Blog

The Oakland Unified school board voted unanimously Wednesday night to eliminate willful defiance as a reason to suspend any student and to invest at least $2.3 million to expand restorative justice practices in its schools. “If we are to ensure that success for Oakland children is not determined by cultural background or neighborhood, it means that we must build strong relationships with our students at school and invest deeply in restorative practices,” said superintendent Antwan Wilson in...

Sometimes it just feels easier to please others than to stand up for what we really want. Why? Maybe we don’t like confrontation. Or maybe we just like making other people happy. That’s not a bad thing. It can feel great to give others what they want, but it’s important to recognize when they overstep the mark. Personal boundaries are how we set our personal limits. They are how we separate ourselves as individuals from the influence and intentions of others. They are an essential tool for...

In a small room at the Pico Union Library on a recent Friday morning, Marissa Gonzalez and her 3-year-old squished gooey, green blobs of colored shaving cream onto big swaths of paper. Gonzalez is mother of three and she gave up her job as a special education teacher to be at home with her young children. She has been trying to get her youngest child into preschool, but while she waits for a spot, they spend a lot of time together at home. Gonzalez joined this group at the library, called...

I became a nurse by accident at a time in my life when I had no direction. My family had moved from Ecuador to Queens, New York when I was a child. As a teen, there were times when I lived in group homes or even the streets and I felt completely lost. I dropped out of junior high. When an acquaintance suggested in passing that I enroll in the nursing program at Queensborough Community College, I followed her advice without realizing that nursing would become my calling. I had to overcome...

Researchers in the UK have been building an evidence base for reflective su pervision , a model which acknowledges the impact that working with people who have experienced trauma, adversity and toxic stress has on professionals and provides a structured, collaborative, safe space for them to address it. "Recognizing that there is little understanding from research of what reflective supervision is, its impact and how to do it well" Research in Practice embarked on the Reflective Supervision...

After many months of interviewing, editing, more interviewing and more editing, “Toward a Trauma Informed City: Challenges and Opportunities in Philadelphia” will be launched next week. A group of leaders who have adopted trauma-informed practices were interviewed about their experiences recognizing trauma as an issue, what they decided to do about it, and the change they have seen from the work of their organization. These 27 leaders come from public health, behavioral health medicine,...

Chances are you've already seen this... it does have nearly 2.5 MILLION views and counting since its posting yesterday! (May 25, 2016). It is the commencement speech of Donovan Livingston, newly graduated from Harvard Graduate School of Education with his Master's in Education (Ed.M.).

The National Institutes of Health has partnered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to fund five new research centers to improve health in communities overburdened by pollution and other environmental factors that contribute to health disparities. Within each center, scientists will partner with community organizations to study these concerns and develop culturally appropriate ways to reduce exposure to harmful environmental conditions. “It is important to understand...

If you want to look at how a toy evolves over time, Legos are probably your best bet. It’s the largest toy manufacturer in the world, for one. It has its own movie and theme parks , as well as books and video games that supplement its iconic building block sets. Plus, it’s been making those bricks since 1949 , allowing the researchers to trace the evolution of a single genre of toy over decades. “There are very few toys that have been continuously on the market,” Christoph Bartneck, a...

The Urban Child Institue (TUCI) has given $2 million to the University of Memphis for a project focused on the health of at-risk children. Earlier this year, the Memphis nonprofit organization announced a new gifting strategy that would give $8 million in 2016 to organizations supporting children's needs. The new strategy increased the amount of money TUCI will give annually to children's causes. The U of M's $2 million grant was outlined in April as a part of that gifting strategy. The...

I'm not sure if this has already made the rounds, but I didn't see it on after scrolling 10 pages, and it's such good news, it's definitely worth a repost! "Oakland Unified school board voted unanimously Wednesday night to eliminate willful defiance as a reason to suspend any student and to invest at least $2.3 million to expand restorative justice practices in its schools". What a beautiful commitment to the child, to meeting their actual needs rather than just sending them away with their...

Although it’s too soon to tell if integrating trauma-informed and resilience-building practices based on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) sciences is making a difference for the teens living at Home on the Range , a residential treatment center in Sentinel Butte, ND, it’s made a huge difference for the people who work there. They now understand that kids aren’t born bad. “ACEs has enlightened us,” says Mike Gooch, clinical program director for the center, which is located on a 1,600-acre...