Welcome to Survivor's Speak Radio, our show tonight is about coping with trauma in the wake of 2020. Our guest tonight is Michael Overall who is a survivor, mentor, community gardener, activist and entreprenuer.

Michael Overal was born in Oakland, CA during the 80’s crack error. Oakland is a beautiful town has a rich history of love and community, it is the birth place of the founding chapter of the black panthers.

Michael says his first-time experiencing trauma was hearing about a friend being murdered at the beginning of my 9th grade year. The kid was shot in the back of the head during a dice game in 1996. Michael says that this was the worse event of his young life.

As Michael was growing up amid the drug era, Oakland and many other cities like Richmond, Bayview SF and East Palo Alto was starting to become a world of mass incarceration, community violence, homicide, and traumatized children.

Michael moved to Vallejo, CA a few years ago and discovered that there had been an upturn in violence in Vallejo as well. After noticing some of the same truama and challenges Michael came to the conclusion that one of the reason that folks are so troubled is because people have little to no resources for job placement. They're no adquate mental health services addressing stress and the trauma that people have/are experiencing. I

Although Michael is gainfully employed, gardening has been the tool that helps him to cope with trauma and reduce stress. Via eating healthier, Michael says he has been able to find a balance in his life that he wants to share with folks.

Moving his vision forward Michael has created recipes and gardening space for people especially the youth to use as a tool to channel their energy positively via developing a skills and reducing stress,

A Double Consciousness

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