Blog

It sounds like a late-night commercial: In just one hour you can reduce your anxiety levels and some heart health risk factors. But a recent study with 14 participants shows preliminary data that even a single session of meditation can have cardiovascular and psychological benefits for adults with mild to moderate anxiety. John Durocher, assistant professor of biological sciences, is presenting the work of a team of Michigan Technological University researchers about mindfulness meditation...

The World Happiness Report has been published every year since 2012, giving countries important data about the well-being of their people and how it compares to other nations’. One of the primary proponents and editors of the report is renowned economist Baron Richard Layard of the London School of Economics. As a researcher, Layard has been at the forefront of encouraging nations to prioritize people’s well-being, not just economic prosperity—and to use data-driven methods for figuring out...

Thank you to ACEs Connection member @Emily Read Daniels for sharing this essay written by Chris Prange-Morgan . It's a great read even if you are not a parent, have never adopted, or worked with families formed through adoption who deal with the complications of trauma and loss. I love this piece for so many reasons. I t's beautiful and heart-opening personal memoir. It's honest about parenting, still a rare thing. It speaks about the difference between studying trauma and living...

A week after two black men were arrested at a Starbucks store in Philadelphia, the company announced plans to close 8,000 stores across the country on May 29 for an afternoon of racial bias education. Many people remain skeptical if such training will actually work and prevent further incidents like this, and it's not entirely known what the afternoon of training will include. In an interview with Morning Edition host Noel King, Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and...

On Feb. 20, a young woman named Mirian arrived at the Texas border carrying her 18-month-old son. They had fled their home in Honduras through a cloud of tear gas, she told border agents, and needed protection from the political violence there. She had hoped she and her son would find refuge together. Instead, the agents ordered her to place her son in the back seat of a government vehicle, she said later in a sworn declaration to a federal court. They both cried as the boy was driven away.

There are benefits and challenges to sending a teenager to rehab, both for the parents and the teen. Being away from home and friends, disgruntled peers, feeling alienated and misunderstood by therapists and treatment center staff and a bevy of new rules can all create upheaval. For adolescents, whose emotions are already more volatile and unpredictable, it can be difficult to find the willingness to do the frequently taxing psychological work that’s part of treatment. However, it can be a...

In last week’s cover story for the magazine, Linda Villarosa wrote masterfully about how the intertwined crisis of black infant and maternal mortality is related not to the genetics of race but to the lived experience of being a black woman in this country. We asked readers to share their stories of struggling to receive proper prenatal and postnatal care, and hundreds of people responded. Below is a selection of some of the stories. ‘We Often Feel Lonely on This Birth Path’ As soon as I...

The wealth gap between blacks and whites would take 225 years to disappear, according to one recent, rather optimistic, estimate . As to how this could happen, theories abound. Squeezing shut the homeownership gap is a popular solution, and understandably so. A century of racist housing policy—redlining, mortgage loan discrimination, preferential housing subsidies—has created major barriers to homeownership for black Americans. Simultaneously, the federal government has long promoted...

A dozen foster parents surround the table at the mandated Foster Care Child Sex Trafficking class, listening with perked ears to the class leader. She is a survivor of early childhood sex trafficking. The leader continues, noting signs of trafficking, many of which she experienced herself. Amidst a continual onslaught of questions from attendees, the leader teaches the parents safe ways to interact with their previously trafficked foster child, including being careful to ask before physical...

The call was brief, and had the relaxed feel of someone making a reservation at a restaurant. “I have two gentlemen at my cafe who are refusing to make a purchase or leave,” the manager of the Starbucks told the 911 dispatcher. She calmly gave her address, and after being reassured that law enforcement would be on the way shortly, she thanked the dispatcher and hung up. The call, of which audio was released by the Philadelphia police department, lasted roughly 20 seconds. Rashon Nelson and...

I teach middle school Special Education in eastern New Orleans, Louisiana. This area is one of the most violent in the city, and also one of the most devastated during Hurricane Katrina. I know the ACEs Study used the most common sources of childhood trauma, but would it be relevant to tweak the questionnaire to include Gun Violence and Natural Disaster for my students? 1. Gun violence is part of every day life for my students. Nearly all have had a family member, peer or family friend...

The Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality and the National Black Women’s Justice Institute are proud to announce the Trauma-Informed Learning Network for Girls of Color (The Learning Network), which will be launched in late spring. The Learning Network will provide a secure platform for school system leaders and educators to learn from experts across the country about trauma-informed approaches to girls of color and to engage in peer-to-peer learning. Registration is free and open...