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This story was co-published with NPR. On a melancholy Saturday this past February, Shalon Irving’s “village” — the friends and family she had assembled to support her as a single mother — gathered at a funeral home in a prosperous black neighborhood in southwest Atlanta to say goodbye and send her home. The afternoon light was gray but bright, flooding through tall arched windows and pouring past white columns, illuminating the flag that covered her casket. Sprays of callas and roses dotted...

On Monday, in the largest reduction of federal land protections in United States history, President Donald Trump signed proclamations slashing the area of two national monuments in Utah. That same day, with just minutes to spare before midnight on the East Coast, the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition —a first-of-its-kind alliance between the Hopi, Ute Mountain Ute, Ute Indian, Zuni, and Navajo Nation tribes—filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, claiming that the president's...

CAREgivers film will be airing on most public television stations around the US beginning this month in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orlando, Cleveland, Spokane, Boise, Springfield-Holyoke, Youngstown, Idaho Falls, Twin Falls, Fairbanks, ETC. Please check your local public TV stations for future dates and times. Broadcast times will also be posted in advance whenever possible at: http://caregiversfilm.com/screenings/see-the-film/ This documentary addresses secondary trauma (aka...

During my 22 years as a pediatrician in an urban area, I have seen the worst of what America’s children must sometimes endure. Severe medical illness in children is thankfully rare. But severe adversity in homes and communities is all too common and causes toxic stress that has long-term consequences for my patients and future generations. A 6-year-old patient of mine called 911 on the third day that she and her younger siblings couldn’t wake their intoxicated mother. We cared for their...

Three years ago, demonstrators in Burkina Faso set fire to the National Assembly in Ouagadougou. The Burkinabé uprising led to the ouster of the country’s longtime president Blaise Compaoré followed by a short-lived military takeover. Today, Burkina Faso is rebuilding. Diébédo Francis Kéré designed the next National Assembly building to reflect the reality of life in Ouagadougou. The design by the Berlin-based architect (and Burkina Faso native) is open and transparent, a pyramid whose...

Nearly 1.5 million high-school students in the U.S. are physically abused by dating partners every year. More than one-third of 10th-graders (35 percent) have been physically or verbally abused by dating partners, while a similar percentage are perpetrators of such abuse. Youth from low-income backgrounds, those from marginalized racial and ethnic groups, and LGBTQ students are at the greatest risk of experiencing such harm. The consequences are devastating. Data from the Centers for Disease...

"There is no blueprint for rolling out trauma-informed practices; however, Emily's use of a systems approach to educate those of us working to create our own blueprints is exactly what's needed. The way in which Emily conducts her workshops promotes collaboration of ideas no matter your educational background or current title. You leave feeling inspired and empowered to move this revolution forward!" - Dawn Daum, HERE this NOW workshop participant, co-manager of ACES Connection Building...

For many, the concept of family has expanded beyond bloodlines to include friends, neighbors, colleagues, and others in the greater community. With so many lives around the world experiencing traumatic events due to hurricanes, floods, wildfires and other disasters, now is a good time to remember the wise words of Louise Hay: "We are all family, and the planet is our home."

We can never assume our families have access to key services. We won't know if they are experiencing hunger or lack a stable and safe place to live unless we ask them. Preventing ACEs means assessing our families in order to help them gain access to the services that make a community family-friendly. The challenge is that we don't yet have the public health infrastructure to survey our families. We also don't have any state or local government institution committed to building the capacity...

Liany and Maria Villacis grew up in a family that did everything together. Each summer, even when money was tight, their parents made sure to take a week’s vacation, no matter how modest. Last summer, when Liany, 22, was in a finance training program in Chicago, her parents and twin sister took their family vacation in the Windy City. Their closeness was a result of circumstance as much as blood: The twins were born in Pasto, Colombia, where their mother, Liany Guerrero, hailed from a...

New results from an NPR survey show that large numbers of Asian-Americans experience and perceive discrimination in many areas of their daily lives. This happens despite their having average incomes that outpace other racial, ethnic and identity groups. The poll , a collaboration among NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, also finds a wide gap between immigrant and nonimmigrant Asian-Americans in reporting discrimination experiences,...

In October 2014, less than two months after entering North Augusta High School in Aiken County, South Carolina, Logan Rewis paused to drink from a fountain in the hallway between periods. As he straightened up, water fell from his mouth onto the shoe of his social studies teacher, Matt Branon, who was standing nearby. Logan says it was an accident, but Branon thought Logan had spat at him. “My bad,” the 15-year-old with bushy sandy-brown hair and blue eyes says he told Branon after the...