Meet WOMEN’S WAY’s 2022 Change The Narrative Fellows: Tamara Marie Cobb
My name is Tamara Marie Cobb, mother of three children. I’m a Certified Community Health Worker at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, PA. I was born in Philadelphia, where I currently reside with my daughter and cats. My passion for working in my community developed during the late 1990s as an AmeriCorps volunteer. Volunteering created a passion inside me to be a part of the change. My interest was sparked, and it was full speed ahead for me to be an example of what change can look like. Doing the work, I had no idea that the real work needed to begin with me first.
Years have moved on, and I continued to work in my community, but not on myself. I had no idea where to start, but I can say today I was in pain and living in survival mode daily. Growing up as a teenager was difficult for me, and I became a mother at the age of 16; my daughter Denasia was born premature and developmentally delayed. Denasia passed on to Heaven at the tender age of 4. I also had two other children born after Denasia, and they were my responsibility.
Completing my Certified Peer Specialist Training in 2012 helped me look a little more inside myself, but I didn’t use the tools I was taught to help myself. I also completed a Community Health Workers Training offered by Temple University in 2016. I was going through growing pains and depression during the training, but I completed the training anticipating helping people. I continued to neglect my own Mental Health along with my children. The issues of abandonment, grief, domestic violence, poverty, and low-self esteem kept showing up daily. In 2017 I graduated from Harcum College because I thought it was what I was supposed to do!
During the pandemic, my practice of increasing my search for God has helped to connect the dots. Today, I feel better about myself and enjoy the work I do at the hospital. I pray to be an agent for change, continue to learn, grow, and be an advocate for healing.
Click here to learn more about the Change the Narrative Fellowship Program!
