Blog

By Marisa Iati, Steven Rich, and Jennifer Jenkins, Photo: Katherine Frey/The Washington Post, The Washington Post, February 9, 2022 Police shot and killed at least 1,055 people nationwide last year, the highest total since The Washington Post began tracking fatal shootings by officers in 2015 — underscoring the difficulty of reducing such incidents despite sustained public attention to the issue. The new count is up from 1,021 shootings the previous year and 999 in 2019. The total comes amid...

By Dan Parks, Photo: 510 Media, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, February 10, 2022 The Hidden Genius Project, which trains and mentors Black boys and teenagers about technology careers, entrepreneurship, and leadership skills, was at a crucial point in 2015. The small Oakland, Calif., charity was seeing rapid growth in the number of volunteers who wanted to participate, and it was ready to hire paid staff so it could expand its operations. It needed money. Its timing was fortuitous. It was...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AZZtR3fQhvg&fbclid=IwAR2WjjMn1RtbGZRWLBBI_eZNS_kPoLlJC14It2aJXsRNjRHqq-pgkX1EGdw

Hello! Rural Opportunity Institute (ROI) just wrapped up our first cohort of the Resilient Leaders Initiative , a 9-month program that supported 5 local organizations to pilot trauma-informed practices. This was the first social accelerator program model to that is: -focused on public agencies (not startups) -rooted in a rural community -supporting orgs on piloting trauma-informed practices Click here for the in-depth press release. Click here for a 2-page summary of outcomes. Thank you to...

By Jesse C. Baumgartner and Laurie Zephyrin, Photo: John Moore/Getty Images, The Commonwealth Fund, February 2, 2022 The Affordable Care Act (ACA) led to historic insurance coverage gains and reduced racial and ethnic disparities, but our recent scorecard report on racial health equity shows that large gaps remain in nearly every state. Black and Latino/Hispanic people, along with American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) people, are much less likely than white people to have health insurance.

By Lisa A. Gennetian, Christina Gibson-Davis, and Lisa A. Keister, Image: from study, EconoFact, January 20, 2022 The Issue: Research and policies aimed at addressing poverty tend to focus on family income. Yet, the future financial resilience of U.S. households with children will be shaped not only by the income they earn but also by their wealth holdings. Wealth is a critical resource that enables households to deal with unexpected economic shocks — including recent experiences of job loss...

By Pam Jarvis, Photo: Runar Pederson Holkestad/Creative Commons, Yorkshire Bylines, January 30, 2022 As time goes by we see more and more initiatives funnelled into education to ‘close the gap’ between children who live in families with incomes that place them into the ‘disadvantaged’ category. Yet again and again we find that very modest returns leave politicians disappointed. Instead, we should be looking at the environments that children inhabit before they even enter the school gates.

By Mary Ann Wolf, Image: WRAL, WRAL, February 8, 2022 As we continue our focus on the whole child and student mental health, it is important for us to consider how a child’s experiences affect their brain and their behavior. When I think back to teaching two decades ago, the research about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) had not yet come out. I remember some of the behavioral challenges. I often wonder about how I may have been able to support my students differently and more...

By Kristin Toussaint, Image: iStock/Getty Images Plus, Fast Company, February 8, 2022 For many Americans, benefits like expanded unemployment, stimulus checks, and child tax credits were crucial for staying afloat during the pandemic. But those benefits weren’t available to everyone: Undocumented and mixed immigration status families were often excluded from that assistance, or failed to receive the benefits even when they were eligible . Now, a new guaranteed basic income pilot and study in...

Has the pandemic stressed you out? Want to learn the self-soothing skills of Mind Matters: Overcoming Adversity and Building Resilience directly from the author, Dr. Carolyn Curtis? Good news! The Dibble Institute has received generous funding for scholarships to the online, full 12-lesson series, Mind Matters Now . The course helps teachers, social workers, medical professionals, and others manage their stress by building resilience skills and practices for mental well-being. (CEU’s are...

Thanksgiving is upon us and with it comes people sharing a meal and discussing how grateful they are for their lives and their loved ones. However, it is vital to understand that not everyone is grateful, but they feel pain in its place. This article will explore a different approach to gratitude that is trauma-sensitive. Thanksgiving Rubbish Too often survivors of complex trauma are bombarded during the Thanksgiving season with advertisements and other media about how they should be...

By Abigail Higgins, Image: iStock/Washington Post Illustration, The Washington Post, February 8, 2022 Ahead of Super Bowl LVI on Sunday, the city of Los Angeles has been taking the usual steps to prepare to host the event: painting the field at SoFi Stadium, setting up equipment for the halftime show. As part of that effort, there have been campaigns to stop human trafficking: Last month, signs started popping up in hundreds of Los Angeles airport bathrooms ; and solemn video messages from...