1 of 18

Trauma and Resilience in Pontiac: Capturing Multimodal Narratives to Educate and Learn From a Community

TOMOKO WAKABAYASHI*, SHERYL RUSZKIEWICZ*, JAMES ROSS**, MONICA WILLIAMS**, SHANNAN MCNAIR*, & DEVAN BRIE GREEN***

* Oakland University; **Pontiac Holonomy Incubator; ***Pontiac Public Library

2 of 18

PONTIAC, MI

Pontiac is a city 12 miles north of Detroit, where over a third of the population and about a half of children under the age of five live in poverty. In 2016, sixty-two percent of children lived in households that received public assistance, such as the Supplemental Security Income (SSI), cash public assistance income, or Food Stamp/SNAP benefits (US Census, 2016). The City is mainly home to communities of color. Of approximately 60,000 residents, 17% identify as Hispanic/Latino, 50% African-American or black, and 27% non-Hispanic white (US Census, 2017). Once a vibrant city that attracted professionals and workers for its automobile plants, Pontiac now has an image of a poor, dangerous, distressed city. Yet, those who are deeply connected to the city see its strengths and continue to strive for revitalization.

3 of 18

THE OU-PONTIAC INITIATIVE EARLY CHILDHOOD COMMITTEE

4 of 18

DIGITAL DESIGN THINKING PLATFORM

“Phoenix Center Community Resilience” Design Board

http://bit.ly/resiliencedesign

5 of 18

ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES

6 of 18

ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES

https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/childabuseandneglect/acestudy/aboutace.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fviolenceprevention%2Facestudy%2Fabout_ace.html

Persons who had experienced four or more categories of childhood exposure, compared to those who had experienced none, had 4- to 12-fold increased health risks for alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, and suicide attempt; a 2- to 4-fold increase in smoking, poor self-rated health, ≥50 sexual intercourse partners, and sexually transmitted disease; and a 1.4- to 1.6-fold increase in physical inactivity and severe obesity. The number of categories of adverse childhood exposures showed a graded relationship to the presence of adult diseases including ischemic heart disease, cancer, chronic lung disease, skeletal fractures, and liver disease. The seven categories of adverse childhood experiences were strongly interrelated and persons with multiple categories of childhood exposure were likely to have multiple health risk factors later in life.

7 of 18

METHODS

The narrative data for this proposed paper was collected in two ways. First, we organized five free screenings of the award-winning movie, Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope, followed by community discussions. More than a hundred individuals gathered for the screening and shared their personal narratives of adversities and resilience, current efforts, and ideas for moving forward. Second, college students in an experiential learning first-year writing course collected personal narratives from Pontiac community members. Students conducted interviews in teams of 2-3 and composed multimodal and text narratives using the interviewees’ voices. Once data were collected and transcribed, researchers coded and analyzed the narratives for patterns and recurring themes.

In addition to the narrative data, we asked the movie screening participants to complete a retrospective pre-post knowledge and awareness survey to self-assess changes in their level of ACEs awareness, and identify information that they are likely to share. Every stage of the project was documented using a digital design thinking charrette (see Figure 1).

8 of 18

DATA SOURCES

Retrospective pre-post knowledge and awareness survey results from two recent screenings of Resilience followed by discussions:

N=82
Ages ranged from 8 to 84 (average 49.8)
68% of the respondents either work or reside in Pontiac
35% care for children under the age of 8

78 unique multimodal and text narratives collected by college students from Pontiac community members
Six personal follow-up personal interviews

9 of 18

RESILIENCE SCREENING

10 of 18

RESULTS

Figures 2 and 3 show the results of retrospective pre-post assessments from the Resilience screening in January, 2018. As shown, percentages of participants who assessed themselves as extremely aware of ACEs after watching and discussing the movie was 69%-88%. These percentages show significantly higher self-ratings of awareness compared to those prior to screening and discussion (27%-40%). Twenty-seven participants responded to the question asking about what information they gained and if they are likely to share them. Ninety-six percent mentioned ACEs, trauma or toxic stress; 63% the importance of support or intervention; 59% resilience or the ability to bounce back; 48% the impact on mental and physical health; 22% the impact on behavior; and 19% the impact on brain development (Table 1).

11 of 18

RESILIENCE

“It brought to light a lot of things that we don’t think about as being Adverse Childhood Experiences…. It’s one of those ‘instilled’ things generationally that either you break it or you continue it.”

“As a parent I realized that there are certain patterns that come up and you either address them the way your parents addressed them or you find another way.”

“My hope for kids in Pontiac…people will pay attention to the youth and raise them to be good citizens.”

12 of 18

Oakland University ebook: https://bit.ly/2Q71Ttj

Community connections

20 stories w/ multimedia

Student reflections

Concept and Design by

Pontiac Holonomy Incubator

13 of 18

Story Snippet:

“We were finishing things up and painting a fence and my neighbor said, ”What do we do if they paint on it again?” I just said, “Well we will just paint over it again.”

14 of 18

Quick Quotes:

“We knew that if we wanted to get something done we would have to take matters into our own hands. So, we decided to stand up for what our children desperately needed.”

“If the parents in Pontiac worked together to get their kids more involved in community centers and boys and girls clubs we could bring the old Pontiac back.”

“”Even though nothing in life went my way, I still turned out to be the luckiest man in the world.”

“Together, with my business, other local businesses, and the city representatives, we are working on making Pontiac a much safer and nicer environment.”

15 of 18

RESULTS

Single parenthood Immigration Limited English Proficiency Violence Substance abuse/alcohol Neglect	Poverty Recession Flight out of Pontiac Failed School (attempt for forced desegregation) Divorce and death of family/separation

Narratives collected by college students captured several key adversities. These include single parenthood, immigration, limited English proficiency, violence, substance abuse/alcohol, neglect, poverty, recession, flight out of Pontiac, failed school (attempt for forced desegregation), divorce and death of family/separation. Some narrative accounts of those who left the community, while told with nostalgia, portray Pontiac’s image that persists amongst many—that it is no longer the city it used to be, gang-infested with violence, drugs, and low-quality schools. On the other hand, narratives told by individuals who continue to reside in Pontiac mention adversities, but also highlight resilience of individuals and the community. In these positive accounts, empathy for others, community bonding, and empowerment emerge as additional recurring themes.

16 of 18

LOOKING AHEAD

Additional Resilience Screenings
ACEs Workshops
Phoenix Center and Downtown Revitalization
Neighborhood Stabilization
Pontiac Opportunity Zone bit.ly/PontiacOpportunityZone
A collaboration the Resilience Project, Parent University and the Facing “Pontiac” Project bit.ly/ParentsStoriesResilience

17 of 18

LESSONS LEARNED

Presence
Trust
Persistence
Empowering community to empower themselves

Partnership with Pontiac Public Library
Partnership with Pontiac Holonomy Incubator
Partnership with Oakland Livingston Human Services Agency (OLHSA)
Partnership with Faith-based organizations
Partnership with Grandparents raising Grandchildren
Partnership with Pontiac School Districts

The proposed paper demonstrates the effort of an ongoing university-community partnership to raise awareness of the negative impact of toxic stress on children’s development and to use authentic voices of the community to communicate hope and build resilience. The preliminary results of the survey show that our screening of Resilience and the discussions following it have raised perceived awareness of the issue, and have identified information likely to be shared. Our preliminary analysis of community stories show that the “truth” lies in both those who left and those who remained, but the complete picture of resilience emerges from the latter who persisted to invest in Pontiac. This latter conclusion aligns well with the theme of this conference. The project also is unique in that we use a Digital Design Thinking Platform, provided by the Pontiac Holonomy Incubator, to record and share widely, the plan and process of this ongoing collaboration. College students also gained an opportunity to develop as writers and researchers while engaging in a community-based research partnerships.

18 of 18

QUESTIONS?

Oakland University:
Tomoko Wakabayashi twakabayashi@oakland.edu
Sheryl Ruszkiewicz ruszkiew@oakland.edu
Shannan McNair mcnair@oakland.edu
Pontiac Holonomy Incubator:
James Ross jim@phinco.org
Monica Williams monica@phinco.org
Pontiac Public Library:
Devan Brie Green dbgreen@tln.lib.mi.us