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Cat Brooks hears firsthand the anxiety in her neighbors' voices when talk turns to the police. She sees the fear in their eyes when a cruiser drives down the street. Police violence can have a ripple effect on communities, says Brooks, a co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project , an Oakland, California-based group working to create a support system for communities of color. It leaves a psychological and emotional toll. "I see it in the ways rage explodes on the street in response to...

Since ProPublica launched Lost Mothers , we’ve covered many facets of the U.S. maternal mortality crisis . Despite spending more per capita on health care than any other country, the U.S. has the highest rate of deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth in the industrialized world. But what makes maternal health care in other affluent countries look so different than the U.S.? Among other things, midwives . Midwives in the U.S. participate in less than 10 percent of births. But in Sweden,...

For juvenile court judges, correctional facility administrators and community supervision agency leaders throughout the country, the progress juvenile justice systems have made in recent years is clear. Nationwide, juvenile arrest rates are at historic lows, and incarceration rates have plummeted by more than half. Despite these tremendous strides, data and experience indicates that juvenile justice systems are still not operating as effectively as possible. In the face of stubbornly high...

On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego released a report summarizing the abuse that children suffered from United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents from 2009 to 2014. "All human beings deserve to be treated with dignity and respect regardless of their immigration status—and children, in particular, deserve special protection," Mitra Ebadolahi, ACLU Border Litigation Project staff attorney, said in a press release . "The misconduct demonstrated in these...

All my life I’ve been living in the fast lane Can’t slow down, I’m a rolling freight train One more time, gotta start all over Can’t slow down I’m a lone red rover Oh how did it come to this? Lyrics from “Polaroid” by Imagine Dragons From an early age many of us learn the importance of independence, hard work, and “measuring up” to expectations. We push ourselves to excel, do more, and be better than our peers. But few people end up living a life they enjoy by striving full-tilt all the...

Exposure to early life trauma can lead to poor physical and mental health in some individuals, which can be passed on to their children. Studies in mice show that at least some of the effects of stress can be transmitted to offspring via environmentally-induced changes in sperm miRNA levels. A new epigenetics study raises the possibility that the same is true in humans. It shows for the first time that the levels of the same two sperm miRNAs change in both men and mice exposed to early life...

Plans change. That was a key lesson learned by the San Diego Trauma-Informed Guide Team (SD-TIGT) as the group worked to hone a strategic plan. The network had begun as a grass-roots collaborative, and members wanted to preserve that sense of openness and inclusion. At the same time, with Harmonium, Inc., as the backbone organization and the MARC grant as an impetus, the network also needed structure, goals and clearly defined roles. Already, the Guide Team’s focus had shifted; what began in...

The Solano Family Justice Center and First 5 Solano are among the organizations that recently received grants to support education and outreach to help reduce stigma around mental illness. The two local grants are part of a larger $2 million investment by Kaiser Permanente to support community organizations. In all, 25 Northern California organizations were awarded community health grants, including school districts, youth and family services and community coalitions that bring together a...

COLUMBIA, SC For the past 10 years, United Way of the Midlands has increasingly focused resources on helping vulnerable children succeed by supporting tutoring, kindergarten preparation, high-quality child care and social support to families and children experiencing homelessness, with a range of housing assistance from prevention and shelter to permanent housing. In 2013, we initiated the Youth in Transition movement, for 17- to 24-year-olds who are homeless or vulnerable to homelessness.

BALTIMORE — Some of the city's toughest communities, those plagued by crime and drugs, are also notorious for another adverse distinction: having a high number of children who have been abused. Park Heights in northwest Baltimore has long had the reputation of being crime-ridden, failing in housing and booming with liquor and corner stores. It's part of the 21215 ZIP code. "That ZIP code has a disproportionate high number of child victims of abuse and other traumas there," said Adam...

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In Western culture, parenting is often about control. "We think of obedience from a control angle. Somebody is in charge and the other one is doing what they are told because they have to," says Barbara Rogoff , a psychologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who has studied the Maya culture for 30 years. And if you pay attention to the way parents interact with children in our society, the idea is blazingly obvious. We tend to boss them around. "Put your shoes on!" or "Eat your...