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By P. Berman, K. Hecht, & A. Hosack Larry didn’t go to the police station after work. After all, he didn’t really have any unpaid parking tickets. He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t have anyone to talk to about it. His father would just laugh and call him a loser. Claire was his one and only friend ever since they had been kids. Now, she seemed to be turning on him. I can’t believe that bitch is pressing charges against me! This whole mess is her stupid kid’s fault! Larry did the only...

The accident that wreaked havoc on our world over ten years ago happened in a matter of seconds. Our eight-year-old child went from your typical rowdy, adventurous, free spirited kid to one on life support followed by months of painful medical procedures and surgeries that aroused exhaustion, fear and disconnection from the group of friends that were unsure how to be around their newly fragile friend Nonetheless, we weathered through. With a combination of wonderful doctors, skilled...

JACKSON, Miss. — “I come from the smallest town in Mississippi, in the buckle of the Bible Belt,” said Gerald Gibson, outreach manager at Open Arms Healthcare Center , the only clinic created to serve gay black men in this state. “Growing up, I didn’t know anybody like me,” he added. “I come from a culture that says you’re going to hell for being homosexual and AIDS is God’s wrath.” President Trump’s plan to end America’s epidemic of H.I.V. , the virus that causes AIDS, within 10 years is...

When an apartment building sells in gentrifying parts of Oakland, California, tenants often brace themselves for the worst. Rent hikes, disruptive renovations and evictions can follow. But when one building recently changed hands, city officials and housing activists celebrated. Kensington Gardens, a 41-unit building in the working-class, immigrant neighborhood of San Antonio, was sold last November. “I was feeling somebody was going to get it and they were going to raise the rent,” said...

AUSTIN, Texas — After a gunman shot and killed 10 people at Santa Fe High School last year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vowed to make the state’s public schools safe for students and teachers. “We need to do more than just pray for the victims and their families,” he said at a news conference following the May 18 shooting. “It’s time in Texas that we take action to step up and make sure this tragedy is never repeated ever again in the history of the state of Texas.” In August, Abbott issued a...

This is the latest article in The 74’s ongoing ‘ Big Picture ’ series, bringing American education into sharper focus through new research and data. Go Deeper: See our full series . T aking aim at the perception that efforts to diversify the teaching profession are working, a new study by the Brookings Institution shows that the educator workforce is growing disproportionately white over time. The analysis, released last week, offers a counterintuitive finding since the educator workforce...

African Americans have traveled a long, turbulent path in this county. Almost 11 million of our ancestors were kidnapped and enslaved in the Americas, and that shameful institution set the stage for centuries of racialized discrimination and inequality that we have yet to dismantle. Accordingly, a word—a call, really—that has resounded throughout our history is that of “freedom.” It was what we sought during our enslavement. It was what we fought for in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.

Emotional Fitness is the simple idea that our minds need regular exercise and training just as much as our bodies do in order to stay healthy and fit. Consider the following: Have you ever wished you could handle stress with a little more grace and a little less anxiety ? Do you frequently get the sense that your most important relationships would be stronger and more satisfying if you could get a better handle on your own emotional struggles? Or maybe you are about to enter a new phase of...

Kawika Ke Koa Pegram has lived his entire life in island communities and is all too familiar with what sea level rise looks like firsthand. Pegram, a 17-year-old junior in high school, recently moved back to Hawai‘i—where he was born—from the Philippines. Two years later, Hurricane Walaka hit the state. “It was one of the worst storms the island has seen in modern history,” he remembers. “It had floods that went up to your knees and legs.” Pegram says he had seen that degree of flooding...

It was a sunny fall afternoon a few years ago. A friend posed a very interesting question as we ate our dinner on the deck at a local restaurant. “What do you think, Chris, about the possibility of a whole group of people experiencing a reaction to trauma? Like, maybe our whole nation is still traumatized from 9-11-01, or Katrina, or maybe just a whole host of cascading traumatic events?” We spoke at some length about what a reaction to trauma would look like in a society at large, and it...

Dear ACEs Connection Community: We've had hundreds of people sign up for the virtual screening and Twitter chat this week. We've had a few questions about the registration process and viewing details which I'll answer here. If you have other questions, please leave a comment so we can address them. Thank you. Cissy Q)I've not registered yet, can I still do so? Yes. Here's the link to register for the virtual screening and more information about the film and the Twitter discussion which will...

Dr. Sandra Bloom, MD, author of the Sanctuary Model, discusses the adverse childhood experience (ACE) study and childhood trauma's effect on adult health.