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This powerful ballad speaks to a young man's journey away from an abusive home environment and into an adult role with a group of cowboys. This in the tradition of late 19th century "pathetic" ballads such as "After the Ball".

The Hopi Elders Prayer from Oraibi, Arizona inspires us to look within ourselves to find new ways to live harmoniously with our brothers and sisters. We're asked to find those of like mind and heart spirit, and then jump in the river and celebrate! Join Elaine M. Whitefeather, CEO of A Community For Peace and pastor at Faith In Action Community Church, as she shows how we've been positioned and placed for such a time as this. Elaine stresses that we should stop waiting for others to join us.

ACEs, Adversity's Impact Social isolation, loneliness could be greater threat to public health than obesity Gamblers more likely to have suffered childhood traumas Courts, Juvenile Justice, Corrections, and Probation Solitary confinement of youth used frequently, unfairly, new report says Tear down the juvenile jails; they make bad situations worse People with mental illness reoffend less if on specialty probation Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Molecular link between post-traumatic stress...

A tip of the hat to Mary Crnobori, who posted this video in the Nashville community page on ACEs Connection.

For the past several years, three residents of St. Andrew’s Court, a halfway house on Chicago’s west side, have waited patiently for a spot in Chicago’s public housing system. Bobby Flowers, Jimmy Edwards*, and John Stamps are among the nearly 282,000 Chicagoans who registered for affordable housing assistance when the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) waitlist last opened in November 2014. In past waitlist cycles, these men would not have had a shot at CHA housing because all three are...

When voters elected Donald Trump, they knew that he lacked governing experience. But many felt an outsider was needed to shake up a failed status quo. The calculation was especially understandable for folks hit hardest by the opioid epidemic. Under the status quo, they saw addiction and death ravaging their communities. Why wouldn’t they favor radical change ? But President Trump hasn’t brought an outsider’s perspective to the opiate crisis. He hasn’t challenged the entrenched assumptions of...

A project in the San Diego County area is demonstrating once again that urban farming at the neighborhood level offers a host of benefits, from individuals to communities. The nonprofit San Diego Housing Corp. and a group of university nursing students have set up a community garden near the Torrey Apartments in El Cajon. Herbs, vegetables, and citrus trees have sprung up in garden boxes in a formerly neglected spot. The produce will add to the diets of the more than 200 residents of the...

When Kendra Nelson was in labor with her second child, small gestures from a doula helped her get through the strongest and most painful contractions. The woman held Nelson’s hand and spoke words of encouragement. She guided Nelson through breathing exercises and pulled her hair back in a scrunchie to keep her comfortable. [For more of this story, written by Andrea K. McDaniels, go to http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/bs-hs-doula-infant-mortality-20170725-story.html]

A New Hampshire organization believes that early intervention is the key to dealing with the state's opioid crisis. More than 140 people have died this year from drug overdoses in New Hampshire. Officials said children are on the front line of the crisis. "More children are experiencing stress in the home," Manchester Police Chief Nick Willard said. "They are seeing trauma every day. I have seen it personally, being out on the street with the officers." Willard said that last year, New...

No matter what the premise of anything called Ten Little Indians, it is all based on death, murder or genocide, and in the end the Indians are all going to die. Right? And it’s just a game, isn’t it? Something that children play, so why change it or argue over it? It’s so innocent. Right? As originally outlined in an opinion piece by Julianne Jennings , the rhyme was written by noted American songwriter Septimus Winner in 1864 (or 1868) and performed at minstrel shows. It was then adapted in...

The number of young people suffering from depression has increased almost 40 percent in the last three years. And, as the Hamilton Southeastern School District has found, mental health issues are hardly limited to teens. After the city of Fishers, an Indianapolis suburb of about 90,000, had 13 suicides in 2016, city officials launched a campaign to destigmatize mental health issues—including in the school system. Last year, Hamilton schools passed a referendum to provide mental health...

When Paula Gosal took over as principal of the Chilliwack Middle School, she walked smack into the middle of a long-standing debate among the staff over awards. It wasn’t exactly a rumble that Gosal was tossed into so abruptly in the fall of 2016. Most of the teachers at this school for seventh- through ninth-graders in British Columbia had read the literature on awards, and were looking for feedback and support from their new principal. The majority wanted to do away with the school’s...