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With the expert help of our new resource analyst and administrator, Emerald Montgomery , we’re in the initial stages of overhauling our outdated Resource Center. Here’s our idea: The new Resource Center will have basic information, such as lists of: — ACE studies and surveys besides the original CDC-Kaiser Permanente ACE Study (epidemiology of ACEs); — ACE surveys that have added questions to the basic 10-question ACE Study survey (epidemiology of ACEs); — ACEs/Trauma-Informed/Resilience...

The Juneau Suicide Prevention Coalition sponsored another Suicide Prevention Conference in Alaska's Capitol City. [ LINK HERE ] I spoke at one of the first conferences years ago. I was fortunate to attend part of last year's conference. I like to see what progress is being made in disseminating information about the ACE Study. This particular conference looked like it might have some reach because a prominent Alaska Native Politician came out and spoke about the trauma his family experienced...

The stallion kicked out, nostrils flaring. In the ring, it faced off against a 32-year-old former infantryman. Months ago, Mitchell Reno was sitting in a hotel room with a half-gallon of vodka and dark plans. But this April afternoon found him serenely still as a stallion kicked up sawdust in an arena in Poplar Grove. Slashes across the horse's heaving belly and back revealed fights in the Wyoming wild. The horse zeroed in on Reno, who wrestles with PTSD and knows a thing or two about scars,...

I do not remember much of Muhammad Ali’s life firsthand. The sharpest memories that come to me are of the middle-aged man, slowed and bowed by a crippling disease, who lit the flame at the ‘96 Olympics in Atlanta. Part of my life has been spent watching Ali’s in reverse; watching his godlike physique and hellfire oratory return, trying to figure out just how the figure of dignified defiance, one whom my elders treated with utmost deference, had been forged. The photograph of his stunning...

The Second Chance Society, 1.0 and 2.0, are very important and reminiscent of Connecticut’s progressive nature. But, as a policy analyst for a nonprofit in Hartford whose agency has strongly supported this legislation, I’m becoming increasingly concerned as to why children with incarcerated parents have not been included in either version of this legislation. As of April 1, 2016, 54 percent of those currently incarcerated reported being a caregiver. Over 75 percent of those with an...

Concordia Parish extends tall and narrow along the Mississippi River, where the ankle of Louisiana meets the instep. Almost one-third of its 20,000 residents live below the federal poverty line. Strip malls dominate Vidalia, the parish seat. Smaller satellite towns are home to Pentecostal mega-churches, defunct gas stations, and tin-sided shacks selling crawfish for $2 a pound. State highways run through low fields once flush with cotton that was picked by slaves and sold across the river to...

They lean unsteadily on canes and walkers, or roll along the sidewalks of Skid Row here in beat-up wheelchairs, past soiled sleeping bags, swaying tents and piles of garbage. They wander the streets in tattered winter coats, even in the warmth of spring. They worry about the illnesses of age and how they will approach death without the help of children who long ago drifted from their lives. “It’s hard when you get older,” said Ken Sylvas, 65, who has struggled with alcoholism and has not...

For years, Gov. Jerry Brown has resisted efforts to spend more money to build affordable housing. As part of his revised budget released Friday , Brown announced what he said was a better solution: making it easier to build homes for low-income residents. In a new package of legislation, Brown is proposing to streamline the permitting process for developers building affordable homes. “Hopefully, the supply is going to bring down the cost,” Brown said. “Otherwise, through subsidies and...

Howard French has an interesting piece in The Guardian tackling “the enduring whiteness of American media.” French’s claim is two-fold: 1.) Big media organizations have failed to produce a staff that looks like the larger country. 2.) Big media has failed black journalists, specifically, by siloing them in “stereotypical roles—sport, entertainment and especially what is euphemistically called urban affairs.” These twin effects, according to French, “strongly but silently [condition] how...

Closing the so-called achievement gap between poor inner-city children and their more affluent suburban counterparts is among the biggest challenges for education reformers. The success of some schools’ efforts suggests that meditation might significantly improve children’s school performance – and help close that gap. In 2007, James Dierke, then the principal of the Visitacion Valley Middle School in a troubled neighborhood in San Francisco, was determined to improve both the quality of...

For several years, she wrote about her bipolar disorder under a pseudonym. She described how she’d been hospitalized four times, twice since her first child was born. She explained how she went off her medication during both of her pregnancies and how each time — once as the mother of a newborn and then again weeks into her second pregnancy — she was escorted from her home in police handcuffs, defiant. She blogged to connect and reach other mothers grappling with mental illness. Ultimately,...

Soon after having an honest conversation about sex with a male friend of hers last year, she started hearing him whispering “dirty slut” or “I know you want it” to her in math class. This year another male friend repeatedly tried to touch her armpit hair and asked if her boyfriend licked it. The 17-year-old New York City student said she felt very uncomfortable during these encounters but didn’t tell her teachers because she wasn’t sure if it was a big deal and she was worried that it would...