Blog

When Chicago physician Audrey Stillerman first read the 1998 Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study, she felt gut-punched. “I had been taking care of patients for over twenty years. I always had a sense that people’s experiences and relationships were really important in terms of their overall health,” said Stillerman, associate director of medical affairs for the University of Illinois Office of Community Engagement and Neighborhood Health Initiative. For years, she’d felt like an...

Marlborough – One in five students today may struggle with mental illness as reported in the December 2017/January 2018 issue of Educational Leadership. Furthermore, The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMOI) estimates that 20 percent of youths aged 13-18 live with a mental health condition. On average, there are 121 suicides every day in the United States, of all ages as reported by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. According to NAMOI, 50 percent of all mental illness...

Ten-year-old Ja’Vonie Morris sat in her school principal’s office on a recent day — not for the misbehavior that got her in so much trouble back in 3rd grade, but to show off her accomplishments under a schoolwide strategy that used positive reinforcement to help her turn things around. Before Mission Elementary, a school in Antioch about 35 miles northeast of Oakland, put the rigorous system in place, Ja’Vonie explained, “I would yell. I would kick stuff. I would walk out of the classroom...

Parents do not uproot their children to make a long and dangerous journey to an uncertain future in the U.S. unless the circumstances in their home country are so threatening that the risks of migration pale in comparison to more certain risks at home. They leave their homes, other family members, schools, churches and familiar communities because they feel they must. In December 2017, the Trump Administration proposed a new policy of separating immigrant children from parents entering the...

Dr. Nadine Burke Harris had one of those rare and amazing “aha!” moments a decade ago when reading a scientific paper. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had found that the more traumatic events a person suffered in childhood — things like physical, emotional or sexual abuse, mental illness in a parent, divorce, neglect and domestic violence — the more likely he or she was to also suffer from chronic stress-related health problems like heart disease, obesity and...

A class of middle-schoolers in Charlotte, North Carolina, was asked to cite “four reasons why Africans made good slaves .” Nine third-grade teachers in suburban Atlanta assigned math word problems about slavery and beatings . A high school in the Los Angeles-area reenacted a slave ship —with students’ lying on the dark classroom floor, wrists taped, as staff play the role of slave ship captains. And for a lesson on Colonial America, fifth-graders at a school in northern New Jersey had to...

In the 21st century, women are catching up to men in all kinds of ways—including one we shouldn’t be proud of. Worldwide, the gender gap is closing fast in an unfortunate social institution: prisons. Globally, women and girls are getting locked up at historic rates. While overall imprisonment rates have plateaued or declined in many countries, the number of women and girls in prison has surged. According to a new analysis in the Worldwide Prison Report , by researchers at Birkbeck...

Not happy with what you see when you look in a mirror? Well, you can take a hike . Seriously. New research from the United Kingdom finds strolling in nature—or even looking at photographs of the natural world—leaves people feeling better about their bodies. In recent years, a series of studies have found that time spent in nature offers a range of benefits , from easing depression to increasing altruism . This latest work suggests it can also mute internal criticism of one’s...

Grand Opening | Merced, California Starting out as a small non-profit in Merced County, ACE Overcomers has grown and developed into a world-wide outreach. With thousands of lives being being transformed and changed everyday, we are pleased to share with you how ACE is now positioned to become Central California’s Hub for trauma informed training. ACE OVERCOMERS is now the Center for Resiliency & Trauma Informed Training . On December 15, 2017 many from the community joined us for an Open...

Thanks to #MeToo there is now less stigma and a great deal of empowerment surrounding those who choose to come out about sexual harassment and assault. As there was a veritable tsunami of people posting the hashtag, victims were released from becoming the focus of attention or being pressed by friends and family for details that the victim is not yet ready to give, or can find retraumatizing. It was enough to post those simple words and stand, freed from shame and blame, in solidarity with...

Depression is one of the most common mental disorder in the United States. The statistics collected by the National Institute of Mental Health on depression in the United States are very concerning. In 2016, 6.7 percent of all U.S. adults had at least one major depressive episode (16.2 million). If we focus only on teens, the prevalence jumps to 12.8 percent. The rates are even higher in adolescent females, 19.4 percent. In other words, almost one every five female teens have experienced a...