Oral history interview with Sophia Worrell, 2014

Biographical Note

Sophia Worrell was born in Barbados in 1963. Her father was a carpenter, and her mother was a maid. As a youth, she became active in the Seventh-day Adventist church and attended a Seventh-day Adventist secondary school. In her early twenties, she began a partying phase. She began a relationship with a gambler and pool shark, and they had a son. She left, because she wanted him to get a formal job, and he assaulted her after they separated. She began attending a Pentecostal church called Abundant Life, and in 1999, she visited the United States to attend a conference called "Woman Thou Art Loosed." After returning to Barbados, she started a cleaning service and then began volunteering and ultimately working for the Barbados Association for the Blind and Deaf. In 2006, she decided to join an old boyfriend in New York City. The situation was not as described, and the boyfriend became physically abusive, even threatening her life. At an abortion clinic, she received information on domestic violence services, and ended up leaving with the assistance of Safe Horizon. She went to the Urban Women's Retreat Shelter and then to the Franklin Women's Shelter. She became involved in Life Experience and Faith Sharing Associates (LEFSA), Voices of Women Organizing Project (VOW), and the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolence ATTAIN Lab. In 2009, she got her U Visa and began work as a residential aid for a domestic violence shelter. That same year, she started the New York Catholic Charities' Education Outreach Program (EOP) and got a studio apartment in Queens. In 2010, she graduated from the EOP, and became a facilitator for the Living Well life skills empowerment program

Scope and Contents

Sophia Worrell begins the interview with an extended description of her youth in Barbados. She describes her family, the dynamics of her parents' relationship, and her relationships with each of them. She discusses her involvement with the Seventh-day Adventist church, memories of her church-run secondary school, schoolmaster Miss Bain, and Seventh-day Adventist religious practices. She describes her parents' separation after her father started a new relationship while her mother was in the United States. She also describes episodes of unwanted advances and sexual assault and analyzes the resulting trauma. She discusses a partying phase in her life, starting a relationship with a pool shark and gambler, the birth of her son, a serious assault when they separated, and her parents' responses. She also describes becoming religiously active again and attending a conference in the United States. She analyzes interactions with white tourists in Barbados while she worked as a server and ran a cleaning service. She discusses her volunteering and work with Barbados Association for the Blind and Deaf, services provided, and her termination for innovations in services. She describes coming to New York City to join an old boyfriend, and the lies, cheating, and physical abuse that she found in that relationship. She describes getting information on domestic violence services at an abortion clinic and the outlines the events of leaving her boyfriend and going to a domestic violence shelter. After six months, she was transferred to the Franklin Women's homeless shelter, and she describes the conditions there in detail. She describes organizations that she became involved with, including in Life Experience and Faith Sharing Associates (LEFSA), Voices of Women Organizing Project (VOW), and the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolence ATTAIN Lab. She describes the process of locating housing including transitional housing in Brooklyn and finding a studio in Queens. She also analyzes the importance of therapy and storytelling

Subjects

• Barbados.
• Blind--Services for--Barbados.
• Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York.
• Family violence.
• Greenfield, Susan C., interviewer.
• Homeless persons--New York (State)--New York.
• Interviews.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Seventh-Day Adventists.
• Shelters for the homeless--New York (State)--New York.
• Victims of family violence--Services for--New York (State)--New York.
• West Indian Americans--New York (State)--New York.
• Women's shelters.
• Worrell, Sophia, 1963---Interviews.

Access Conditions

Copyright by Sophia Worrell. The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York hold a non-exclusive license to enable library activities