Blog

Please join us this Friday, July 17th as we speak with @Rebecca Lewis-Pankratz for our next A Better Normal discussion at 3p.m. EST. This conversation, hosted by @Cissy White (ACEs Connection Staff) and moderated by @Alison Cebulla (ACEs Connection Staff) will be about building community, ending poverty, and and parenting with ACEs. Rebecca will share her personal story as well as her work with families, schools, and communities. Click here to register. About Rebecca's Lewis-Pankratz (in her...

Please welcome the following five communities to ACEs Connection. The Rainbow Resilience Connection of LGBTQ+Survivors Details about each one of these communities can be found below. The Rainbow Resilience Connection of LGBTQ+Survivors: Welcome! This group is for anyone who identifies as part of the LGBTQ+ Community or who supports the community. Community Managers: @Jenna Quinn (ACEs Connection Staff) and @Mary Giuliani ACEs Connection Community Facilitators For questions about starting or...

By Sara Gottfried, Dr. Sara Gottfried MD, July 13, 2020 I take respectful care of my patients regardless of skin color, but in the past few years, I’ve realized that is not enough. There are many sources of information that have influenced me. Conversations, particularly a recent interview with integrative physician Andrea Pennington MD. Books, mentioned in this article, including How to Be an Antiracist by Boston University Professor Ibram X. Kendi and founder of the Antiracism Center for...

From Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, July 2020 The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Culture of Health Prize (the Prize) elevates the compelling stories of places where residents are working together to transform education, jobs, transportation, housing, and more so better health flourishes for all. A Culture of Health recognizes that where we live—such as our access to affordable homes, quality schools, good jobs, and reliable transportation—affects how long and how well we live.

By Brianna M. Harvey and Kenyon Lee Whitman, The Chronicle of Social Change, July 8, 2020 The current Black Lives Matter uprisings have the nation activated. Many white people are now realizing police brutality and how it disproportionately impacts Black people. As of June 10, five of the 10 books on the New York Times nonfiction best-selling list were books on racial and social justice, signaling that people are beginning to engage with what Black people have been trying to survive since...

By Camille R. Quinn, Elan C. Hope, and Qiana R. Cryer-Coupet, Housin Matters, July 8, 2020 Research only recently began to explore experiences that shape communities’ perceptions of police (PDF), but in the wake of the recent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, Tony McDade, and others, the topic has been thrust into the national conversation. Adding to the emerging body of research, this study investigated how neighborhood cohesion (trust and feelings of belonging...

By Dan Barry, The New York Times, July 12, 2020 An essential worker drove his cluttered Toyota Corolla through the early spring emptiness, past a sign outside a closed parochial school asking people to pray. Time to bear witness in a pandemic. He pulled up to the closed Lower Pottsgrove Elementary School, where masked employees were distributing bags and boxes of food. Dozens of cars waited in line for curbside pickup, many with children eager to spot their teachers. In the global context of...

As we endure the pain of lost loved ones, manage the anxiety of financial insecurity and potentially fret over becoming ill, it is a brilliant time for change in our country and around the world. There is a special kind of racist exclusion in America. When I took my young son to live in India, initially, he struggled everyday on the bus to school. There was a lot of hazing and bullying from older students. I remember him begging me to please take him to school in a rickshaw so that he didn’t...

By Aaron Shroyer, Housing Matters, July 8, 2020 Manufactured housing is one of the most affordable homeownership options available and is one potential solution to the nation’s affordable housing crisis. The per square foot cost of producing a manufactured home is less than half the cost of constructing comparable stick-built, single-family detached homes because of greater supply-chain flexibility, regulatory consistency, and lower on-site labor costs. This puts manufactured-housing...

By David Sirota, Too Much Information, July 9, 2020 The next time you hear conservative politicians insist they want “law and order,” hate “looting” and believe America can’t afford new government programs, show them two landmark reports that emerged in the last 24 hours. The data in those analyses tell the story of conservative politicians letting billionaires and corporations brazenly evade laws and effectively loot hundreds of billions of dollars from the public treasury — all while those...

Visit the Voices for Virginia's Children blog to learn more about the upcoming Racial Truth and Reconciliation Week! Artists and activists are encouraged to submit pieces that address cultural, historical, and racial trauma in addition to the embedded themes of community resilience, truth, reconciliation, and justice. Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities is increasingly called upon to help schools, businesses, and communities across Virginia achieve success through inclusion. Take a...

Ayana Bradshaw, MPH is the Administrative Director for the Center for Injury Research and Prevention (CIRP) and the Violence Prevention Initiative (VPI) at The Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia. In this capacity she oversees all financial, administrative, operational, managerial, human resources and strategic planning components of the Center. Ms. Bradshaw has over 20 years of experience in multiple facets of public health, including but not limited to developing community health...