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Sidewalk Therapy: Formerly incarcerated man lends an ear for people going through struggles
Will Little, a formerly incarcerated man who served 10 years for murder, sets up his tent in different parts of Philadelphia and welcomes in passersby to ask them to open up about challenges and struggles they may be harboring.
PHILADELPHIA - His roadside tent might not look like your typical therapist's office, but to Will Little all you need is a table and chairs to facilitate a possibly life-changing conversation.
Little, a formerly incarcerated man who served 10 years in prison for murder, encourages passersby to open up about their struggles and trauma in hopes to provide an emotional outlet.
"Let’s get back into the community because nobody is really meeting people where they are," Little said. "We may have programs, we may have buildings to come to, but not everyone is going to walk into those buildings."
He calls the project ‘Sidewalk Therapy’, a humble safe space for people in Philadelphia communities to simply come and talk.
Little said he got the idea after realizing that he never processed extreme childhood trauma, like being held at gunpoint by his mother's boyfriend early in his life.
"I didn't think I was affected by it in any kind of way, but there was an experience of trauma and I realized in my teenage years of growing up, no longer afraid of death," Little said.
He believes those early life experiences lead him down a destructive path where he joined a gang and shot a rival gang member to death during a dispute.
Little spent 10 years in jail for the murder and when he got out he vowed to provide an emotional outlet for others.
"Young men don't really have an outlet, so when they see me standing here and pull them aside and realize the question ain't for me, it's really for you, they say ‘damn, thanks for asking that questio’," Little said.