June 2023 Staff Recommendations
Read on to learn what our staff members are reading, watching, and listening to this June!
Podcast Pick: Effective Compassion: Court Appointments by WORLD Radio
Effective Compassion is a podcast with weekly episodes that explore strategies to fight poverty and restore human dignity. This episode focuses on the players within the family court system who influence important decisions over family court cases. The host interviews judges and CASAs including our very own Sarah Barber and volunteer supervisor Emily Rea who shed light on the role of the CASA.
Book Pick: Crazy by Pete Earley
CSB Peer Recovery Specialist Kevin Earley joined us last month to share his story about dealing with and overcoming severe mental illness. Now, we recommend his father’s book Crazy, which documents the family’s experience with a broken mental health system. From Penguin Random House, “Former Washington Post reporter Pete Earley had written extensively about the criminal justice system. But it was only when his own son—in the throes of a manic episode—broke into a neighbor’s house that he learned what happens to mentally ill people who break a law.”
Podcast Pick: Undocu-Life: No Longer Dreaming by Hola Cultura
This podcast discusses how growing up as an immigrant impacts the lives of young adults and how our societal view of the DACA “Dreamers” shapes our collective perception of immigration. Listeners take in the personal accounts of five immigrants living in the D.C. area as they share the opportunities and difficulties in their lives as adults.
Book Pick: A Place Called Home: A Memoir by David Ambroz
For much of his childhood, David Ambroz lived homeless and under the care of a mother who struggled with her mental health. He recalls fearful nights out in the cold as a four-year-old and coming to the realization that he and his older siblings needed help his mother couldn’t provide. In his memoir, Ambroz shares his come up from a homeless child whose only refuge was school, into a nationally recognized child advocate. A Place Called Home offers a window into what so many impoverished and homeless children face today.