The Daily Yonder Breaking the Silence Code: Healing Communities by Giving Youth A Voice Could one girl’s journey overcoming historical trauma become a model of youth and community healing? Alyssa having fun and balancing on a wooden fence. (Photo by Carolyn Campbell) On her sixteen birthday, Alyssa Toce Blount, a sophomore from a tiny town in northeastern Montana wrote this letter to the world on Facebook: “Life is full of mysterious things and is unexplainable. Today I’m turning 16 years old, this is where the whole “becoming of age” thing comes around. But isn’t it so weird how you can just grow up? Gee, I remember when I was 10 years old thinking to my younger self ’wonder what I’m going to do when I’m this age’. I sure as heck didn’t think I would have a job, be saving up for a car, worrying whether or not my grades are good, studying for a driver’s license, be thinking about college and how I would manage myself in a few years on my own. In other words, being and acting my age.”