Video of Paper Tigers Panel Discussion with James Redford Now Available

The California Endowment’s Center for Healthy Communities recently hosted documentary filmmaker James Redford and screened his new film Paper Tigers. The film captures the pain, the danger, the beauty, and the hopes of teens struggling to overcome adversity and trauma—and the teachers and school administrators who implemented a fresh approach that led to a dramatic improvement in test scores, suspensions, and violence reduction. After the screening, the Center for Healthy Communities hosted a panel discussion on statewide efforts to help youth overcome trauma through restorative and healing practices in schools and communities. To watch the panel and for all related links on this approach, please scroll down below.

• The high school featured in the film is Lincoln High School in Walla Walla, WA. To learn more about the high school in the film, click here.

• Here in California, a number of schools have started to adopt the approach documented in the film. One example is Cherokee Point Elementary in San Diego, which has succeeded in addressing adversity by building resilience among students, parents and educators. This video shows how they did it.

• Also in California, a recently filed federal lawsuit asks the Compton Unified School District to implement trauma-sensitive approaches to help more students succeed.  To read about the lawsuit and learn more about how trauma impact students, click here.

• To learn more about toxic stress and its impact on childhood development, click here to read (or take) the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) survey.