Reporting Update

My reporting is coming along really well and I’m pleased with my story so far. This subject is very important to me and I’m determined to tell this story in a thorough, thoughtful and compelling way. At women’s recovery house Interim House I have interviewed Director Kathy Wellbank and lead therapist Jessica Bright I have interviewed Gab Bilotta, a trauma counselor at Joseph J. Peters Institute who is also a certified drug and alcohol counselor, and JJPI’s executive director Ivan Haskell Additionally, I have interviewed Carol from Angels in Motion and Adrienne Miller, the outreach team coordinator for women’s recovery group Women for Sobriety. Further, I’ve spoken with a resident of Interim House about her experience with trauma, addiction and how a woman-exclusive recovery center has helped her with her addiction.

Over the next week, I intend to pursue finding voices/photos on the ground in Kensington. I also plan to return to Interim House on Tuesday to speak with a woman who is further along in her recovery who can speak about how trauma-informed therapy methods like dialectical behavioral therapy have helped her in recovery. I’ll also be taking additional photos with a more advanced DSLR lens to up my image quality. I’ll be emphasizing taking a good header image for my photo, which Sydney has agreed to help out with.

Laura Smythe

Laura Smythe is a junior studying journalism at Temple University. She fell in love with journalism by listening to people’s stories while traveling around Europe, Africa, and the Americas before attending Temple. Laura works as an editor for College Magazine, a national publication for college students, and as a featured writer for LGBT Outfitters, a magazine focused on LGBT rights, positivity, and awareness. She is also the Philadelphia correspondent for New York arts and culture magazine The Knockturnal and a freelance writer for The Temple News. Laura is originally from Seattle, but Philadelphia stole her heart. She is a fan of the Oxford comma, self-shooting her articles, and soy Chai lattes. She enjoys writing about mental health, feminism, travel, and arts and culture. Last summer she tried her hand at international reporting in South Africa and wrote a Hearst award nominated long-form piece on sexual violence in addition to a package of articles on local artisans and their crafts. You can catch her blogging about her travels on her forthcoming blog Across the Time Zones. Contact Laura at [email protected].