Blog

This isn’t Thomas DiSilvestre’s first stint in prison. At 23 years of age, he’s already been inside New York’s Rikers Island and the Ulster Correctional Facility for felony drug charges. His arms are scarred, and his almond-shaped eyes are downcast on the table in front of him. “You have to always worry about people running around, cutting you,” he says, talking about his previous times in prison. “You don’t feel safe.” DiSilvestre is incarcerated again. In May 2016, he was caught breaking...

My tribe sees life within the frame of seven generations: The current generation is shaped by the experience of people three generations before and tasked with setting the course for three generations to come. That’s why I summoned the stamina needed to paddle a canoe for eight days last summer in a tradition that binds our generations. I joined thousands of men, women, teens and children from my tribe— Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe —as well as our neighbors from the Chinook Indian Nation, to...

John Schmid of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in his piece “A Time to Heal” , explores generational trauma in Milwaukee, the nation’s third most impoverished big city. The article consolidates information from local, state, and national data on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), interviews, U.S. Census data, and statistical consultation. In 1970, Milwaukee was an upcoming industrial city with a low poverty rate. However, industrial decline and a population decrease increased the poverty...

Emily Clary is responsible for helping develop and coordinate the ACE Interface training and Self-Healing Communities partnership with the Children’s Mental Health and Family Services Collaboratives across the state. Emily holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree in Sociology from Beloit College. Emily is deeply committed to sharing research about Adverse Childhood Experiences and...

Regional ACE Training Coordinator- Southwest MN Job Profile and Reporting Relationships The Regional ACE Training Coordinator is responsible for coordinating the organization’s ACE Interface training and Self-Healing Communities program partnership with Family Service Collaboratives and Children’s Mental Health Collaboratives in their region in coordination with the Director of ACE Collaborative Partnerships. This position plays a key network weaving role in the learning community approach...

AP is now on Pinterest! Visit https://www.pinterest.com/davooley/advancing-parenting/ to see what we've been up to. Parenting tips on cars will be read 1000s of times by 1000s of people. At stoplights you can watch in the rearview mirror and see drivers reading the tip. They point, smile, nod, and give thumbs-up. If there are passengers in the car conversations start up and I've lost count the number of times phones are pulled out to take a pic of the tip. Our plan is to 1) eventually...

Thinking much about Chester Bennington's passing, the links between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) and later substance abuse and mental illness, and the intersections of mental illness and creativity. For those unfamiliar with him, Chester was the lead singer for Linkin Park . Chester committed suicide by hanging on July 20th, on what would have been the 53rd birthday of his dear friend, Chris Cornell , lead singer of the group Soundgarden. Chester battled depression most of his life...

Childhood adversity comes in different forms. When Katie McLaughlin, director of the Stress and Development Lab at the University of Washington, talks about stress and early childhood development, she brings up two different fictional children: One who faces the constant threat of violence at home, and one who is neglected. [For more of this article by Katharine Gammon, visit: https://www.centerforhealthjou...amp;utm_medium=email ]

There is a an old story dating approximately 4,000 years ago about how God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Issac on an altar. Abraham and his wife Sarah waited decades for their only son together and since human sacrifice was prohibited, this request seemed unusual. The story talks of the faith that Abraham had as he placed his son on the altar only to find that God had given him a lamb in replacement. With great relief, the lamb was sacrificed instead. [For more of this story, written by...

It’s been a busy five years for Ava DuVernay. Since winning the Best Director Award at Sundance Film Festival in 2012, she has accrued many “firsts”: becoming the first black female director to have a movie (Selma) nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and now to helm a film with a $100 million budget (Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time). DuVernay’s work goes beyond feature movies, to include 13th, the award-winning documentary on mass incarceration, a...

Compared to whites, African Americans are more likely to suffer from a constellation of health problems referred to as “cardiovascular and metabolic diseases:” high blood pressure , diabetes , and stroke. Things like diet, exercise, and smoking contribute to those conditions, but when researchers control for those behaviors, the disparity persists. Now scientists are examining an unexpected factor that could be driving these disparities in heart disease: sleep. [For more of this story,...

The Chronicle of Social Change is highlighting each of the policy recommendations made this summer by the participants of the Foster Youth Internship Program (FYI), a group of 12 former foster youths who have completed congressional internships. The program is overseen each summer by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. Each of the FYI participants crafted a policy recommendation during their time in Washington, D.C. Today we highlight the recommendation of Justin Abbasi, a...