety Enforcement Group. The unit was launched in 2020 to better address violent crimes in East St. Louis.
“I think just naturally seeing some school folks interacting with the law enforcement on scene (is good), and then we’ve had a couple of community events where they have been involved and you kind of see them in a different space,” Gholson said. “And then one of the things that we’ve tried to do, because trauma impacts everyone in secondary trauma, is that after the police have been on scene, a couple of times we’ve reconnected them with the survivors or their families kind of as closure.”
Given the history of police brutality against Black people, collaborating with law enforcement can be perceived as futile. But it’s because of that history that Gholson thinks the partnership is especially important. She said her team is able to connect with families in ways that the police cannot.
“I appreciate them on the scene, keeping it secure and safe, but I think that as we are being empathetic and working with families on the scene that we’re creating a calmer environment, a more accepting environment because some people don’t react well to the police, but they may react better to my site team when they’re on the scene,” Gholson said. “They may talk to us or be willing to get support from us because they don’t see us in that light.”
Nicholas Manns, director of the Public Safety Enforcement Group, agrees. It’s why he wanted to partner with the Wraparound Wellness Center.
He remembers a time when there were many people gathered near a fatal car crash in the area. Children were present, so he was able to call the center’s Support on Scene team to quell the emotions of the crowd that witnessed the horrific incident.
“The goal of this is to have a community-oriented investigative unit,” Manns said. “You hear a lot about community-oriented policing across the country, but a lot of times, that’s centered around patrol. Here, we’re trying to center that around the investigators, so take the time (to) treat people how you want to be treated, get them what they need because this is a tough town. People see a lot here. Children see a lot.”
‘It takes a village’
For the Wraparound Wellness Center, community partnerships are key.
“There are so many helpers in East St. Louis— people who are ready and willing to run to the scene to support youth— and it’s just heartwarming to see,” Gholson said. “Though we might not have all the answers yet, we know a couple of the puzzle pieces. I just think we have a lot of dedicated folks who are giving 100% toward the things that do work.”
Community Lifeline is a valued ally of the center. The East St. Louis nonprofit provides programs and resources to families in need. It’s where LaToyia Fowler is receiving parenting classes.
Wyvetta Granger, director of the nonprofit, said she and Gholson talk every day about how they can better assist the community.
“When you have a school that operates on 9-5 hours and then you still have this Wraparound Wellness Center that you can reach someone after hours, is awesome, and I think being able to partner (with them) in such a way and for families to see their school or the wellness center and show up for them and care about all the areas of their lives, opposed to just the educational component,” Granger said.
Fowler has two more parenting classes to complete before she’s done with the program, which she’s excited about. She’s also excited about planning dental and doctor’s appointments for the first time in a while. She wants to eventually get her GED because she says “a mind is a terrible thing to waste.”
Managing the schedules and responsibilities of seven children while trying to pursue individual aspirations is tough, but she’s grateful for the work of the Wraparound Wellness Center in helping her keep everything in order.
“I didn’t know it could be easy because I’ve never had any help with things like this,” Fowler said.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREWe want to hear from you
Help us cover East St. Louis, Cahokia, Centreville and surrounding communities by sharing your tips, questions and ideas. What issues are affecting your community? What stories would you like us to tell? What’s important to you? Please share your thoughts with DeAsia Paige at dsutgrey@bnd.com or 239-2500.
