Blog

By Sue Ryan, Resource Center on Domestic Violence: Child Protection and Custody, May 6, 2020 During the month of May, we celebrate Mother’s Day, acknowledging our mothers and all they give each day. Mother’s Day is a reminder of the importance of family and healthy relationships. Each family is unique, but the common hope is love. Societal and community definitions of gender roles place enormous expectations on mothers: to be nurturing, self-sacrificing, and relentlessly giving. Sometimes...

From Wisconsin Department of Health Services, May 6, 2020 Ahead of Children's Mental Health Awareness day tomorrow, May 7, Office of Children’s Mental Health Director Linda Hall today announces the publication of a new fact sheet focused on prioritizing children’s mental health in Wisconsin and how our communities can do that. Highlights include: Almost half of high school students in Wisconsin are feeling anxious A child typically experiences symptoms of emotional distress for 11 years...

Family estrangement is a very grief-ridden and personal experience that family members face when someone leaves or driven away from their family of origin. It occurs in families of all different demographic situations, including all races, religions, and cultures. But why do family estrangements happen? In this article, we shall focus on some of the most common reasons why family estrangements occur including: Abuse Neglect Mismatched expectations about family roles and relationships Clash...

By Mycelium Youth Network, May 2020 Mycelium Youth Network prepares youth in the Bay Area -- who are most vulnerable to and already feeling the effects of environmental racism -- for climate change. We use a merger of indigenous environmental traditions that emphasize youth environmental stewardship and relationship building alongside a rigorous STEAM curriculum that focuses on practical hands-on skills for climate resilience and mitigation that youth create and implement in their homes and...

Three Change in Mind partners (The Family Partnership, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, and Children & Families First in Delaware) were just recognized in an article about TFP’s Executive Functioning Across Generations. Reflection Sciences is the developer of the Minnesota Executive Function Scale, the best tool out there for measuring EF in kids. Here’s the link: ...

Trauma-Informed Measurement Made Effective and Easy Thanks to new federal funding, Head Start programs have the opportunity to develop and improve trauma-informed approaches to support children, families and staff impacted by adverse experiences. The Office of Head Start Guidance on Implementing Trauma-Informed Approach resource, included in the funding announcement , states exposure to trauma is more prevalent than commonly believed and results in lasting effects on the physical and mental...

By Roberto R. Aspholm and John M. Hagedorn, Chicago Sun*Times, April 30, 2020 Why hasn’t violence in Chicago decreased since we have all been ordered to stay at home? Why are the poorest African American neighborhoods that have been plagued by violence now the hardest hit by the coronavirus? We think these problems have common roots and common solutions. Gov. J. B. Pritzker issued a statewide shelter-in-place order five weeks ago in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Since that time,...

By Margie Mason and Robin McDowell, Associated Press News, May 2, 2020 Nicole Hingle wasn’t surprised when the call came. Frustrations had been building inside juvenile detention centers nationwide as the number of coronavirus cases continued to climb. Now, her 17-year-old son Jace, was on the phone telling her around 40 kids had rioted at his facility in Louisiana — the same state where more than a dozen youths escaped during two breakouts at another site this month. Hingle said her son...

By Adriana Gallardo, ProPublica, May 2, 2020 They’ve gotten to know New York City in a way many have not, through the low-wage work of cleaning its skyscrapers, serving its restaurants and crisscrossing its streets on bicycles, through long subway rides very early in the morning and very late at night. The saying goes: You’re not a true New Yorker unless you’ve lived here for a decade. They’ve done their time and felt a deep sense of belonging in this city of immigrants. But, in the...

By Corinne Purtill, The New York Times, April 30, 2020 “Days are now divided by coffee hours and alcohol hours,” the comedy writer Emily Murnane tweeted on March 31, nearly two weeks after states and cities around the United States began to issue stay-at-home orders. “There is no other law.” Zoom happy hours served as a break from isolation and a consolation prize for canceled plans. Alcohol sales nationwide were up 55 percent the week ending March 21 compared with the year before, according...

By Frances Stead Sellers, The Washington Post, May 5, 2020 For the Chavez family and many others in California’s fertile San Joaquin Valley, bottled water is the toilet paper of their coronavirus pandemic — an everyday necessity that vanished from supermarket shelves. In the Navajo Nation, where about a third of the population lacks indoor plumbing, volunteers are creating public hand-washing stations by repurposing detergent bottles as makeshift faucets. And Jessica Endicott, who lives in...

I can ask Ted. He won’t think I am being self-centered. He knows I am trying to be humble. Larry couldn’t keep this nightmare to himself any longer. He finally got the opportunity to talk to Ted later in the morning; he told him everything he could remember. Just telling Ted about the dream made him break into a sweat. Ted saw the look on Larry’s face and the moisture emanating from his skin. He looked at Larry speculatively; might Larry have PTSD? Ted had been living with PTSD for years,...