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By Tyler Kepner, The New York Times, August 29, 2021 Roberto Clemente won two championships with the Pittsburgh Pirates, one when he was young and the other near the end of his brief life. For the first, in 1960, everyone else on the World Series roster was white, except for two teammates at the end of the bench. The second roster, in 1971, was much different. Fifty years ago on Wednesday — about a month before the start of a postseason he would make his own — Clemente found himself batting...

In August 2021, the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare officially added the Attitudes Related to Trauma-Informed Care (ARTIC) Scale to their list of evidence-based measurement tools for child welfare. The ARTIC Scale received an assessment rating of “ A – Psychometrics Well-Demonstrated ,” the highest rating offered by the CEBC. Read more

When thinking about the start of yet another unpredictable and unprecedented school year, the word that keeps repeating itself in my head is “grace.” The dictionary defines grace as “a disposition to or an act or instance of kindness, courtesy, or clemency.” Kindness, compassion, lenience, and mercy. Grace for the educators and all student support staff, grace for our administrators. Grace for our youth, grace for our families, grace for the school board members and policy makers. Our own...

From International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, August 2021 As human beings, our physical and mental health cannot be separated from the environments in which we live. Climate change, if left unaddressed, is projected to have catastrophic consequences on the mental health of entire populations. This ISTSS Friday Fast Facts series will feature ISTSS’ recent work to highlight the intersections among global climate change and trauma. Look for new materials every Friday in August 2021.

By Sara Darnell, Children's Book Association, July 20, 2021 Psychologists everywhere have noticed an uptick in children experiencing anxiety, stress, confusion, and other issues that have come as a result of 2020. We should note that these are completely normal things for children to experience, but what is the best way to work through these feelings? Many psychologists have turned to children's books to teach young readers how to deal with their emotions. [ Please click here to see the list .]

It might seem odd that President Theodore Roosevelt, who was described as “aggressive,” ”over-engined” and had a talent for delivering insults, would be hailed as a proponent of nurturing relationships. But that’s exactly how Dr. Andrew Garner referenced him in describing a paradigm shift in policy by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). “They don’t care what you know until they know that you care,’” said Garner, referring to a quote often attributed to Roosevelt. Garner , who is a...

I wrote this opinion piece after reading recent articles on a media site here in the Cayman Islands discussing the findings of the recent Education Data Report 2020 which implied that responsibility for the state of student progress falls on the public schools they attend. I noted that one needed to know about the students involved and their life circumstances including the numbers of ACEs they had experienced to be able to better understand why their progress was as it was and more...

ICYMI: Social Responsibility Symposium On-Demand Registration Open Now - Sept 10

By Michelle Robertson, SF Gate, August 17, 2021 One thousand two hundred and seventy. It’s a number Felisia Thibodeaux can list off the top of her head. That’s because it's the number of people she has gotten vaccinated by direct referral so far — and the number keeps growing. Thibodeaux is the executive director of the Southwest Community Corporation, which operates out of the I.T. Bookman Community Center in San Francisco’s Ingleside Heights. Before the pandemic, Thibodeaux’s job entailed...

By Selena Simmons-Duffin and Rhitu Chatterjee, National Public Radio, August 27, 2021 As students head back into another pandemic school year, the Biden administration has announced nearly $85 million in funding for mental health awareness, training, and treatment. The funding includes $10.7 million in American Rescue Plan funds from the Health Resources and Services Administration for the Pediatric Mental Health Care Access Program, which trains primary care providers to treat and refer...

By Christina Caron, The New York Times, August 23, 2021 By the time Ben Ballman reached his junior year in high school he was busier — and more anxious — than he had ever been. “I had moments where it felt like the whole world was coming down on me,” he said. “It was definitely a really difficult time.” Before the pandemic shut everything down, his day started at 6:30 a.m., when he woke up to get ready for school. Next came several Advanced Placement courses; then either soccer practice or...

By David Nakamura, The Washington Post, August 30, 2021 The number of hate crimes in the United States rose in 2020 to the highest level in 12 years, propelled by increasing assaults targeting Black and Asian victims, the FBI reported Monday. In all, the federal agency tallied 7,759 hate crimes last year, a tumultuous 12 months marked by a global pandemic, a divisive presidential election and upheaval in the economy. The total marked an increase of six percent from 2019 and the most since...