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By Maya Brown and Emma Tucker, CNN US, October 30, 2021 When Philadelphia's mayor signs landmark legislation as soon as this week, the city will become the first major US city to ban police from stopping drivers for low-level traffic violations -- stops that studies show target Black drivers at disproportionately higher rates. The Driving Equality Bill , passed 14-2 by the city council on October 14, categorizes certain motor vehicle code violations as "primary violations," which allow...

By Sravya Tadepalli, The Lily, October 29, 2021 Today, reporting to the police is often the easiest way for survivors of intimate partner violence to access services and protections provided through the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) , first signed in 1994. But amid growing calls to limit police involvement in various aspects of life — especially as police mishandling of domestic cases makes headlines — some programs are seeking to provide alternatives. A 2015 study from the National...

From Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, October 26, 2021 Today the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) announced the ten communities chosen to receive the 2020–2021 RWJF Culture of Health Prize. The Prize honors and elevates communities at the forefront of advancing health, opportunity, and equity for all. The 2020–2021 Prize winners are: Addison, Ill.; Alamosa County, Colo.; Chickaloon Native Village; Drew, Miss.; Howard County, Md.; National City, Calif.; Palm Beach County, Fla.; Rocky...

Childhood should be a carefree time full of learning and joy. However, many children aren’t that lucky and grow up in homes that are dysfunctional and abusive. These encounters are known as adverse childhood experiences and change the future of the child forever. One question that burns in the minds of many survivors and researchers alike is how do positive childhood experiences (PCEs) come into play? Can positive childhood experiences help an abused child cope in some way? This article will...

By Ellen Lawton and Bethany Hamilton, Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy, October 20, 2021 Social ills, such as substandard housing and food insecurity, fuel sicknesses that our health care system must then address. What we don’t often consider—but should—is that many of these social and structural problems are also legal problems. As such, they may have legal solutions. Health care workers (and health care budgets) feel the brunt of these injustices. When there isn’t enough safe...

By Basma Alawee and Taryn Higashi, Stanford Social Innovation Review, October 28, 2021 As tens of thousands of Afghans have been forced to flee their country over the last few months, I’ve been listening to Afghans in the United States, worrying both for their families in Afghanistan and for new arrivals now facing an uncertain future. Their stories are often similar to my own, when—due to my husband’s work as an interpreter for the US military—I fled Iraq in 2010, in the middle of the night...

By Ally Schweitzer, DCist, October 22, 2021 The socioeconomic benefits of affordable housing are well-documented . Research has demonstrated that increased access to affordable housing is the most cost-effective way to both reduce childhood poverty and increase economic mobility. But what about its positive effects on health? That question is at the center of a new peer-reviewed study by two professors at George Washington University, who set out to examine the relationship between...

In this time of real need for mental health intervention, consider attending (virtually) this conference. Here is the material and hope to see you there. Our students need us to understand trauma and its symptomology. Date: Nov. 4 from 8 -- 2:30. Come for all or some of the event. https://www.massachusettspta.org/2021-health-summit-agenda/

Recording of Called to Care 2021 New Orleans Virtual Summit A one-day virtual summit held on Tuesday, October 26, 2021 to promote compassionate healing in New Orleans for our children, youth, and their families. Building on the 2019 New Orleans Summit on Compassion & Resilience and Called to Care strategic plan and report , the Called to Care: 2021 New Orleans Virtual Summit brought together mental health and well-being practitioners, community members, sector and systems leaders, and...

Native American Heritage Month Events Please join us this November to celebrate Native American Heritage Month. Virtual lectures include an Indigenous food cooking demonstration, Indigenae Podcast screening and discussion, a beading workshop and a keynote address on November 17 featuring Oren Lyons and Thomas Banyacya Jr. Indigenous Food Cooking Demonstration - November 2, 12:00pm EDT REGISTER: https://bit.ly/CAIHxPFG Indigenae screening & discussion - November 8, 12:00pm EDT REGISTER:...

By Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, October, 28, 2021 In 1929, October 28 was a Monday, the opening night for New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Four thousand glittering attendees thronged to the elegant building on foot or in one of a thousand limousines to see Puccini’s Manon Lescaut , the melodramatic story of an innocent French girl seduced by wealth, whose reluctance to leave her riches for true love leads to her arrest, deportation to the wilds of America, and tragic...

By David R.M. Beck, Next City, October 25, 2021 T he National Day of Remembrance for Native American children honors children who died years ago while attending the United States’ Indian boarding schools each Sept. 30. On that day this year, a bill was reintroduced in both the Senate and the House to establish an American Indian Truth and Healing Commission on Indian boarding schools. The bill’s purposes include both truth-seeking and healing. It asks “to formally investigate and document”...