Blog

By Chloe Yang, Dr. Robert Sege, and Dr. Dina Burstein, 6/19/20, positiveexperience.org/blog The art above is “Fireworks At Oak Bluffs,” scratchboard, by Sonia Lynn Sadler . Only 154 years ago today, the last enslaved people in the United States were told they were free, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger issued the following order in Galveston, Texas: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a...

By Bill Moyers, Moyers on Democracy, June 17, 2020 Join us as Bill Moyers talks with Rev. James Forbes, a passionate advocate of celebrating Friday, June 19 as Juneteenth – the day in 1865 when the last of America’s slaves learned they were free. Because many states had refused to end slavery when President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation two and a half years earlier, it took that long before Union troops landed in Texas with news that the Civil War was over and the...

By Roberta Baker, The Laconia Daily Sun, June 17, 2020 Officer Eric Adams, the Laconia Police Department’s prevention, enforcement and treatment coordinator, walks into situations that are impossible to forget – including drug overdoses, domestic violence and sexual assault. Perhaps his most pivotal role is to connect children to the support they need to weather these disturbing experiences and prevent the trauma from derailing their lives. “We’re not trying to take your kids away,” Adams...

By Antero Garcia and Nicole Mirra, EdSource, June 17, 2020 As school districts and county offices of education make plans for safely reopening schools in the fall and helping students cope with their trauma, it is urgent that they also recognize and make space for teachers to process and heal from their own feelings of loss and grief. Nearly every teacher we have ever worked with puts their emotional needs aside in order to address the emotional needs of their students when tragedy...

By National Museum of African American History & Culture, June 2020 On “Freedom’s Eve,” or the eve of January 1, 1863, the first Watch Night services took place. On that night, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and private homes all across the country awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect. At the stroke of midnight, prayers were answered as all enslaved people in Confederate States were declared legally free. Union soldiers, many of whom...

How do we build a resilient workforce that can thrive in the face of adversity? And how do we sort out which resources and supports are most needed when building a staff support plan? These are burning questions for leadership, especially during this time of COVID-19. Join us on Tuesday, June 23rd, 12-1pm PT for our 'A Better Normal' series to discuss building organizational resilience through creating a “Better Normal” in the workplace. Gail Kennedy of ACEs Connection will talk with Pam...

By Jill Cowan, The New York Times, June 18, 2020 In early March, I talked with a pair of researchers at the University of Southern California who had recently published a study — funded by the Tony Hawk Foundation — showing how skateboarding helps build resilience among young skaters, and helps them form communities across backgrounds. “The stereotype is white stoner guys,” Dr. Zoë Corwin , one of the researchers, told me at the time. “The reality in 2020 is the skateboarding community is...

By Zaidee Stavely, EdSource, June 18, 2020 Hundreds of thousands of “Dreamers” are breathing a sigh of relief, after a Supreme Court decision allows them to continue to work and be protected from deportation. The Supreme Court voted 5-4, with the four liberal justices and Chief Justice John Roberts saying that the decision to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, was “arbitrary and capricious.” The court’s decision, issued Thursday, leaves the door open for the administration...

I am thrilled to announce the newest ACEs Connection Community, the Rainbow Resilience Connection of LGBTQ Survivors ! This newest community is a group for anyone who identifies as part of the LGBTQ+ community or who supports the community. You can find the page and join here ! The Community Managers are myself and Mary Giuliani, you can read more about us below! You may be wondering why we chose the name: Rainbow to reflect the colors of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer...

By Cara Anthony, Kaiser Health News, June 18, 2020 Speak in short sentences. Be clear. Direct but not rude. Stay calm, even if you’re shaking inside. Never put your hands in your pockets. Make sure people can always see your hands. Try not to hunch your shoulders. Listen to their directions. Darnell Hill, a pastor and a mental health caseworker, offers black teenagers these emotional and physical coping strategies every time a black person is fatally shot by a police officer. That’s when...

By Theresa Clift, The Sacramento Bee, June 16, 2020 The leader of a citizen commission tasked with helping the Sacramento City Council decide how to spend tens of millions of dollars in new sales tax money is claiming the commission has been excluded from the process. And she wants nearly $50 million in tax dollars headed to the police department budget to be shifted instead toward economic development, affordable housing and homelessness initiatives. Flojaune Cofer, chairwoman of the...

By David Sirota, Too Much Information, June 16, 2020 In recent weeks, we’ve seen health care industry CEOs report paying themselves $2.4 billion as 27 million people were thrown off their health care coverage. We’ve also seen Americans being charged anywhere from $400,000 to $1.1 million for COVID treatment, and facing $2,000 bills for coronavirus tests. In response, polls show Americans remain deeply concerned about the current health care system, and support for Medicare for All has surged...