Blog

There is a consistent pattern in the conferences sponsored by the Potts Family Foundation , such as its Raising Resilient Oklahomans! summit March 7 in Edmond. First, they update the cutting-edge scientific research on early education and on cognitive concerns, like the effects of adverse childhood experiences ( ACEs ). Then, national and local experts pioneer new ways of articulating these challenges in ways that advance a constructive search for solutions. The summit used new research and...

In the course of the next year, state health employees will be trained to better understand trauma and how it can shape the lives of Delawareans they interact with every day. The training is specifically targeted to help people who experienced a traumatic event during their childhood. Experts also refer to this as "toxic stress," in which a child frequently experiences hardship, such as divorce, witnessing violence and living with an adult with mental illness or suffering from addiction.

Young people who are aging out of foster care at the Hope Center in Raleigh often present themselves very well , said a social worker for the agency. That’s because they’re used to concealing the devastating life experiences many have endured. “They’ve learned it; it’s a skill,” said Meredith Yuckman, program director at the Hope Center at Pullen last week. “That’s where relationships are important, building trust with our staff so that they can get beneath that mask.” Toxic experiences...

The link to the article below is from the Henrico Citizen, and addresses the need for children to have time to play. I love this and hope that more community leaders and government entities see the value in this! Seems like a good start.... http://pdf.henricocitizen.com/2018/0315/#p=7

Are you implementing TIC (trauma-informed care) change efforts and finding they aren't resulting in the large scale or organizational change you seek? You are not alone! Creating a “trauma-informed system” requires significant cultural change. The journey to shifting culture begins with acknowledging that the current functioning in public service (i.e. education, health care, mental health, etc.) compounds survival responses rather than mitigates them. This is reflected in the attitudes,...

The effects of childhood trauma used to be seen as mostly psychological, but now we know there’s more to the story. In this video I talk about the problem of brain dis-regulation, and why learning to get “re-regulated” can jumpstart your recovery from Childhood PTSD. See the post here!

On the other side of addiction, or a long, shitty toxic relationship, or an exceptionally consuming and draining job, one of the things we commonly hear people say is “I finally got myself back,” or “I finally feel like the old me again,” or another expression of the same sentiment. It’s almost inevitable that when lost in one of these situations you become so consumed by it that the person you once were ceases to exist. That person is simply bowled over and absorbed by the relentless...

A new study conducted by researchers at Stanford, Harvard and the Census Bureau, finds that in 99 percent of neighborhoods in the United States, black boys earn less in adulthood than white boys who come from similar socioeconomic backgrounds. This undermines the widely-held belief that class, not race, is the most fundamental predictor of economic outcomes for children in the U.S. The study looked at racial disparities in income over generations by looking at de-identified data from 20...

When Kelli Kelley awoke from her C-section 17 years ago, having delivered her son after just 24 weeks of pregnancy, her husband gave her a Polaroid of their baby. He was tiny, underdeveloped, eyes still fused shut, with translucent skin covered in fine hair, and lying in a sea of medical equipment and lines. To Kelley, he looked like a baby bird. Cut to her first visit to the neonatal intensive-care unit ( nicu ) to meet him: a cacophony of beeping machines, harsh lighting,...

The portion of youth in foster care who are eventually reunited with their biological families has been plummeting in New York City, according to a Chronicle of Social Change review of data from the city’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). The city reunified 68 percent of the children who exited foster care in 2010. By 2016, 53 percent of exiting youth went back to their parents. But while the idea of fewer children returning home sounds worrisome, ACS officials say it’s due to...

When Francis Pearman was studying at Vanderbilt, he and a fellow graduate student noticed a striking phenomenon in Nashville: White, affluent families were moving into low-income neighborhoods without sending their children to the neighborhood schools. “We were really curious to see what that relationship looked like at the national level,” said Pearman, now a professor at the University of Pittsburgh. When he and that student, Walker Swain, looked at national data , a pattern emerged. The...

In the first part of a weeklong series about bullying , Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson speaks with Dorothy Espelage ( @DrDotEspelage ), professor of psychology at the University of Florida, and Nadine Connell ( @nmconnell ), director of the Center for Crime and Justice Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas, to look at whether bullying is connected to other kinds of violence. "It really is this continuum of perpetration," Espelage says of bullies. "It's not just that bullying is a...