For three months, Laura Noon lived in a space not much bigger than a kitchen table, which had concrete walls and mosquito netting for a roof and door.

Her address? The Republic of Rwanda, Africa, where she'd gone to provide trauma counseling services to survivors of the country's mass genocide."There was a generation who had seen terrible things, and generations who had heard about it," Noon said. "Everyone there had been traumatized in some way."Noon herself was traumatized, and challenged by her living conditions and her feeling of isolation.One of seven children, she grew up in Pottsville accustomed to being surrounded by family and involved in social activities."There were times when I felt very alone," she recalled. "But I realized that many people there shared those same feelings."Noon, a graduate of Pottsville Nativity

B.V.M High School and Arcadia University, Glenside, will be providing trauma counseling services in the Tamaqua and Pottsville areas.Through a Justice Assistance Grant program, she'll be able to provide those services at no cost from three locations: the Victim Advocate Office at the Schuylkill County Courthouse in Pottsville; the Sexual Assault Resource and Counseling Center Office in Pottsville; and the Tamaqua Community Art Center.The Justice Assistance Grant Program is the leading source of federal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions.The JAG Program provides states, tribes and local governments with critical funding necessary to support a range of program areas including law enforcement, prosecution, indigent defense, courts, crime prevention and education, corrections and community corrections, drug treatment and enforcement, planning, evaluation, technology improvement, and crime victim and witness initiatives.The art center's director, Leona Rega, introduced Noon during a meeting of the Tamaqua Safety Initiative on Thursday morning.Noon will provide free, confidential counseling and advocacy for those in need, such as people troubled by depression and PTSD, or people who have been a victim of crime. The contact number is 570-391-2514.Rega also updated the Safety Initiative Committee on ongoing projects:The Dear Tamaqua Project now has a website,

www.deartamaqua.org and a Facebook page.The first phase will be a yearlong effort to encourage past and current residents to share personal experiences, memories and hopes for Tamaqua's future.The second phase will be a large-scale, public street fair in August 2015, bringing to life the stories gathered in phase one. Rega said that the goal is 700 submissions.For the SKIP Cleanup, volunteers will target the downtown area of Tamaqua from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday.National Night Out will be held in Tamaqua from 6 to 9 p.m. Aug. 5.The next meeting of the Tamaqua Safety Initiative will be held at 8 a.m. May 22 at the art center.