Blog

The Second Chance Society, 1.0 and 2.0, are very important and reminiscent of Connecticut’s progressive nature. But, as a policy analyst for a nonprofit in Hartford whose agency has strongly supported this legislation, I’m becoming increasingly concerned as to why children with incarcerated parents have not been included in either version of this legislation. As of April 1, 2016, 54 percent of those currently incarcerated reported being a caregiver. Over 75 percent of those with an...

Concordia Parish extends tall and narrow along the Mississippi River, where the ankle of Louisiana meets the instep. Almost one-third of its 20,000 residents live below the federal poverty line. Strip malls dominate Vidalia, the parish seat. Smaller satellite towns are home to Pentecostal mega-churches, defunct gas stations, and tin-sided shacks selling crawfish for $2 a pound. State highways run through low fields once flush with cotton that was picked by slaves and sold across the river to...

They lean unsteadily on canes and walkers, or roll along the sidewalks of Skid Row here in beat-up wheelchairs, past soiled sleeping bags, swaying tents and piles of garbage. They wander the streets in tattered winter coats, even in the warmth of spring. They worry about the illnesses of age and how they will approach death without the help of children who long ago drifted from their lives. “It’s hard when you get older,” said Ken Sylvas, 65, who has struggled with alcoholism and has not...

For years, Gov. Jerry Brown has resisted efforts to spend more money to build affordable housing. As part of his revised budget released Friday , Brown announced what he said was a better solution: making it easier to build homes for low-income residents. In a new package of legislation, Brown is proposing to streamline the permitting process for developers building affordable homes. “Hopefully, the supply is going to bring down the cost,” Brown said. “Otherwise, through subsidies and...

Howard French has an interesting piece in The Guardian tackling “the enduring whiteness of American media.” French’s claim is two-fold: 1.) Big media organizations have failed to produce a staff that looks like the larger country. 2.) Big media has failed black journalists, specifically, by siloing them in “stereotypical roles—sport, entertainment and especially what is euphemistically called urban affairs.” These twin effects, according to French, “strongly but silently [condition] how...

Closing the so-called achievement gap between poor inner-city children and their more affluent suburban counterparts is among the biggest challenges for education reformers. The success of some schools’ efforts suggests that meditation might significantly improve children’s school performance – and help close that gap. In 2007, James Dierke, then the principal of the Visitacion Valley Middle School in a troubled neighborhood in San Francisco, was determined to improve both the quality of...

For several years, she wrote about her bipolar disorder under a pseudonym. She described how she’d been hospitalized four times, twice since her first child was born. She explained how she went off her medication during both of her pregnancies and how each time — once as the mother of a newborn and then again weeks into her second pregnancy — she was escorted from her home in police handcuffs, defiant. She blogged to connect and reach other mothers grappling with mental illness. Ultimately,...

Soon after having an honest conversation about sex with a male friend of hers last year, she started hearing him whispering “dirty slut” or “I know you want it” to her in math class. This year another male friend repeatedly tried to touch her armpit hair and asked if her boyfriend licked it. The 17-year-old New York City student said she felt very uncomfortable during these encounters but didn’t tell her teachers because she wasn’t sure if it was a big deal and she was worried that it would...

“What if all along ... kindness was the cure?” Becky Haas, director of the Targeted Community Crime Reduction Project at the Johnson City Police Department, recalls asking Police Chief Mark Sirois that about solving homelessness. While the simple phrase came out a bit jocular during a seminar on Wednesday morning, sincerity lingered in Haas’ voice. Haas and Dr. Andi Clements, psychology professor and assistant chair at East Tennessee State University, tag-teamed a 4.5-hour long free seminar...

Saving your children, family and loved ones from inter-generational post-traumatic stress... Following is an excerpt from my latest book, My Journey of Healing in Life After Trauma, Part 2. "Extensive research has shown babies will pick up on toxic circumstances and behaviors and demonstrate post trauma stress symptoms as they become older. The goal of My Journey of Healing, Part 2 is to specifically help parents with stress triggers to save their kids from becoming emotionally damaged...

Part One There are many adults with low ACE scores who parent children with high ACE scores. They are some of the best parents I know. They are often feisty and fierce advocates who tirelessly seek out support, strategies and solutions to make the lives of their children easier and better. The ones I admire most have helped me be a better person, a better parent and expedited my personal recovery as well. Without calling it such, they provide a trauma-informed love. Here are 12 lessons I've...

People sometimes feel bad for adoptive parents. They think maybe our kids say, "You're not my real parents" on a daily basis and that we go to bed crying each night because we can't have kids of our "own." Do they think we had to "settle" for adoption or fostering? Do they worry we feel less than as parents? We don't. It's true that some of us have fertility issues. And maybe have grief about that. It's true that our children may love us and their birth parents, foster family members. It's...