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HE CAME. HE SAW. HE CARED.

Dr. Carl Bell was an intellectual giant with a heart big enough to match.

Through compassionate eyes “He saw friends and classmates who never had a chance to grow up. Then he saw it in schools as an adult. He saw where the problems were, so he did something about it.” (Tyra Taylor-Bell)

Doing “something about it” was nothing less than dedicating his whole life to “confronting the impact of childhood trauma resulting from violence”.

His work, beginning with his choice of career as a psychiatrist, encompassed rigorous research, practical application of the results of that research and sharing his expertise with others. His influence, local in origin, became national.

The work of the Freadom® Road Foundation is built on the work of Dr. Carl Bell, especially our Freadom® Families program in collaborative partnership with family support organization Family Focus – Englewood and our CEV (children exposed to violence) program in partnership with the Office of Violence Prevention and Behavioral Health in the Chicago Department of Public Health. These programs incorporate Dr. Bell’s concepts that “protective factors” offset risk factors, and that “If it’s predictable, it’s preventable”.

We were saddened to hear of Dr. Bell’s passing earlier this month. His work lives on. He inspires us still.