Blog

By April Dembosky, National Public Radio, September 30, 2021 When Billy Lemon was trying to kick his methamphetamine addiction, he went to a drug treatment program at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation three times a week and peed in a cup. If it tested negative for meth, he got paid about $7. "For somebody who had not had any legitimate money – without committing felonies – that seemed like a cool thing," says Lemon, who was arrested three times for selling meth before starting recovery. The...

By Anna Maria Barry-Jester, Kaiser Health News, October 5, 2021 The tipping point for Dr. Paula Braveman came when a longtime patient of hers at a community clinic in San Francisco’s Mission District slipped past the front desk and knocked on her office door to say goodbye. He wouldn’t be coming to the clinic anymore, he told her, because he could no longer afford it. It was a decisive moment for Braveman, who decided she wanted not only to heal ailing patients but also to advocate for...

By Madison Hunt, The Imprint, October 1, 2021 A s Broadway reopens in New York City, a courageous and lesser-known group of actors also takes to the stage this weekend, after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. Nine teens raised in government care are performing through Sunday at Brooklyn’s Mark O’Donnell Theater, their unfiltered and personal struggles presented in “Foster Care Unplugged, The Stage Play Part Two.” The production, created with the financial support of the city’s...

By Emily Elena Dugdale and Irena Hwang, ProPublica, September 29, 2021 Barron Gardner, a high school history teacher in Southern California’s Antelope Valley, stared down Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies during an online meeting in April, trying to keep his composure. Gardner, 41, had become a reluctant spokesperson for a growing movement, driven primarily by Black and Latino residents, to get LASD deputies off school campuses. His wife, who's also a teacher, worried about...

The trauma-informed community networks of Virginia ( VA TICNs ) are hosting Community Conversations with First Lady Pamela Northam and members of the Children’s Cabinet as part of the First Lady’s Road to Resilience Tour throughout the Commonwealth in October. Network representatives will have the opportunity to share examples of resilience in their communities, as well as needs relating to children, families, and the workforce amidst the ongoing trauma of the pandemic. The conversations...

Building SEL and MHL are both critical to improving school mental health. According to recent discussions with thought-leaders at PBIS, it is recommended that SEL is integrated following school mental health and school wide positive behavior supports (Weist et al, 2018). We are missing the boat if we are excluding Mental Health Literacy (MHL) and mental health education training.

This is COLLABORATION! Since 2015, Healing Within Studio and EmpowerSurvivors have collaborated on a number of projects. EmpowerSurvivors is a local 501c3 nonprofit t that supports adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Collaboration is an effective tool for reaching more of those in need in our community. It also allows for developing programs that better meet very specific needs. Plus we truly enjoy working with each other. Building Emotional Resilience led by Liz Stoeckmann is our...

If Jamaican poet, children’s book author, and appointee to the nation’s Task Force on Character Education, Juleus Ghunta had his way, all 44 million people living in the Caribbean—from Barbados to Guyana to Grenada—would become PACEs-informed in the near future. To start off, everyone—including children, parents, teachers, social workers, doctors, and policymakers—needs to read his new book, Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows: A Story about ACEs and Hope , due out this December, just in time for...

Juleus Ghunta’s empowering book Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows—A Story about ACEs and Hope , vibrantly illustrated by Rachel Moss, is a much-needed story of a boy who experiences Shadows that interfere with his ability to read because they make his mind “flicker like a hurricane,” go blank, and sometimes race and “refuse to shut down.” This is an affirming, normalizing contextualization of how bad events and scary experiences, now understood from the science of adverse childhood experiences...

No doubt about it, things are tough for all of us, and educators need a place and space to humanize and normalize what we are all experiencing. Dovetail Learning is hosting another Educator Resilience Circle starting Wednesday Oct. 13th (3:30pm PST/6:30 EST) each week for 55minutes to support you with non-evaluative coaching in our We Are Resilient™ framework. We invite you to jump in and join this opportunity to meet colleagues and get time with me, Coach Bryan :) Educator Resilience Circle...

Community schools have been an effective school improvement strategy for over a century, implemented in both urban and rural areas across the country — yet many people have never heard of this dynamic approach to school design. Whole districts have invested in this model over the past several decades, from Oakland to New York City, from Duluth, Minnesota to Tulsa, Oklahoma. California recently approved $2.8 billion in the 2022 fiscal year budget for the implementation of community schools...

October 13, 2021 - October 15, 2021 VIRTUAL ONLY 2021 West Virginia Handle With Care Conference is now VIRTUAL ONLY. This event will be held on October 13-15 and sessions will be streamed for virtual participants. 3 Days | 30+ Sessions | Virtual Exhibits | Networking Opportunities Join us for the 2021 WV Handle with Care VIRTUAL Conference! With over 30 presenters and sessions, this event will focus on a trauma-informed response to child maltreatment and children’s exposure to violence. The...