RISING ABOVE THE SCARS tells a story of how a family overcame the trauma of abuse, broke generational cycles, and beat the odds. It is the true account of Johnnetta McSwain’s triumphant life story. Born, in Birmingham, Alabama to an alcoholic mother, and an absent father, she was left to live with her grandparents. This was where she was brutally and continually raped and abused, beginning at the age of five. Johnnetta, her sister, and male cousin were tied up, beaten, choked, threatened and made to perform horrifying sex acts, by her three uncles. By the age of eight she had contracted syphilis.

She was constantly reminded that she was not wanted and not loved. On one occasion, she was left outside naked in the cold, Alabama winter and caught a severe case of pneumonia in her bones. This was punishment for urinating in the bed. As a teenager, the abuse continued at the hand of other strange men that her mother dated. She started shoplifting at twelve and eventually dropped out of high school at seventeen. By nineteen she had her first son, applied for housing assistance, food stamps and welfare, continuing the cycle in her family.

She was introduced to drug dealers and started dealing drugs. She hung out in the streets, clubs and dope houses. She turned tricks to get money, clothes, and whatever else she needed. At twenty six, she had her second son; and, seven months later she got caught stealing in the mall. She left her baby in the parking lot running away from the police and ended up with a felony.

At thirty, she woke up, looked in the mirror and knew she had to change her life. She desperately relocated to Georgia with a GED and a dream, to be the first PhD in her family. She started college and in just three years, she graduated with her Bachelor’s degree from Kennesaw State University. Two years later, she earned a Master’s in Social Work (MSW) at Clark Atlanta University. While completing her studies in graduate school, she created a copyrighted 12 Step Self Awareness Model (SAM), with the help of her mentor, Dr. Susan N. Kossak, and presented it in her first workshop for the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). In January 2008, she met with the Executive Producer, Pamela Roberts who began taping a documentary, “The Road Beyond Abuse”, narrated by Jane Fonda, which tells of her extraordinary life. It aired April 15, 2009 on Georgia Public Broadcasting.

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