Faces Of New Bedford – #15: Lindsey Rocha

Meet Lindsey Rocha, a 26 year-old senior program manager and coordinator with the New Bedford Health Department.

Growing up she faced tons of adversity, living in and out of foster care while coping with her family’s battles with addiction. These traumatic experiences could have led her down a dark path herself, but she is able to use them to bring hope to others.

While attending Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational High School, she started an internship at the Ocean Explorium in downtown New Bedford. As long as she could remember she focused on her survival and marine biology gave her something else to grasp onto and it changed her life. It was during her time at the Explorium where she worked with at risk youth and she saw herself in these kids, which made her strive to want to show them that there was something in life they could relate to outside of their struggles.

Since then she has become a therapeutic mentor at Child and Family services, where prior to her involvement with the City of New Bedford, she worked with high risk youth, teaching them self awareness and coping skills. Not only did she give provide them with those resources but she helped them get involved with the community. She soon realized that the majority of the trauma these children and teens received were the result of substance abuse, which is why is working with the Health Department to raise awareness of opioid abuse.

“Don’t be afraid to let the walls down and share your story. There is power in vulnerability, you have no idea how what you have gone through could impact someone else.”

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Faces of New Bedford is a project by Colton Simmons. If you are interested in booking a shoot or getting prints from the series email all inquiries to colton@coltonsimmons.com

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