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It’s Thursday morning, and Roz Pichardo has been managing lines of people who are either queuing up for clothes or distributing them.
“I had a huge donation of clothes—so many—and because we have a very small space, I had to do a last-minute clothing drive,” Pichardo said, in a phone interview with FHE Health.
That same day, Pichardo was also organizing a fifth annual “overdose awareness walk, which is always the last Thursday of the month to celebrate International Overdose Awareness Month.” A few hundred people would be participating.
Growing Up in “North Philly”
Pichardo was born and raised in Kensington, Philadelphia. She and her six siblings grew up in a house shared by 23 people: three generations under the same roof. (Pichardo described what that was like in a TEDx talk two years ago when she shared more of her moving story.)
“Chaos,” both “good and bad,” was how she summed it up in our conversation.
Losing a Loved One to Gun Violence
Today, at the age of 46, Pichardo continues to call Kensington “home.” It is also where she started the non-profit “Operation Save Our City” in 2012.
“It’s a movement to work with families that have been affected by gun violence, especially the unsolved cases,” Pichardo said. She started Operation Save Our City after her younger brother was shot and killed. “By then, I had experienced so much trauma and death that I knew I needed to do something.”
That “something” became a whole support system for families of homicide victims. Operation Save Our City provides various services to help these families cope in the aftermath of their loss:
- trauma-informed care and life-saving skills
- community-based crisis support, including assistance with navigating the criminal justice system, the media, and social media
- guidance with solving cases
How the “Sunshine House” Began
When the need and number of families asking for help became “overwhelming,” Pichardo “took a break and started feeding people” out of her minivan. That is when she “discovered people in active addiction, the unhoused, and those with mental illness” and began the Sunshine House in their honor.
“Instead of using stigmatizing language, I started calling these people my ‘sunshines’—that’s how the Sunshine House was created,” Pichardo said. Today, the Sunshine House serves about 200 sunshines a day, by providing multiple services and community-building offerings, such as:
- helping people “connect back home and rebuild the bridges that they have burned because of active addiction”
- a case manager who helps people access housing services
- referrals to operating soup kitchens
- nurses who help with wound care and other basic health services
- free clothing and shoes
- art classes
- movie night
- open mic night
Meanwhile, Operation Save Our City has also continued and is currently helping five families, each affected by the unsolved murder of a loved one.
A Way Forward Through the Pain
Pichardo’s loss of her brother to gun violence was not her first exposure to trauma and homicide. When she was 16, she and the love of her life became victims of gun violence when an abusive ex-boyfriend tried to kill them. Pichardo survived but lost the love of her life.
Rather than leave Kensington because of the pain, grief, and trauma, Pichardo decided to stay and become an agent of hope and healing in her community. These days, if she is not helping families affected by homicide or visitors to the Sunshine House, she is riding public transportation to educate riders about the overdose prevention drug Narcan.
“I only do it when there’s a game and the Phillies or Eagles are playing,” Pichardo said.
What’s it like to ride public transport and tell people about how to use Narcan?
“It’s like a classroom. I usually ask how many people have overdosed or lost a loved one to overdose. Then I go into the Narcan training, and after, I put it out and people can raise their hands and come get it.”
Sometimes, if people are too embarrassed to ask for Narcan, Pichardo just leaves it there, so they can discreetly help themselves.
Another reason to stay in North Philly: the beauty that is there. Yes, there is “a lot of sadness and gun violence,” Pichardo said, but there’s “a lot of culture, art, and music.” There’s also a lot of good and a lot of love that can happen when more people pitch in:
There’s a way that everyone can be involved in the community, whether that’s being a responder or a caregiver or a captain of the block. Everyone has a responsibility to exist and to contribute to the society they live in, because we need it; and when people see love, it just transforms their energy. When my sunshines come in here, they know they got to get it together. If they’re angry about someone, they need to leave it at the door … We don’t stigmatize anyone here. I think that’s what we need to do.
Healing from Trauma, Finding a “Place of Peace”
How does one find healing from pain and trauma, so they can help others heal from their pain and trauma?
Pichardo talked about finding that “place of peace,” which for her is the shoreline— “any shoreline or anything by water,” she said. In fact, she sees her mission as “helping others find their place of peace.” (That is also the main message of her TEDx Talk.)
Still, walking with those who have lost ones to homicide or who struggle with serious mental health challenges is heavy work. What inspires Pichardo to keep at it day after day?
“Being able to keep people alive long enough, so they can see the value when they get better,” she said. She gave the example of sunshines whom she has helped come back from an overdose, who then decided to go into treatment.
“And I see them, and it’s the most beautiful thing. I say to them, ‘I told you were going to do good.’ There’s hope in that. I’ve seen so many people go into treatment, and they’re doing really good. And that’s because somebody believed in them, and when you believe in them, that starts to help them believe in themselves.”
Interested in supporting Operation Save Our City and Sunshine House? They can always use donations. Socks and shoes, wet wipes, and makeup and beauty items are especially helpful. For more information about how to get involved, send an email to operationsaveourcity@gmail.com.
