Blog

By Caroline Preston, Photo: Caroline Preston/The Hechinger Report, The Washington Post, November 5, 2022 There was one minute left on Suzanne Horsley’s stopwatch and the atmosphere remained thick with carbon dioxide, despite the efforts of her third graders to clear the air. Horsley, a wellness teacher at Toll Gate Grammar School, in Pennington, N.J., had directed the kids to toss balls of yarn representing carbon dioxide molecules to their peers stationed at plastic disks representing...

By Michael Sainato, Photo: Étienne Laurent/EPA, The Guardian, November 5, 2022 Millions of Americans are currently working two or more jobs in order to make ends meet, as global inflation and corporations jacking up prices have sent prices of food, gas, housing, health insurance and other necessities soaring in the past year. Cashe Lewis, 31, of Denver, Colorado works two jobs and is currently trying to find a third job to cover the recent $200 monthly rent increase to her apartment. She...

By Julia McEvoy, Photo: Unsplash (in site), National Public Radio, November 6, 2022 In one of the whitest counties in California, some students are trying to defeat school board trustees who've failed to stop racist and homophobic harassment. It's become their political awakening. AYESHA RASCOE, HOST : High school students in one of California's whitest counties are working to elect a new school board this Tuesday. They want to defeat those who have failed to stop racist and homophobic...

In this free eight module course, participants will gain an understanding of how children’s earliest experiences and the nature and quality of their attachment to their primary care-giver can impact their ability to feel safe in the world, to regulate their emotions, to trust other people, to learn, experience good physical and mental health, enjoy positive, reciprocal relationships and behave in prosocial ways. In particular, participants will learn about: Human brain development Attachment...

By John Kelly, Image: Screenshot from article, The Imprint, November 1, 2022 The number of youth in foster care dropped below 400,000 for the first time since 2012 last year, according to data released today by the Administration for Children and Families. There were 391,098 youth in foster care in 2021, according to today’s report from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, which uses a point-in-time count from September 30 of a given year to track the nation’s foster...

By Jackie Mader, Photo: Katie Cotterill/The Hechinger Report, The Hechinger Report, November 2, 2022 By his mid-20s, Tommy Andrade was tired of working dead-end jobs. With a young child at home, he realized he needed more than a high school diploma to support his family. When he heard about a new, advanced manufacturing program at Austin Community College (ACC), Andrade was intrigued. Some of the jobs that graduates would be trained for carried salaries well into the six figures, enough to...

By Sandhya Dirks, Photo: Unsplash, National Public Radio, November 3, 2022 In the run up to the midterms, we keep hearing about a crime wave. But the claims are often rife with misinformation and racism. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST : Talk with voters this fall, and it won't take long for someone to mention crime. It is a problem that people feel. Republicans, in their media, have played up the threat of crime during this election season, but what do the numbers really show? NPR's Sandhya Dirks...

The Connections Matter Academy is a set of engaging videos designed to educate young people about trauma and how it impacts their life. We created it to inspire teens to begin their healing process, break the cycle of intergenerational trauma, and reach their highest potential through healthy connections with others. What exactly is The Connections Matter Academy? An educational, inclusive, and entertaining animated series to help teens and young adults cope with trauma Co-created by Beth...

Over 130 people gathered on November 1, 2022, to learn more about how to create a system that supports child and family well-being during the 4CA Flourishing Families, Centering Justice webinar. The event focused on trauma-informed primary, secondary, and tertiary policy approaches to support struggling families and keep them together. The webinar began with a brief overview of historical and current policies that have contributed to racism, inequity, and family separation in the United...

By Laura Gallant, 11/3/22, https://positiveexperience.org/category/blog/ Over the summer, two of our high school interns , Emily Chen and Alina Ngo, worked on a project to translate HOPE resources into Mandarin and Vietnamese. One resource is an interactive worksheet that allows families to identify the building blocks that they practice and how they are accessing each building block. This worksheet can help service providers bring forward the positive aspects of a family’s lived experience...

By Jackie Mader, Photo: Jackie Mader/The Hechinger Report, The Hechinger Report, October 25, 2022 At the beginning of 2020, Brisandi Ruiz was hopeful about the year ahead. Her two-year-old was enrolled in a high-quality preschool program near their home in Greenbelt, Maryland. The office manager of a medical technician company, Ruiz was working to validate her medical degree from her home country of the Dominican Republic, so she could practice medicine in the United States. Her husband,...

By Blanca Torres, Illustration: Anna Vignet/KQED, Center for Health Journalism, October 27, 2022 Growing up in Daly City, Eric Valladares remembers hearing how his parents and extended family fled El Salvador during the country’s 12-year civil war that ended in 1992. After settling in California, some members struggled financially, finding it hard to adjust to a country where they didn’t speak the language and felt like outsiders. His family never discussed how they coped with those traumas...