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Elena was 11 years old when a gang member in her home country, Honduras, told her to be his girlfriend. “I had to say yes,” Elena, now 14, explained. “If I had said no, they would have killed my entire family.” Elena knew the risks because one of her friends, Jenesis, was also asked to be a gang member’s girlfriend, and declined. Elena happened to see the aftermath, as Jenesis staggered naked and bleeding away from gang members. “She had been raped and shot in the stomach,” Elena recalled in...

After we thought Uber had killed it , stranger danger is back again, and in an unlikely form. Pokémon Go is well on its way to being the most successful augmented-reality application, especially among kids, but adults like it too — because it is obviously awesome . Yet some parents have blanched at the idea of theirs kids wandering the streets hunting for an Oddish, often alongside childless grown-ups hunting for the same creature. It’s easy to imagine defenseless youngsters, their heads in...

This is one necessary and important contribution written by Dawn Daum. When I became a new mother, I was prepared for a lot—but nobody told me that parenting when you have experienced childhood abuse can feel like walking back into a war zone as a soldier with PTSD. Before becoming a mother, I could physically re-shift focus away from what was triggering me—take a walk, journal, call a friend, distract myself with music. Once a parent, I could no longer rely on old methods, no matter how...

When a foster youth encounters a psychiatrist, chances are high that s/he will get medicated. Traumatized foster youth are often prescribed powerful psychotropics due to exhibiting a wide variety of “normal reactions to abnormal events”, such as despair, agitation, anxiety and self-harm. The practice has been well documented; foster children are prescribed psychotropics at a 2.7 to 4.5 times higher rate than non-foster youth[1]. The National Center for Youth Law aptly summarizes the problem...

My name is Kelley. I remember having my first suicidal thought at the age of 13. At that time, I had discovered that my brother was gay and my sister and father completely abandoned him just because he was gay. I had been molested by a female when I was young and this information about my brother made me wonder if I was going to be gay, too. At the time, I had no clue how a person became gay. I went on to have tragedy after tragedy strike in my life. To name just a few, I have lost two...

Working out has become synonymous with weight loss or maintenance. That is, we assume that people only work out — that we should work out — to lose weight or to maintain our weight. This is often why exercise is thought of as a chore. As a necessary evil. As a punishment for eating dessert or consuming too many carbs or fat grams. As a way to burn calories. And nothing else. No wonder many of us don’t want to do it. Our days are busy as it is. We have so many responsibilities as it is. Why...

Over the past two years, the Center for Youth Wellness and H2O productions , (based at Leadership High School in San Francisco) have worked in partnership to implement a research study on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) that utilizes principles of community based participatory research (CBPR). CBPR is a framework of research that emphasizes collaboration among partners and highlights the voice of community in identifying research topics of interest and solutions to resolve identified...

In April, a safety net unraveled for hundreds of thousands of Americans when a federal provision linking food assistance to a work requirement eliminated many people’s access to supplemental nutrition assistance (SNAP) benefits. Since the provision came into effect on April 1, SNAP participation rates have dramatically decreased. New data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show that, in April alone, SNAP participation declined by 773,000 people—the largest single-month drop, according...

Are we all born with a stable, unchanging level of intelligence? Or can we grow smarter through study and hard work? New research from South America suggests a student’s answer to that question can hugely impact how well they do in school — particularly if they come from poverty. “Students’ mindsets may temper, or exacerbate, the effects of economic disadvantage,” a group of researchers led by Susana Claro of Stanford University writes in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Mothers feel attacked. By friends, strangers, family, media, doctors. Any time something goes wrong with her child — an accident, bad behavior, illness— the mother is to blame. She feels constantly scrutinized while she’s pregnant. Are you really going to have that cup of coffee? Shouldn’t you be resting? Aren’t you worried about the baby? And even before conception, a potential mother is bombarded by all kinds of pressures — are you too old, are you too young, are you good enough? And yet,...

I started my career as a preschool teacher. For 13 years, I helped 3- to 5-year-old children learn how to write their name; count, sort and use other foundational math concepts; manage their toileting and dressing independently; and meet other easily-observable school-readiness milestones. The children were flourishing, and their families were delighted with their achievements! But woven throughout the multi-faceted learning experiences supporting cognitive, language, physical, and self-help...

An act of gratitude is a living whole. In any process, we can distinguish a beginning, a middle, and an end. To be awake, aware, and alert are the beginning, middle, and end of gratitude. Step One: Wake Up To begin with, we never start to be grateful unless we wake up. Wake up to what? To surprise. As long as nothing surprises us, we walk through life in a daze. Step Two: Be Aware of Opportunities You will find that most of the time, the opportunity that a given moment offers you is an...