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The idea of brain science in child welfare is hardly new but a pair of recent efforts highlight a growing push in the child welfare field to move an influx of findings drawn from the worlds of neuroscience and child development into practice. According to leaders in the field, child welfare policies and practices can see immediate and substantive benefits from the successful translation of this emerging brain science, but several challenges remain. A recently released brief from the Center...

Illuminated faces loom large in storefronts and street corners along lower Georgia Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. Some are backgrounded by humming cars, others by chain link fences, or patterned wallpaper. They blink, smile, or turn slightly as wind musses their hair. Through November 20, close-up videos of local residents are being projected into the windows as part of the SEE/CHANGE project , part of the “Crossing the Street” creative placemaking initiative , backed by the D.C. office of...

When she was 12, Gabby Falzone and her family became homeless in New York. At 15, she ran away. She moved between squats and stints with her family, but said she suffered too much abuse from them to stay for long. At 17, she moved to Boston, where she said she survived by exchanging sex for rent. At 19, she got into a friend’s car and drove to San Francisco. Within a month, she said, she was shooting heroin. “I kept thinking that if I escaped where I had just been, it would get better, not...

For the second year in a row, Los Angeles reported the largest number of chronically homeless people in the nation — nearly 13,000 — and 95% of them live outdoors, in cars, tents and encampments, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s report to Congress released Wednesday. Los Angeles also topped the national register this year in homeless veterans — 2,700 — despite slashing the numbers by a third. It also recorded the most unaccompanied homeless youth — more...

The Childhood Experiences Study for Adults Have you ever experienced negative or adverse events within the first 18 years of your life? Do you remember how old you were during these events? Researchers at Teachers College, Columbia University are seeking adults from diverse backgrounds, to participate in a study aimed at understanding both whether and when people experienced difficult or adverse events in the first 18 years of their life, as well as their mental health in adulthood. If...

The Chronicle of Social Change recently ran an article on the increasing efforts in the child welfare field to realize findings from neurosciences into practice. The article offers details from a recent Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University report and a policy document created by the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities to steer the development of policies that take into account the latest brain science. Access the Chronicle of Social Change article .

Millions of Americans suffer from alcoholism or addiction to legal and illegal drugs, but only a fraction are being treated, according to a report released on Thursday by the surgeon general. One in seven people in the United States is expected to develop a substance use disorder at some point in their lives, the report said. But as of now, only one in 10 will receive treatment. The report is the first from a surgeon general to address substance use disorders and the wider range of health...

In 1964, the U.S. surgeon general released a report on the health impacts of smoking, and it shaped the public and government's attitudes toward tobacco for years to come . On Thursday, another surgeon general's report was issued, this time tackling a much broader issue: addiction and the misuse and abuse of chemical substances. The focus isn't just one drug, but all of them. Though little in the report is new, it puts impressive numbers to the problem, and some surprising context: More...

Wine and tears poured and tissues were borrowed as several juvenile justice reform advocates were honored for their work to end life without parole for juvenile offenders. The first award winners at the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth ’s highly emotional Hope & Healing awards ceremony Tuesday were Steve Drizin and Laura Nirider, the advocates working to earn “Making a Murderer” star Brendan Dassey his freedom. Gary Tyler, sentenced to death at age 16 in 1974 by an all-white...

Facing a wave of criticism for allowing advertisers to exclude anyone with an “affinity” for African-American, Asian-American, or Hispanic people from seeing ads, Facebook said it would build an automated system that would let it better spot ads that discriminate illegally. Federal law prohibits ads for housing, employment, and credit that exclude people by race, gender, and other factors. Facebook said it would build an automated system to scan advertisements to determine if they are...

The Youth First Initiative wants to help end the use of youth prisons. The justice-advocacy group works from the premise that detaining minors—whether in youth facilities or in prisons—is not just a poorly executed practice; it is simply beyond repair. “This model of incarceration is broken—it does not work,” says Liz Ryan, the president and CEO of the Youth First Initiative . “It actually has never worked.” The United States has been incarcerating child offenders for a couple hundred years...

florida, a coalition of parents known as “the recess moms” has been fighting to pass legislation guaranteeing the state’s elementary-school students at least 20 minutes of daily free play. Similar legislation recently passed in New Jersey, only to be vetoed by the governor, who deemed it “stupid.” When, you might ask, did recess become such a radical proposal? In a survey of school-district administrators, roughly a third said their districts had reduced outdoor play in the early 2000s.