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AT THE OLDEST WOMEN’S PRISON IN THE U.S., on the west side of Indianapolis, Vanessa Thompson sat on a bunk in her cell, watching television. It was early 2015, the seventeenth year of her incarceration. On TV, then-mayoral candidate Joe Hogsett was talking about a stubborn Indianapolis problem: 10,000 abandoned houses and lots , a remnant of factory closures and the mortgage crisis. Suddenly, Thompson had an idea, a way to redeem all those valueless homes while opening a door for prisoners...

My wife Janet and I voluntarily evacuated our house in Santa Rosa, California, at 4 a.m. on October 10. We live just outside a mandatory evacuation zone, but we opted to retreat from the wildfires raging nearby when we saw a bright orange glow on the horizon and a billowing plume of black smoke—both apparently headed our way. That morning, we bundled our four sleepy hens into the back of our car and drove to the closest evacuation shelter. We were able to return home late that same day.

A new report from UNICEF says that violence against children knows no boundaries. Among the statistics that back up that statement: Approximately 300 million children around the world between the ages two and four are subject to physical punishment or verbal abuse from their parents or caregivers. Every seven minutes, an adolescent is murdered. By the time they reach age 19, fifteen million girls have already experienced forced sexual acts, including rape — inflicted, for the most part, by...

Maintaining positive, warm and trusting friendships might be the key to a slower decline in memory and cognitive functioning, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study. SuperAgers—who are 80 years of age and older who have cognitive ability at least as good as people in their 50s or 60s—reported having more satisfying, high-quality relationships compared to their cognitively average, same-age peers, the study reports. Previous SuperAger research at the Cognitive Neurology and...

“In order to truly reach overdose survivors, we need a much better understanding of who they are and the many challenges they face when they seek care." Childhood suffering has been linked to a higher risk for both mental and physical health problems including heart disease, stroke, and depression. An Indianapolis outreach program geared toward opioid OD survivors who end up in the emergency room studied this phenomenon, by asking patients about their childhood experiences. [For more on this...

Study: bullying-prevention programs increase bullying link below) http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/study-schools-bullying-prevention-programs-have-more-bullying

On Sunday’s 60 Minutes broadcast Oprah Winfrey reported on the use of solitary confinement in American prisons. She talked about how California is leading the way to reform of the practice, with changes in the state’s Pelican Bay Prison, which Winfrey called the most notorious state penitentiary in America. It is a story that is very much worth watching. “Designed and built as a ‘supermax’ facility,” Oprah began, referring to the 1989-constructed prison, “it’s been used for nearly 30 years...

In order to attend her 8 a.m. class at Northampton Community College in Tannersville, Pennsylvania, Joeann Gerard must take the 7:30 a.m. bus with her four-year-old daughter, Jelena. Upon arrival, Joeann, a 38-year-old business management student, drops Jelena off at Northampton's Hannig Family Children's Center, a childcare facility with an art-based curriculum that fosters cognitive, physical, and social/emotional growth, and creative expression for children from six weeks old to...

This story is part of a project The Hechinger Report did in collaboration with the local public radio station WWNO in New Orleans. The project reported on the traumatic experiences many young children in New Orleans are dealing with at home, and how some schools are turning to trauma-informed teaching to better serve these students. One of the students interviewed for the project was Sherlae, a 13-year-old student at Lawrence D. Crocker College Prep coping with a family mental-health crisis.

Moving past life's disappointments is not an easy task. It is easy to get stuck in regrets. This article is about getting unstuck.

"I'm not sure I like that metaphor!" Nathalie exclaimed. "I don't want to be burned at the stake!" I had just compared Nathalie to Joan of Arc, the symbol - for me - of the person willing to trust their inspired vision "against all odds," the person not fazed by the prospect of being considered crazy if it can just help to advance awareness of a new reality about which the general population is only dimly aware. Nathalie Casso-Vicarini is the creative genius behind France's Early...

This isn’t your average school year. There are politicians and media personalities who are fanning the flames of racial hatred, their words seeping out to kids through the news. Educators are grappling with the aftermath of Charlottesville, and we have undocumented students who feel threatened by anti-immigrant policies coming from state capitols and Washington, D.C. I asked teachers on Facebook, “What sorts of conversations around race have you been witnessing (or facilitating) at school...