Transcript
What inspires you from WFSU Public Media? Here's this week's Voices That Inspire. I am Lindsay Holmes, the Communications and Community Relations Manager for the Early Learning Coalition of Northwest Florida. A lot of our families immediately after the storm, just they didn't know what to do. So we had to jump in and help guide them to recovery. Today, however, many of our families are still struggling with the basics, down to shelter. We often forget that children are not just smaller versions of adults, and so we expect them to automatically be resilient. And for the most part, they are. But what we're seeing now is that children have the stress that comes with trauma and they have experienced trauma and loss and they're grieving, their delays in learning, their sadness, they don't know how to cope with what they've experienced. And then, of course, if their moms and dads or caregivers are stressed out, they're gonna be stressed out too. So we're just trying to make the transition back to normal as much as we can and make it smooth. I'm still personally battling my insurance and trying to get my home fixed. And I have two small children who are school-aged, they're in kindergarten and first grade this year. And really, most of my battle has been in trying to instill a sense of normalcy for them, encourage them, not to be scared when thunderstorms come, and just really help them figure out how to cope. My first step in that was trying to be calm and strong in the beginning, so that they knew that it was gonna be easy to do. I do the most fulfilling work. I get to get up every single day and know that I make a difference in my community. And that helps me keep going. I am Lindsay Holmes, the communications and community relations manager for the Early Learning Coalition of Northwest Florida. You're listening to Voices That Inspire.