Blog

Since 2003, we have been developing the first camp in America focused on children with high ACE Scores -- Camp HOPE America. It began as a program of the San Diego Family Justice Center, but it has grown rapidly. This summer Camp HOPE America will operate in 15 states. Our goal is to see Camp HOPE America in every state in the country within the next five years. Our evidence-based outcomes published by the Hope Research Center at the University of Oklahoma have established that increasing...

1. Thanks to the Trump tax deal, taxes are way down for corporations and billionaires. In 2017, individuals and corporations were still paying taxes under the old system. The Trump tax plan that Congress passed in December 2017 hadn’t yet taken effect. In 2018, the rules have changed. The new tax plan favors billionaires and corporations, while leaving poor and middle income Americans essentially where they are. The richest 1 percent of Americans will receive a total of $85 billion in tax...

Widowed older adults can reduce the loneliness that results from the death of a spouse by volunteering 100 hours per year, which is about two hours per week, according to a recent study. The study examined whether becoming a volunteer at the time of widowhood is associated with reducing the risks of loneliness, which is a significant public health concern, particularly for those who have lost a spouse, linked to poorer physical health, depression and even earlier mortality. The findings are...

As school districts around California scramble to tackle a teacher shortage in the face of rising housing costs, the West Contra Costa school district hopes a new program that offers home down payment assistance will help its efforts to recruit and retain teachers. “This is just one of the innovative opportunities we have worked on to assist our teachers to stay in our communities and continue to help our students thrive,” said district Superintendent Matthew Duffy. “West County, and...

Art with Heart resources are based on various therapeutic modalities, including art, cognitive, and narrative therapies.

A study published today in Health Care for Women International shows how the Transcendental Meditation technique can empower women’s lives, using measures of self-efficacy, perceived stress, and mental and physical quality of life. The practice was shown to help single, disadvantaged, illiterate mothers in Uganda deal with high levels of physical and psychological stress in their daily lives while improving their health, well-being, and ability to support themselves and their children. A top...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/elgin-courier-news/news/ct-ecn-u46-trauma-informed-care-st-0418-story.html http://www.dailyherald.com/news/20180402/u-46-studying-how-trauma-affects-students-revising-teaching-approach

Modern life is full of emotional challenges. The pressure to succeed, need to “keep up,” fear of missing out and desire for good relationships and work satisfaction can all evoke volatile combinations of emotions. However, what we learn in our society is not how to work with our emotions, but how to block and avoid them. We do it quite well: Between alcohol use, prescription drug use and screen time, there are a multitude of ways to avoid our feelings. When we do acknowledge them, we swat...

Mental healthcare is an important priority for transgender and gender nonconforming children, who may experience distress related to gender dysphoria, compounded by stress resulting from prejudice and discrimination. Existing literature on this population, mostly from small, specialized, clinic-based studies, has shown a high prevalence of mental health diagnoses and self-reported emotional and behavior problems among transgender and gender nonconforming youth, but the existing literature...

Shortly after they turn 1, most babies begin to help others, whether by handing their mother an object out of her reach or giving a sibling a toy that has fallen. Researchers have long studied how this helping behavior develops, but why it develops has been examined less. A new study looked at the role of imitation to find that when 16-month-olds observe others' helping behavior, they're more likely to be helpful themselves. The findings come from researchers at the University of Münster and...

In the last 20 years, there’s been a noticeable uptick in the size and reach of foster care alumni networking organizations and events nationwide. Shalita O’Neale has been an active participant in this movement while running her company, Fostering Change Network LLC (FCN). After O’Neale’s mother died when she was 2, the Baltimore, Maryland, native shuttled between family members until officially entering the foster care system at age 13. She has spent her career using that experience to try...

The architect and urban designer Peter Calthorpe was an advocate of transit-oriented development (TOD) and smart growth long before those concepts were buzzwords. In fact, as one of the founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism and the author of the first TOD guidelines (as well as numerous influential books), Calthorpe has done as much as anyone to re-focus American urbanism on walkable, dense, sustainable, transit-rich environments. Now, in an attempt to spread this knowledge even more...