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Meranda Davis knows her daughter hasn’t always been an angel. Auto theft, assaults, wild tantrums in court left a judge little choice but to send the 15-year-old to Copper Lake School for Girls, one of Wisconsin’s two juvenile detention facilities. “If you choose to steal cars, you deserve to wind up in a juvenile jail. I know that,” Davis said Monday. “But nobody deserves to be treated the way they treat people in there.” That treatment, according to a federal lawsuit filed this week,...

That’s the mission of this privately funded nonprofit organization that established a multigenerational community on a former elementary school site in North Portland. The cluster of townhomes and apartments brings together low-income elders and nine adults who have adopted or are in the process of adopting children out of foster care through an organization that provides on-site services and creates a support network for all. Inspired by Hope Meadows, a similar development in Illinois,...

Over 80,000 children in Massachusetts suffer from asthma which, when left unmanaged, can dramatically impact overall health, limit school attendance and physical activity. In many cases, uncontrolled asthma symptoms lead to costly emergency room visits. Treating this problem on a large scale will take more than inhalers—it requires coordinated community action. Through the Massachusetts Prevention and Wellness Trust Fund (PWTF), Lynn, Worcester, Holyoke, and other cities have formed...

People’s past, present and future are interconnected, and so is our country’s. Being willing to consider the connection between historical trauma and present-day experiences and distress is essential on a personal level – and also on a national one, especially as we collectively work through the bruises of the recent campaign and election. Post the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the president of the U.S. last week, we must consider how historical trauma may be shaping reactions to this...

If there was any doubt about whether Donald Trump as president would pursue the truculent police culture he campaigned on, it was erased during his inaugural address on “ American carnage .” Soon after, all mentions of police reform on the White House’s website were replaced with new Trump-ian language decrying the “dangerous anti-police atmosphere in America.” Many people are fearfully awaiting what this will translate to on the ground under a Trump presidency. However, it’s important to...

Gentrification is the hottest of hot-button urban issues. Many activists and critics see it as essentially a process by which more affluent and educated white newcomers displace poorer, working-class black residents. But those who have studied the subject closely, like Columbia University urban planner Lance Freeman , believe that the issue of displacement is more myth than reality. In fact, Freeman’s detailed empirical research has found that the probability of a family being displaced by...

Obamacare’s days are numbered. That was the message of the executive order President Donald Trump signed Friday, instructing government agencies to “minimize the unwarranted economic and regulatory burdens of the [Affordable Care Act].” When I spoke with a handful of Trump supporters after the inauguration Friday, they said they eagerly awaited Obamacare’s end. Tanya, a woman from Virginia who was rolling a walker down I Street to the inaugural parade, said she was struggling with her $6,750...

Trustees with the Alameda Unified School District are expected to formally declare the district a “safe haven” for all students Tuesday, a move aimed at easing fears among parents and others that they may be targeted under the immigration policies of the Trump Administration. The resolution, which trustees initially considered Jan. 10 and broadly supported, says the district has an “unequivocal commitment to ensuring a safe educational environment for all.” It also reaffirms that...

The legacy of Southside St. Petersburg lives and dies by segregation. Jim Crow discrimination forced black residents into the area in the late 1800s and early 1900s. But, by the 1920s, the neighborhood that hate and separation had spawned near Central Florida’s Gulf Coast had flourished into a thriving oasis of art, music, food, and culture. In its prime, the Manhattan Casino, perched in the heart of the 22nd Street South business district and better known simply as “The Deuces” to locals,...

It's been one year since the premiere of RESILIENCE at Sundance, and since then we've screened at festival around the world and in hundreds of communities across the nation. RESILIENCE dives into the science of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the birth of a new movement to treat and prevent toxic stress. Now understood to be one of the leading causes of everything from heart disease and cancer to substance abuse and depression, extremely stressful experiences in childhood can alter...

Note: I know we don't all share the same politics. In this essay, I wrote for Elephant Journal about my own perspective about marching in Boston. I speak only for myself in this essay. I particularly appreciate those of you who have written to me privately, in the past, with political views quite different to share your thoughts and feelings. Those conversations are helpful and I value them in email or comments and remain open to considering things I don't know, feel or experience while...

Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF), the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS), and the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities (Alliance) are working collaboratively, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to identify and nationally disseminate best practices for partnership models to improve broad health outcomes by addressing both medical and social needs. This request for information (RFI) is specifically exploring partnerships between community-based organizations (CBOs)...