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As with past editions of the global conference on cities, the ninth World Urban Forum kept coming back to the stubborn question of what to do about slums. An estimated 900 million people live in informal settlements, according to UN-Habitat , the organizer of the event, which concluded last week in the Malaysian capital. According to various estimates, one in four city dwellers is in an area lacking basic services, and the majority of all new housing worldwide is technically built illegally.

Today, readers on the culture, psychology, and politics of regulating guns. Really, pay attention to Australia—white-male privilege and all. Several previous messages have referred to Australia’s modern experience with guns. In short: After the mass-casualty “Port Arthur massacre” of 1996, a conservative government (technically, the Liberal party) changed gun policy, and since then Australia has had its share of gun violence but no remotely comparable massacres. By contrast, the five...

One of the most common reasons patients head to an emergency room is pain. In response, doctors may try something simple at first, like ibuprofen or acetaminophen. If that wasn’t effective, the second line of defense has been the big guns. “Percocet or Vicodin,” explained ER doctor Peter Bakes of Swedish Medical Center, “medications that certainly have contributed to the rising opioid epidemic.” Now, though, physicians are looking for alternatives to help cut opioid use and curtail potential...

Adults who were emotionally neglected in childhood can be quite perfectionistic and hard on themselves. But for many, it does not stop there. Why? Because the messages of Childhood Emotional Neglect run deep. They go to the heart of the child, and stay with him for a lifetime. They not only damage his ability to understand and trust his own feelings, they damage his ability to understand and trust himself. The messages of CEN are like invisible infusions of guilt and shame that happen every...

The City of Philadelphia will begin testing trauma-informed facilities as an alternative to holding cells for arrested youth. Those facilities, which will be “child-centered” and “service-oriented,” will be funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies’ 2018 Mayors Challenge. Philadelphia’s city-led social enterprise incubator FastFWD was funded by way of the Mayors Challenge in 2013. The 35 finalists for the 2018 challenge have received grants of “up to $100,000” to test public prototypes of their...

When a child's flight-or-fight response is activated too often, from abuse, neglect or parental addiction, it can change the structure of a developing brain. It's called toxic stress, and pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris believes every medical professional in the country needs to be equipped with screening tools. She offers her humble opinion on giving every child a shot at a healthy life. [For more of this story go to ...

I had a conversation with an elementary principal from Florida while I was in WA DC last week that has been haunting me. This amazing principal and her staff came together to become a trauma informed school. Why? Because they saw their students’ pain and wanted to create a nurturing, safe, and loving school culture.... Days before coming to the Trauma Sensitive School Conference, she and her staff were notified by the State of Florida Education Office that the entire staff was going to be...

YOU ARE INVITED TO JOIN IN ACTION PLANNING TO SUSTAIN ADVERSE CHILD EXPEREINCES (ACE) WORK IN THE COMMUNITY and SCHOOLS On September 22 nd , a group of community members and organization leaders attended a presentation of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE). The September presentation was the just beginning of a journey to raise awareness about ACEs, support the development of resilience and ultimately engage individuals in community transformation in the northwest suburbs of Hennepin...

A new study of race and school discipline in California counties has revealed that the black male student suspension rate decreased 5 percent between the 2011-2012 and 2016-2017 school years—from 17.8 percent of all black boys to 12.8 percent. Racial disparities remain intact, however. Black boys’ 12.8 percent suspension rate during the last school year was more than 3.5 times the rate of the CA public school population as a whole (3.6 percent), according to the report, which was created in...

LAWRENCE — Excess stress is hazardous to everyone. But for infants and toddlers facing toxic stress due to traumatic and adverse events or living situations, it can mean stunted growth, behavioral challenges, struggles in school and troubled adulthood. University of Kansas researchers are part of a grant project that is implementing an intervention throughout the state to help families in adverse situations nurture their children to prevent such problems, all of which can help children be...

“Our society has treated the abuse, maltreatment, violence, and chaotic experiences of our children as an oddity that is adequately dealt with by emergency response systems… These services are needed and are worthy of support—but they are a dressing on a greater wound… Later, in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood [affected persons will develop] behavioral, learning, social, criminal, and chronic health problems.” This is the assessment of Dr. Robert Anda, M.D., one of the principal...

There I was standing at the front of a class filled with trouble makers. The principal asked me to teach the “worst of the worst” students. He asked me to help the students overcome disruptive behavior, angry outbursts, and low academic performance. These were “at risk” kids at an alternative high school. As the students entered the classroom they behaved exactly as I expected. Noisy and disruptive, I knew had my hands full. The bell rang to begin class. Did they become quiet, fold their...