Troubled Teen Mother Turns Anger into Hope
The perseverance of one mother may make a difference in the community of Raleigh. Torn with grief that her teen age son was convicted of murder and sent to prison, a single mother of four took her pain and anger and funneled it into creating a yearly festival that she hopes will break through the indifference of the community and spearhead change for the troubled teenagers who are following in her son’s footsteps.
“The night he was sentenced, I cried all night long,” said Scotland, 41. “And then I had a dream.”
The dream was of a movement that would change the future of Southeast Raleigh, a place where so many fatherless boys were abandoning school for a life of drugs and guns. From that vision, the Annual Southeast Raleigh Community Outreach Day was born.”
Teen crisis intervention is too often born of pain, but, perhaps all the more powerful for it. Who better to speak to the community than a single mother working two jobs to raise 4 teens? Someone who suffers daily in remembering the mistakes she has made but has the courage to admit to them. who better to reach out to mothers of teens at risk to counsel them not to make the same mistakes?
Relevant Tags:crisis intervention, single mother, teen crisis intervention, teens at risk, teen crisis, troubled teenagers“She admits she has made mistakes. The child of a schizophrenic mother and an absent father, she grew up bouncing between relatives in New York and Raleigh. She moved in with a boyfriend at 14 and had her first child at 16.
Scotland still cries when she thinks about what has become of her son and about the broken family his crime left behind. She still wonders what she might have done to prevent it.”
Teen Crisis Intervention