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Looking out upon the worshippers at New Era Church in downtown Indianapolis, Rev. Dr. Clarence C. Moore sees row after row of families facing difficult challenges stemming from a pressing statewide problem: the over-incarceration of black people. Indiana ranks second in the country for the number of children who have an incarcerated parent. As a result, many children live in single-parent households or foster care, and live in poverty. Many lack a formal education until they reach...

Children and families dealing with mental health and behavioral issues have a new option for in-home specialized care with Family Institute of Tennessee’s expansion into the Memphis market earlier this year. The company works with Medicaid recipients under the age of 21 who have some type of behavioral symptom that qualifies them for mental health services. One in five children experience a mental disorder each year, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), disruptive...

If it takes three examples to label something a fad, then San Francisco, Seattle, and New York City have collectively been some of American labor’s most prolific trendsetters. In recent years, the three coastal cities were among the first and highest-profile polities to instate a $15 minimum wage, efforts that begot statewide regulations in California and New York and inspired legislation around the country. This urban triumvirate is also part of a handful of American cities to adopt...

My father said on numerous occasions when I was growing up that he would see other families that had problems like divorce and drug use, and he would thank God that his family was so perfect. Things would change, though. They always do. And that perfect family would face just as much struggle as any other. Growing up in the mountains above Boulder, Colo., our life was good. My parents had left their life in Chicago behind for an ideal they saw in a piece of art they found at a flea market, a...

I arranged a visit to the Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy here fully intending to look into the rise of single-sex public education, particularly schools that focus explicitly on educating girls of color. In the decade since No Child Left Behind prompted changes in federal law that ultimately made it easier to create all-boys and all-girls schools, the number of single-sex public schools has exploded, many of them aimed at boys and girls of color. (Full disclosure: I attended an...

When 15-year-old Marcia (not her real name) got caught selling marijuana and prescription pills, she was given the opportunity to go through the Carlton County Restorative Justice program rather than the juvenile criminal justice system. The RJ program requires offenders to participate in a “sentencing circle” with their own parent or support system, the victims of the crime, trained community members and one or two “circle keepers,” who lead the group. They literally sit in a circle and...

Public interest in and funding for public pre-K programs have significantly risen over the past few decades. In general, pre-K programs serve 4-year-olds the year before they enter kindergarten , and most are targeted toward at-risk children. However, some state and local governments have made public pre-K “universal,” meaning these programs are open to all 4-year-olds. Evaluations of universal pre-K programs in Tulsa (Okla.), Boston , Georgia , and Florida [i] have demonstrated that they...

In the winter of 2015, a student at Northern Michigan University named Katerina Klawes sought out help at the university’s counseling office. She had been sexually assaulted in July of 2014 and wanted to talk about her experiences with a professional. On March 25, 2015, she got an alarming email from Mary Brundage, associate dean of students at NMU, which read, in part, as follows: Dear Kat, I received a report that others are worried about your well-being. I’d like to meet with you to...

A student at a Massachusetts private college learns midway through a semester that his financial aid is less than he expected. Since he can’t afford the difference, the college embargoes his transcript for that term and his grades from the previous two years — even though he’d already paid for those — preventing him from transferring to another institution willing to charge him less. At a public university in Minnesota, students in similar situations lose their meal plans halfway through a...

Yesterday in Washington D.C., Prevent Child Abuse America held a congressional briefing on the topics of toxic stress, ACEs, and the documentary film RESILIENCE. Our President and CEO Dan Duffy joined with Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and an expert panel to discuss the science, solutions and national movement to prevent childhood trauma, treat toxic stress, and improve the health of future generations of American leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs. We were fortunate enough to have a...

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that he and his wife, pediatrician Priscilla Chan, will devote more than $3 billion to medical research with the ambitious goal of ultimately preventing, curing or managing "all diseases in our children's lifetime" has understandably garnered a lot of attention. Also skepticism. To end or manage disease within the next 100 years may sound too pie-in-the-sky to some, but biomedical science could accomplish amazing things in the next century.

I wrote about my personal experience at the Partnering for Excellence conference earlier this month. Here, I write as an activist observing attempts at system change utilizing ACEs science and trauma-informed approaches. Please share your ideas, brainstorms and observations about what you see happening (or not happening) in organizations or agencies you rely on, work at or run. I’ll admit, as an activist, I’m often in fight the system mode. I approach even do-gooders with defensiveness. Why?