'I'm not my diagnosis, but a person first': Central Harlem resident finds hope in peer support

For a lot of people, the new year is a chance to turn the page on the past and set their sights on the future. As we move further into 2024, WNYC's Community Partnerships Desk is highlighting stories in our communities that focus on the idea of fresh starts. Jovanna Marc is a peer specialist living in Central Harlem.

The transcript of Jovanna Marc's story has been lightly edited for clarity.

My name is Jovanna Marc. I'm 55 years old. I reside in Central Harlem, and my fresh start is becoming a peer specialist. A peer specialist is a person who's in mental health recovery that has learned coping skills -- having this harm reduction approach, this trauma-informed approach. We're just people who've been there, done that -- who could help someone else going through a similar situation. 

I've lost two children and have been diagnosed with all different types of diagnoses, from severe depression, paranoia schizophrenic. I didn't know how to deal with realities of life after losing my boys. I wasn't able to function outside the home properly, you know, I was stuck, I couldn't focus. I was just left out there in the cold until I got introduced to Howie the Harp at Community Access. It's an advocacy center which trains individuals with lived experience in the mental health system for direct service, supervisor, or management roles within human services. I found hope there at community access. I'm not my diagnosis, but a person first, and I had to recondition my mental state to believe that I can be a productive member to society.

I truly believe in my heart that peer specialists are agents of change. We help, we assist, we don't tell people what to do, we show them. I still have those things that happened to me. It's just the way I deal with them now, and the way I dealt with them then are different.

I've been through the trenches. Now, I live for the living -- like I live to live. I want to make an impact. I want people to say, wow, she's come a long way.