Made In America

(ominous music begins) (fireworks popping) (heavy breathing) (gentle music continues) (fireworks popping) (gentle music continues) (fireworks popping) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - [Joe] This is what I like to call, "PTSD Rehab Ranch."

It's a big metal warehouse on a five-acre plot that's got trash everywhere.

No running water, and we use the rain water, big ole buckets to flush.

(gentle music continues) - I'm surprised by your pitchin' skills.

- (indistinct) - Yeah, everybody is.

- I was born in Grady Memorial, which is in Atlanta, Georgia, October 20th, 1989.

Did a deployment to Iraq (gun clicking) in 2008 for 12 months.

So I guess that's how I ended up here.

This place gets cooking.

It gets hot in here.

And it... (music fades) You'll understand the surroundings of this place is very similar to a combat outpost in Iraq.

(laughing nervously) There's a great feeling of security in that for me.

Every day I can just sit here in this place and feel that same security and this is my territory.

This is what makes me happy is to feel like I really live in a free state.

You know?

If you're not gonna be an active member of society, if you don't wanna be with those people, you gotta be a active member of your own society.

And this place does that because there's so much to do here.

You can just... You can go at it all day and not look like you've done anything.

And it's...

It's part of the battle.

It's part of the struggle here but...

I don't really know what to think of this place 'cause most people have just like, they never really understood what they were coming to when they came here.

And you just can't.

And eventually, they've left, because... And that, and most of like the ones that... (sighing) The ones that have come, I've always known and felt change in them and inspiration from them, even in the time that they've been here.

Argh...

It seems that when one enters this place, you feel clean.

(gun clicking) (gentle music begins) - This is FOCUS Pittsburgh.

It's in the center of the Hill District in Pittsburgh, PA. We do a lot of great things outta this building.

My name is Brandon Andre Bailey.

I'm 29 years old.

I was actually born at home and then taken to the hospital, so... You learn, you learn a lot.

I done learned a lot being here in my six plus years, actually employed here.

The space is, small space, (music fades) a lot of stuff around.

We got the icons.

Well, Monday through Saturday, it's a organization.

On Sundays, it's a church.

Day-to-day, different smells, day-to-day, different.

Oh, it gets, oh, it gets hot.

It gets hot in here, real hot.

(traffic whoosing) Throughout the week, we encounter all type of people, different personality, different attitudes.

Whether it's maybe a domestic going on or, people not eating, people becoming homeless, people need help with their bills.

But working here and being employed, you gotta learn how to cope with all of that.

You gotta learn how to realize this is something bigger than yourself.

This is, to some people, it's a place for help.

Some people, home, some people, a safe place.

- If you wanna look at trauma in Joe's life.

- And if you want to look at trauma in Brandon's life.

- You'll need to go back - You'll need to go back.

to when Joe was 18, - To when Brandon was six years old.

- Serving with the fourth infantry division in Iraq.

- Sitting in the hospital beside his dad and uncle.

My uncle's name was Ronald Turner.

He went from being a good basketball player when he was younger to following the wrong crowd, messing into different things, which led him to be in selling drugs.

And I guess that's the path he chose, so...

But it's more than likely so his fate.

Going into the room, (heart monitor beeping) it was peaceful.

For some odd reason, it was different.

You knew he knew what was going on, but it was just so peaceful, he wasn't afraid.

He was hooked up to machines, barely talking.

He had a couple bandages on him.

For him to be in such traumatic experience and to be going through what he was going through, I can honestly say, (gentle music begins) for the first time, I seen him at peace for some odd reason, and I didn't know why.

- We were on a Iran-Iraq border doing border security.

And a bus of Iranians went through.

And this bus either, it either flipped over or was hit by an IED.

There were a bunch of hurt people.

And I saw a lady that her whole arm was missing.

And it was, Lieutenant Williams was with me.

And I said I wanted to help.

I wanted to go over there and put a tourniquet on her because she was just bleeding out and she was dying.

It would've been the only good thing that I did the whole time I was there.

And he said, "No."

He said that I would... And it's just it.

"No, you can't do that."

- And the word had got out that he was going to pass, but he knew it.

He wasn't scared, he was comfortable.

Everybody had their moment to go in, hear what he needed to say.

He told me, "Never let no man honk you or bitch you.

You gotta stand on your ground."

- So just imagine having to think about that, knowing that I didn't do anything, that I didn't say, that I didn't get an article 15, that I didn't get, that I didn't go over and say, "(audio censored) you, sir.

(audio censored) you."

- Yeah, yeah.

Shoot me, mother (audio censored).

I'm an enemy."

(chuckling) You know what I mean?

I'm an enemy.

I'm an... What are you an enemy of?

- You're an enemy because you respond - Of the lie.

to the truth.

- And that does something to your soul.

I think it takes a big toll.

- Well, you know why don't you?

- How does?

- You never existed anyway in the minds of some people.

- Hmm.

- They're not human.

- Yeah.

- It's just like slavery.

- Yeah.

- The blacks, it's just like the engine.

The only good engine is a dead engine.

(gentle music continues) - Robert Garrett... Shit, man, who knows how old he actually is?

That's the big mystery, but he's old Vietnam vet.

Got his foot blown off in Vietnam, buddy blown up right beside him.

So he's got his own enemies.

(Robert laughing, cutting up) (background chatter) (chair crashing down) - Ow!

Shit!

Ow!

Ow!

(train whistling) - Are you filming?

- Yeah.

- Well, I can hear you.

Let's go back to the beginning, Okay?

- Okay.

- Instead of, (clearing throat) because it's significant.

This here is a M60 machine gun.

I'm just holding that.

On top, these are C-rations that we stole.

Now, there's another pose.

We just pose with it, like John Wayne and stuff like that.

You can't see this one, but there's a black dog there.

It can only happen in cosmic universe of the stoner.

(chuckling) That's me with the M16.

That's Bobby Cartero.

He was my best buddy.

And of course, we're tripping all over the place, metaphorically and literally.

(laughing) This is the last picture that I got to, in the camera.

And it's a picture of my right foot just a short time before I got blew up and part of my right foot was gone.

I forgot all about this picture.

I don't know.

I just took it.

It was just one picture left.

Hey, snap your jungle boot.

And when I got the picture and I went through the pictures, I freaked out.

I flipped out about it.

I'm like, "Whaaat?

What in the world is going on?"

I wasn't, ready for (laughing nervously) this to happen to me.

(ominous music begins) All gave some and some gave all.

And Sammy gave all.

I would, he...

I was walking point and our sergeant said that someone had to take point besides me.

So, Sammy volunteered to take point and I was his slack.

That's the guy right behind the point, sort of.

And took a few steps, tripped the booby trap, (explosion) and flew through the air.

And the last thing I saw was his eyes, which were big and round and surprised.

So Sammy, forgive me, and thank you for saving my life.

(music fades) - The first memory I have of him too is probably about six years old.

Someone that wanted to be in the military as a child at a young age.

He was a role model, you could say.

We share a similar disease and... (Robert whooping up) - Got a brain just like mine!

- That's true.

- I guess, me and you that share a similar disease.

- The insanity of military combat.

- [Interviewer] No, but how did you meet Robert?

- As a child, my parents raised me around the same religion that he Don't want no religion came to know and love.

Not as far as I can tell - See... See me - Sometimes I wonder why.

Feel me - Love me.

Oh, gross.

Lick me - Look here, let's take these toes off.

- [Interviewer] Tell me what you saw.

- Imma bite 'em all, baby.

- I saw - Can I take your shoe off?

the lack of four toes and one ugly... Three.

- Three.

- Don't be, Hey.

You know what?

- And the... - Listen.

- That's a bad omen.

- Umph!

- Yeah.

He was somewhat of a, of a hand to a lost, (somber music begins) drowning, little boy.

(laughing nervously) Yeah, he is, he's like a guide.

He's been like a guide, you know?

Good friend now.

Been a lot of things to me.

- Thank you so much.

(overlapping chatter) How you guys holding up?

For their entire lives, "You spend one year at war, they said, "You might not be able to integrate back into society."

What about our families who essentially spend their entire lives at war?

And then we'll say, "Well, teach him how to write a resume and you're good."

- Father Paul... Yeah, he started the organization back when he was a sub deacon.

Then I watched his transition into a deacon and then to a priest.

And...

He helps out the community in every way possible.

Good man.

(gentle music begins) - Please be seated.

Brothers and sisters.

Brothers and sisters.

Brothers and sisters.

We have Brother Brandon and Sister Ashley.

So, we say in the hood, "Brother Matt, Sister Lisa."

It is time, brothers and sisters.

Brothers and sisters, for generations, life in our communities have been defined by brokenheartedness.

Life in too many of our communities have been defined by brokenheartedness for generations.

Why?

Because there's too much pain in our communities.

There has been for too many generations.

The event in my life that influenced my thinking on this the most was the Iraq War.

(somber music begins) I am a veteran, I'm a US Army veteran.

I was in the Iraq War 2003-2004.

Yeah, I crossed into Iraq the very first day of the ground war and stayed for the first year of the occupation.

- There have been a lot of organizations that come into this community where I'm from, where I was born and raised.

Come in here, collect the information, pack up and leave and never come back, and use it elsewhere.

But then, when you got a person like Father Paul who came in here, listened, saw the need to want to establish a organization on the Hill District and bring so much to it.

And the man didn't have to stay here.

He could have packed up and did what everybody else did.

But he stayed here, worked his butt off and made a lot of things possible for a lot of people.

- I was talking to community folks from another community just a couple days ago and they were saying, "Man, we can't believe it.

We got all this grant money to redevelop our neighborhood.

And when we were sitting down with developers, they didn't do what we asked them to do anyway.

They just, they listened to us and then they went and did what they wanted to do anyway."

And that crushes participation in community meetings because people say, "Well, what's the point?"

- The community didn't come to you.

You came to the community with an idea.

- Yeah.

- So share it.

And what I'm saying is that I'm excited.

- Mm-hmm (affirmative).

- I don't know what I'm excited about, but I'm excited.

- Right.

(everyone laughing) - So I'm willing to find out.

I'm willing to meet with you and Rhonda and whomever and to get some of these things done so that perhaps either our next meeting, or even before that, sending out a flyer and say, "I need your input in this idea to make it better."

- No, no.

That's absolutely fair.

- So, that's the one page idea.

- Yeah, no, that's no problem.

And we've been trying to do that.

We need to obviously do it more effectively, but we're going to do the bullet, we're gonna do the bullet points.

We're gonna do the PowerPoint presentation.

- Oh, yes.

- We're going to pass the article out.

- Yeah, bullets are good.

- We're gonna go through... - Reverend Abernathy, don't overwhelm yourself.

- We're gonna go through the list.

(overlapping chatter) But even worse than that, what we really began to wrestle with was how different the conversation and community meetings were than the conversations we were having on the street.

It occurred to me, very profoundly, then in the community meetings while we were just talking about shrubs and buildings, that the people were talking about rape, and they were talking about homelessness.

They were talking about poverty, and they were talking about racism.

They were talking about addiction.

And that dichotomy really struck me.

I have a really good friend.

He's the same age as I.

When he turned 35, he lost his 40th friend to gun violence.

(siren wailing) This is a platoon, basically in the army.

(people shouting) I would say that, that with the population that I am in contact with, with the men and women, with the children that I am in contact with, it's the overwhelming majority (somber music begins) who have had experienced incidents like this.

- Mothers crying constantly, young teens being killed, grown men being killed just in general, the death rate was high.

My uncles was, some of 'em were like big-time drug dealers.

They were well known.

Everybody knew 'em.

It was wild how people can be so involved in so much negativity, but at the same time, get so much love and respect.

I got into it at a young age, selling drugs.

- People will often say, "How can I help the community?"

But if we really think about all the trauma in the community, I think, the first question is, "What community is there to help?"

Because this trauma has blown us apart.

It's torn us away from our families.

It's destroyed our ability to trust and connect with other human beings.

They opened a shop that's safe in the Hill District.

You'll see a grocery store.

And when they first opened it, we saw it was a revolving door.

People come in, they work for two days and lose it.

People come in, they work for a week and lose it.

The revolving door, always new faces, always knew people.

But these are our people, people that we knew.

And it wasn't that people were ignorant.

It wasn't that people were obstinate.

It wasn't that people were foolish.

It was that they were not healthy.

They were not well, because of the experience of trauma that they had.

That started a different kind of conversation.

- And I remember, we were eating chow and somebody threw a grenade over the wall, and it landed right (metal clanking) in front of the tent door.

Seven seconds, eight seconds, nine seconds, ten seconds.

Long, long seconds, and it didn't go off.

When you think you're gonna die, or you think you should die, Hey!

- Before I was, before I even hit 17, 18, I buried at least a good 12 friends.

(music fades) - Eight months into our tour, one of the men in our company actually had a psychological breakdown.

And I remember, they took his weapon away and they put him on suicide watch.

And then, in response to that, our company commander had an army psychologist come in and begin to talk to us about something I actually had never heard about before, "Post-traumatic stress disorder."

- We think that essentially post-traumatic stress disorder has always been around.

There's names "Combat fatigue," or, "Combat stress," or, "Battle syndrome," and, "Shell shock."

- There's lots of historical accounts of the clinical presentation that we call, "PTSD," especially on the battlefield in sequelae after coming home from battle.

PTSD is a very specific disorder that is comprised of a constellation of symptoms.

- This is very much a clinical term; it's a medical model.

And it's really trying to classify symptoms associated with individuals who've experienced trauma.

And so, you're trying to take something that is very subjective in that experience, lived experience, and kind of quantify it in a way of, "Here's the symptoms that you have, that everyone has," right?

So I want to kind of put that out in the front, that it's kind of trying to place it in a framework in a box, which you can't do completely because of the lived experience of it.

But it gives us a framework to talk about symptoms when it comes to someone who's been traumatized.

- When we think of growing up, (gentle music begins) and you can have propensity for depression, anxiety.

- So I think the ACE study and the publication of the ACE study, really clued us into (music fades) what the history of trauma does to an individual's life.

- The greater the experience of trauma before the age of 18, the more likely someone in adulthood will experience homelessness, poverty, addiction, have cancer, diabetes, heart disease, COPD.

- And so, the adverse experiences could be anything from emotional abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, family, divorce.

- When you don't have normal interactions and a normal understanding of, you're crying because you're hurt and there's somebody immediately there to soothe you.

And there's immediately someone after that to make sure you're physically okay.

And then a community or a family around you that says, "That was a terrible thing that happened to you and you're okay now."

And most of us go through cycles of that our whole life.

- The ACE score goes from zero to 10, zero, of course, being the lowest, 10 being the highest.

The national average is just under 2, is what the national average for the ACE score is.

We know from the ACE study that if you have a score of 4 or higher, that puts you at serious risk (somber music begins) for a negative impact on adult health and behavior.

What we found is that in the test population that we selected, that it was 61% that had a score 4 or higher.

And that in that test population, the largest concentrated score was 6.

- So PTSD requires that you experience a traumatic event.

And so, traumatic events, by definition, are unexpected and life-threatening, (sirens blaring) or result in the loss of life.

So really big, traumatic, sudden events.

And then, re-experiencing that event almost to the extent that you experienced when it was happening.

Or those include things like nightmares, intrusive thoughts, flashbacks.

- So when people then don't quite go through the natural recovery process, their body is left over with these symptoms where their heart rate increases.

They have strong startle reactions and essentially, trauma dysregulates the stress part of the nervous system.

And so, hyperarousal symptoms are more irritability, more anger, more explosive anger.

- Clean gas.

No, no, this is powerful.

Okay?

The (audio censored) asked him for his ID.

Travis doesn't look like he's 18.

Well, sort of, but man, (gentle music begins) come on.

And he got his, he's got Army on.

- [Narrator] Travis was a young Iraq veteran who Robert worked closely with for several years.

Travis had suffered a significant amount of trauma and loss while serving in Iraq.

His best friend was killed right beside him.

A few years after Travis got home, he overdosed on heroin.

- And you know that it doesn't take much to look at Travis and see where he's at.

And he wouldn't give them to him with his ID.

And it was a military ID.

And he come, and you know what?

He come out with smokes.

And he said, "Well, you know, at first I thought about, slitting his throat with my little knife."

And he said, "Then I thought, that ain't right."

And then, he said, he actually told him he was sorry and the guy, he had finally come around.

- A lot of our kids go off there, and they've only been trained for six months at the most.

And they go up there and we expect for them to come back and say, "Oh, I just went and did my job."

But we forget that our job is to take life.

And it's very, very difficult to get your mind to understand what happened.

- Combat veterans are thought of as the group who gets post-traumatic stress disorder.

In our humanity we like to think, "Well, if you go to war, then it's completely okay."

We don't like to think about all of the trauma that's not war related and that it could happen to any of us, or it has happened to our family and our friends.

- We see that actually, here too, working at FOCUS, a lot of emotional people, that had so much trauma in their life, they just shut down, and I know about that 'cause I shut.

You just don't wanna talk to nobody.

You won't take care of yourself the correct way.

And that's how trauma can affect you.

And you could think something's else wrong with somebody, but it could just be, they done been through so much.

They don't even know how to first get the first little bit out to talk about it.

- Trauma causes the natural human desire (gentle music begins) to shut down.

The ability to endure significant pain and suffering is a kind of rare ability.

It takes a lot of strength and courage and emotional resilience.

First of all, that is not taught well in our culture today.

We are taught that we are supposed to feel happy and that that is one of the primary ways of living and being.

And everyone wants to show that they're happy.

But trauma causes pain and suffering, and pain and suffering causes a natural human desire to hide.

The dilemma is more avoidance, more avoidance of pain, suffering, avoidance of your symptoms, and avoidance of people or avoidance of your community, if you have one, actually, puts you more at risk to have continued post-traumatic stress symptoms.

- You grow up unsure of what's safe, what's not safe, who is safe, who is not safe.

(music fades) If your abuser is also a family member, then the understanding of what a safe person is and what a safe person does is gone.

- People become much more isolated.

It's much more difficult to engage in relationships, in conversations, meeting new people.

- The avoidance symptoms then, are what happens when the mind doesn't wanna think about that or feel that.

So it tries to push the trauma reminder away.

In combat veterans, for example, they wanna avoid fireworks, or if they hear a loud boom, (automatic gunfire) they get a really strong physiological response.

- On the 4th of July, you might absolutely not want to go and experience the fireworks because that's really reminiscent of combat exposures.

The problem is, if your whole family's going and it's a holiday, then you've just limited yourself in many ways.

That can then extend to all public places.

- If you don't take avoidance out of the picture, it's somewhat unlikely that healing will occur.

That's one of the other reasons why community can be so healing.

- One of the things that we see over and over again throughout the trauma literature in all of our studies is, "If you have social support, you are protected."

(somber music begins) - [Narrator] When the protesters at Standing Rock called for Veterans to join them, Robert was there day one of the veteran's arrival.

He was stationed with a small crew at Rapid City, South Dakota.

They were there to chop wood to send north to Standing Rock to keep protesters warm through the winter.

There was Art, a Desert Storm Veteran, Sally, Art's wife, (background conversation) David, not a veteran, but a good friend of Robert's, and Joe.

(music fades) - I wanted to come here because I didn't want to stay on the sidelines.

I wanted to see for myself what was happening and make my own decisions, and give back, (background chatter) I guess, is the best way to answer it.

(soft hopeful music begins) - Father Paul and others began developing a program called, "Trauma-Informed Community Development."

He trained behavioral health community organizers, people like Robert, Miss Vicki, Miss Rhonda, and Brandon.

Father Paul, he gave me an opportunity to work for his organization.

When I turned it down multiple times, he...

I guess he saw something in me I ain't see in myself.

Why do I continue to work here?

Because I feel like, if I leave, I'm letting my community down.

I feel like I can be a part of the change and uplift this community.

This is my time to be here.

Whether I retire from FOCUS or not, I will always remember where I came from and what I did here.

And I always told Father Paul, "If I ever left, I'll always come back and help in any way I can."

'Cause this is something bigger than me, him, and everybody else.

This is a movement.

- One day, I was putting the seat cover on my old Silverado and, I, all of a sudden, I just kinda got this, "You ought to go to Standing Rock."

(chuckling) I'm like, "Okay, that sounds pretty neat."

As things went, and my dear friend presented to me about Wesley Clark calling for the veterans to come to Standing Rock to protect the people from further abuse, I hate to speak badly about anyone who wishes to serve our country, but it seems like there were some unnecessary use of force.

(crowd clamoring, shouting) - Paul was coming in (ominous music begins) and setting up FOCUS Pittsburgh in the Hill District, and was looking for a way to starting to talk about community trauma.

So we did, we got together a group of key stakeholders from the Hill District, a pastor, a police officer, and we also had Duquesne students.

And we talked about community trauma and trauma.

And it was a really raw dialogue.

- Do we have to establish boundaries when it's unacceptable to threaten somebody, it's unacceptable to be violent towards somebody?

And yet we understand from where it comes, so... - Hopefully, there becomes another option besides the violence, - Right.

that you become the conduit where that person can rest, but not just rest, digest what's going on with them before there's a reaction.

- Mm-hmm (affirmative).

- And it was really from that conversation afterwards that Paul was the impetus for a lot of us and saying, "You know what?

We can't just stop at the conversation, that we have to do something with it."

(gentle music begins) (saw buzzing) - Here we go!

(tree cracking, falling) - I met Art through Robert Garrett, through this place right here at the ranch.

Yeah, Art, gave me some of the best advice I had.

He, uh... We were working in the Black Hills, again to support Standing Rock up there.

And we were chopping wood.

And there was this big old chief mother (audio censored) over there, and he was the guy running the wood chopping stuff.

And he was like a drill sergeant is what it reminded me of.

And he'd be yelling and I'm just trying to ignore it.

And it was really hard for me and it affected me, and Art could tell that it affected me.

And later that night he came up to me and said these few words and just, they hit me.

He just said, "Don't be so hard on yourself, brother."

And at that time, and even right now, means a lot to not have to be so hard on yourself.

- My name's, "Staff Sergeant Correa," C-O-R-R-E-A.

First name's, "Arturo."

(music fades) Everybody calls me, "Art," 'cause they can't say, "Arturo."

The best thing we could do is come and help with what is needed, and right now, it's the wood.

So we got people that really believe it.

The people, the wonderful people that we get to meet, the ones I usually end up yelling at.

But they're here with their heart.

They're here with their heart.

And I consider them like a combat buddy.

I'd give up my life for a lot of these guys, for a lot of... - Miss Vicki.

She works here.

Actually, Miss Vicki known me since I was three years old.

She's a good friend of my family so she watched me grow up.

She watched my transitions and how I was when I was younger opposed to how I am now.

So Miss Vicki been around me the longest in this organization.

- Last summer, we were told about this micro community building for a healthy community as a support system of people with trauma.

And they live here with hopes to build a better community.

We need healthy community.

I grew up in the time that... Mm... (clicking tongue) My neighbor's mom cared about me just as much.

Well, showed me just as much as care as she did for her children, I'll say.

We were exposed, like most children, to most things 'cause it's inner city living.

(ominous music begins) But we had adults to tell us what was wrong and, "Stay away from this."

So I learned a lot from living down there.

- After World War I and World War II, our country welcomed our soldiers back and had parades for them.

They were reintegrated into their communities and cared for and loved and made to feel safe.

Today, our communities are very different.

Many of us don't know our neighbors.

We don't necessarily have a variety of close, safe and trusting relationships.

We have small networks of people that we can be close to and maybe large social networks through social media or shared activities.

But there's a much stronger form of community isolation that occurs now than it previously did.

- For a lot of our community, a lot of those childhood traumas were not recognized, that they didn't get the soothing that they needed afterward.

They weren't taken care of after that calamity.

And they didn't have a community or a family to come back to that says, "Yes, that was terrible and now, it's gonna be better."

So you end up with individuals with understandable trust issues.

- Mistrust can occur in any context.

And if you have been disadvantaged in some way, (somber music begins) if your trust has been compromised in some way, oftentimes, we hear veterans talk about mistrust of government, of military.

- I just see them pushing away society and saying, "I'm not even gonna deal with you and your rules.

I'm just gonna, I'm just going to where I can control things," which may be a few feet of earth underneath the bridge, but at least in that moment, they feel like they've got some control.

- I don't really think that this nation has realized some of the real greatness that we could have as a people united truly, and not trying to snuff each other out because of madness.

And beware of that American dream.

It's a huge nightmare and it's infected the whole world.

And the whole world is basically on fire, but it doesn't keep you warm.

Within any large society of people, there are different tribes that although they're different, they have many characteristics that are similar.

And there's a lot of healing power when we take care of each other.

- Human beings, we're meant to be together; we're social animals.

So, the concept of tribe is incredibly important.

And I think it's particularly important for veterans because they really form a tribe.

We call it, "Unit cohesion."

And when you separate from the military, you lose your tribe.

That can also occur in all kinds of walks of life.

- I lost my mom, April of '98.

I was nine months pregnant, so I was trying to, and then my dad.

So that was just like a lot of trauma hitting me as far as, and then I lost my house.

So then we end up, had to move to public housing, which I had never lived in there.

So it was just like a total turnaround of lifestyle.

And so, it was traumatic for me and my daughter, who's eight and she's still going through it.

But I decided to tell her, "We are not have to adapt, but we gotta coexist here until we can get out."

- Part of the healing process is finding another tribe.

And so, that can be challenging, especially when, in the case of discharge from service, you are trying to reintegrate into a life that doesn't make as much sense as the one that you just left.

We have got lots of studies that show that when people do find their tribe again, they definitely tend to flourish.

- I was burned 68% on my body.

And in one of the blood transfusions, there was hepatitis C. And they didn't take them, they just found that out about 12 years ago.

And so, I've been really sick, really sick.

And so, close to death many times.

The Lord is not ready for me yet, but...

I wish he was sometimes 'cause all the pain I go through.

But anyway... (saw buzzing) - [Narrator] In the months that followed the Standing Rock protests, Arturo's kidneys began failing because of his hepatitis C. He chose not to undergo treatment.

When Robert heard the news, he invited Sally and Art, and others to come spend Art's last days at the Recovery Ranch.

(tree falling) - One, two, down, up.

Very good.

(birds singing) - Oh!

(overlapping chatter) (heavy breathing) - Feels good out here, huh?

- Oh, yeah.

- What I think is we don't have enough good trees in our community.

- Mm-hmm (affirmative).

- What do we want?

We want more money from the government?

What do we want?

We want more jobs from corporations?

Is that what we want?

Well, we have to have good trees or else we will never bear that good fruit.

And I will tell you that all of that begins in the heart.

- Our weapons have to come from the heart.

We need to love our enemies as much as possible, which is very, very difficult at times.

- Brothers and sisters, let us embrace it with the spirit of hope that there is hope for us, despite all of our mistakes, despite all of our judgment and betrayal, despite all of our addiction and abuse.

There is hope for us, there is hope for our community, there is joy on the horizon.

We have to begin with the wisdom of the community, the wisdom that has emerged from generations of suffering.

Because after all, even with suffering can come incredible wisdom, incredible knowledge, incredible creativity.

Some of the most incredible things, the most incredible perspectives, the most incredible insights that have come simply as a result of their suffering with grace.

- We can't just keep destroying ourself.

We have to help each other build each other up.

If one is falling down, pick 'em up.

Like you said, 1, 2, 3 times, maybe you have to go back to 'em, but... - We can build a culture that raises each other up, that celebrates another's success as our own.

- Mm-hmm (affirmative).

- And I think that, whenever we're doing these block interventions, as people get jobs, we have to understand, this as a celebration, not just for that person, but for the whole block.

And in so doing, create a culture that raises up, instead of tearing down.

I think this is an opportunity for us to build a community with each other.

That's all I can tell you because you never know what really is the reason why we came down here.

- We can't erase the trauma, I think, but we can live better and we can live through that.

So that's gonna be some lessons to come.

This is just a start of something big in Pittsburgh, I think.

- But as long as there's support around those traumas, as long as we understand that something terrible has happened to us, we grow more resilient.

We're able to set our sights even higher.

We're able to take more risks.

- We have a whole literature that suggests that in these kinds of situations, there could be post-traumatic growth.

So people can really grow from those experiences.

- In the military, there's also a drive among soldiers to talk about, "Post-traumatic growth," because there are many people who experience traumatic events in their life who actually go on to thrive and do incredible things.

- So you experience a traumatic event and it affects you in some way.

For some portion of people, they grow from it.

And they can develop better coping strategies, become more empathetic.

They can go on to do amazing things based on their experiences.

- We need to understand how we can help people channel that trauma into growth, into positive growth, into growth that leads to a wider change, not only for the person, but for the community they reside in.

- My 10th grade year, (traffic whoosing) having my first daughter, (gentle music begins) made me look at life differently because I know I needed to be there to be a father for my kids 'cause I never had one.

And I learned how to be a dad because I never had one.

- We have a knife.

(background radio music) You know what I got?

We got bone knives.

I give them to a few little fellows.

I say, "Here's what you do.

Whenever (clearing throat) you're being attacked by the evil one, you take that bone knife and you cut a hole in hell and you jump through it."

(whooping) - What happens when you cut a hole in hell?

What's on the other side?

- Heaven.

- Cutting a hole in hell to get to heaven.

That's awesome.

I like that.

I like the imagery of that.

- Yeah.

- So I want to paint that.

- That came just boom, (fingers snapping) like that when it happened.

I'm not kiddin', I'm not lyin'.

- And it happened?

- "Oh, this what do, Travis.

You take your knife, you cut a hole in hell and jump through."

(fire crackling) (somber music begins) (somber music continues) - [Narrator] After Travis's death, Joe met Travis's widow through Robert.

The two fell in love and are together.

Joe helps father Travis's son, and the two have a daughter together.

- The hardest part of war for me wasn't the people that were killed over there, but the guys that were killed back here, you know?

- Ah.

- That (audio censored) over there is easy.

You have a gun.

You have complete control and empowerment over everybody.

You love it.

But then you come back here and you're not a badass.

You don't have real control over anybody.

Anybody in today's military is not trained for honor.

They're not trained for peace.

They're trained to hate.

They're trained to just destroy, drink the blood of your enemy from his skull.

Complete wacko backwards (audio censored) that distorts an entire generation into believing, "Hate is the new love," you know?

(serene music begins) - Hi mom.

(overlapping chatter) - You know?

- Hi dad.

Hi Cecilia.

- I wanna tell you how I personally got to this conversation that we were having tonight.

- What I would like from Art, one more 30 minutes alone together where we talk brother-to-brother.

(indistinct chatter) - Are you sure you're gonna be able to?

- And it began with a realization that we have suffered, we've suffered too much for too long.

- And one more 30 minutes to stand up comedy, entertaining the troops and helping them to find or relocate their hearts.

- The servant of God, "Miguel Arturo," is baptized, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

- Amen.

- I have learned that we need not be slaves to this past.

- One more cigarette with David, Art, and myself outside in the pleasant snowfall of a Rapid City winter's night.

- Deliver him from every snare of the adversary and encounter with evil.

(continued praying) - And I think what we're talking about is bringing resources to a social support network on the block now, that can help build a culture of health, healing and wellbeing.

- To have little Joe come up to me and express his love and respect for the little brown bear.

- We've been looking through our community to find a block that is interested in being the prototype.

The first block for what we pray, we hope will be many blocks to come after.

- To be able for Art and I to run Sally around the block one more time, and then tell her, we are sorry.

- This is an opportunity to leave a legacy for generations to come.

If perhaps one day, when this story is read to our grandchildren and their children's children about how we reclaimed ourselves and created a culture of healing across a land of suffering, perhaps they would see that the beginning of this story was the 2,900 block of Webster Avenue in the Hill District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

- I hope to see little micro healthy communities all through this city, maybe by the time I'm 60 or sumpin'.

But... Just to be here and be a part of this first thing going on, I just can't wait to see it.

And see it grow and see more people loving on each other.

You just gotta keep smiling and keep doing good, and help somebody, every day if I can.

That's what I be trying to do here.

Lift people up, 'cause you could just see the sadness.

- 30 Minutes seems like, seems to be a long time in the face of eternity.

- Bless the hand of thy servant, "Arturo Miguel," by the hand of me, a sinner, inspiring him with thy Holy Spirit that as he increases in stature and even into venerable old age, he may send up glory unto thee and behold the good things of Jerusalem.

(gentle music continues) (priests chanting) Memory eternal - Well, this is a quote from a Nez Perce Elder, Native American Elder.

(triumphant music begins) "They knew that my Spirit would be wounded.

They said I would be lonely and that I would find no comfort in family... - In family or friends, elders, or spirits.

(triumphant music continues) - I will be cut off - I will be cut off from all the beauty and pain.

from all the beauty and pain.

- My dreams and my visions - My dreams and my visions would be dark and frightening.

would be dark and frightening.

- My days and nights - My days and nights would be filled with searching would be filled with searching and not finding.

and not finding.

- I would be unable to find - I would be unable to find the connections between myself the connections between myself and the rest of creation.

and the rest of creation.

- I would look forward - I would look forward to an early death.

to an early death.

- And I would need Healing - And I would need Healing in all of these things.

in all of these things.

(background conversation) (crowd cheering and applauding) (music echoing) - Today, FOCUS Pittsburgh is becoming, "The Neighborhood Resilience Project," starting a national movement to address trauma in America's urban core.

Brandon continues to work with Father Paul and has joint custody of his two daughters and son.

- [Narrator] Today, Robert still runs the Recovery Ranch.

He and Joe talk regularly.

("Borderlands," by Eine Blume) I swore that would Be my only hope Swore that I would be myself Worthy cornerstone Now I'm finding in the borderlands Of the brokenhearted and true I'll need I'll need For you I swore back when Be a better man Swore that all my strength could bear The raging of the wind Now I'm finding in the borderlands For if you gen and true That I was made I was made For you