Valpo Native Travels Across The Globe
The Chronicle
April 7, 2010
Profile of Shea Anderson, a Heartland Alliance mental health practitioner who volunteered in Haiti after the January 12 earthquake.
From The Chronicle:
If there was an earthquake in a country halfway across the world and we were asked to go help the victims, the majority of us would have to think for a minute before we decided if we would volunteer to go, or not. The thought of aftershocks and putting ourselves in danger would be looming in the back of our minds. That is the way most of us think, but it is not the way Shea Anderson thinks. When the agency she works for asked for staff volunteers to travel to Haiti in order to assist the survivors directly after the earthquake this year, she didn’t have to think twice. She submitted her application to go to Haiti without batting an eye.
Anderson said, “Since I was young, I’ve always been drawn to different cultures, experiences, and I’ve always loved to travel. Through traveling, I was drawn to international social work. I went into it to try to make a change. I feel a natural drive to do something about social issues, especially issues that are that of refugees because their need is on a different level than the need of most Americans.”
This social traveler works for Heartland Alliance (H.A.). H.A. is a non-profit service-based human rights organization that was founded in 1888. It is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and is the largest human rights organization in the United States of America. H.A.’s mission is to respond to human needs of vulnerable populations through the offering of comprehensive services and the promotion of permanent solutions that lead to a more just society.
Anderson is a Valparaiso-native who graduated from Valparaiso High School and ventured on to graduate from Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She then gained her master’s degree in social work from the University of Chicago and began serving on the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. All of this social work has led to her now being a mental health clinical practitioner for her current organization, a position in which she provides mental health services in the Cabrini Green housing complex in Chicago. She assists individuals and groups in her daily work to help that particular population with the barriers they face that are blocking them from attaining self-sufficiency. After the earthquake that hit Haiti’s capitol Port-au-Prince, on January 12, 2010, her job description suddenly changed.
A young woman who has dedicated her life to social justice, she jumped on a plane with a few other representatives from H.A., to aid the surviving victims of the earthquake. She said, “My role in Haiti was to provide psycho-social support in one of the camps alongside a medical team. A lot of people who were coming to the clinic were coming with earthquake-related injuries, but soon people started coming with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms such as headaches, and feelings as if the earth was shaking even when it wasn’t. We taught them coping skills and how to pool their resources with other survivors.”