Frontline Healers: Nina reflects on Women's History Month

Check out the entire series: Nina, Kyndra, Paris, Carlos, and Nicky.

 

Celebrating Our Women Leaders -

Nina Carter, Youth ALIVE! Violence Interrupter:

“When I think of Women’s History Month, I think of it as creating an opportunity for women to be on the front lines of healing. I’ve seen a lot of positive women in my life, but I have also had women disappoint me, including my own mother. A lot of women don’t have good relationships with other women, and my goal is to create circles of sisterhood. Even if we don’t always see eye-to-eye on everything, we share similar pain. Once we learn each other’s stories, we can respect one another and understand that we’re each the experts of our own lives. Learning my mom’s story helped me mend that relationship. For me, women’s empowerment comes from women being able to love themselves.

“Youth ALIVE! has given me the tools, platform, and resources to help other women transform their pain into a purpose. Women are using their experiences–whether it be of homicide or other crime–to be part of the solution, rebuilding the community, and taking their power back. Women are the frontline healers.

“My goal doing outreach work is to let everybody know they have a role to play: we can heal our own community and get the village back in order.”

For me, women’s empowerment comes from women being able to love themselves.