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As humans, we have a basic, primal need to belong. Belonging is defined as ‘the feeling of security and support when there is a sense of acceptance, inclusion, and identity for a member of a certain group . It is when an individual can bring their authentic self to others, including friendships, family and work.’ Feeling disconnected, unimportant, or not cared about can translate into feelings of loneliness. This has led to much of the suffering our society is experiencing today. Cigna...

By Andrew Freedman, Axios, August 18, 2021 President Biden will nominate Charles F. Sams III to be the next director of the National Park Service, where, if confirmed by the Senate, he'll face the growing toll of global warming on the U.S. iconic park system, the White House stated Wednesday. Why it matters: Sams is of Native American heritage, and the Park Service has never been led by an enrolled tribal member before. In addition, the Park Service has not had a Senate-confirmed leader...

By Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, The Washington Post, August 19, 2021 The Biden administration moved Thursday to grant 323,000 people who are severely disabled automatic federal student loan forgiveness to the tune of $5.8 billion, setting the stage for reforms to a process that is widely criticized as cumbersome and onerous. “The Department of Education is evolving practices to make sure that we’re keeping the borrowers first and that we’re providing relief without having them jump through...

By Jessica Perez and Abby Boshart, Housing Matters, August 18, 2021 Rent relief gained national attention last week, when the federal eviction moratorium lapsed before a new protection was enacted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for areas with high rates of COVID-19 spread. As of June, state and local rental assistance programs had distributed only around $3 billion of the more than $47 billion in federal funding allocated for emergency rental assistance (ERA). Although...

By JJIE Staff, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, August 19, 2021 Juvenile offenders participating in a 30-year-old project diverting youth from detention to community-based programs were less likely to cycle back into incarceration than those not enrolled in such projects, according to an evaluation recently released by the San Francisco organization launching that pioneering program. By comparison, 51.3% of youth in the diversion program and 73.7% of those on probation recidivated ,...

More often than people wish to think, folks go to mental health specialists and receive a misdiagnosis. This isn’t entirely the professional’s fault as they are bound to the diagnosis they choose by the symptoms and traits described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) which is currently in its fifth edition. This article will focus on how two mental health disorders, bipolar disorder, and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD), and how the latter is...

By Amanda Winn, 8/19/21, positiveexperience.org/blog Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing examples of how different organizations from our HOPE Innovation Network (HIN) have added elements of the HOPE framework into their day-to-day practice. This HOPE in Practice blog series hopes to shine a light on what HOPE looks like in different settings, from pediatric clinics to substance use treatment and the local YMCA. We are starting the series in Lake of the Woods, Minnesota. When an...

For many adults suffering from obesity, the root cause of weight gain is unresolved ACEs because food is used as the “substance” of choice to cope. Luckily, there's a solution.

Despite institutional child sexual abuse being a known and alarming issue, most recently highlighted by investigations of the Boy Scouts and USA Gymnastics, little is known about the extent of the problem and best practices for prevention. Yesterday, PACEs Connection hosted a webinar with Dr. Billie-Jo Grant and Terri Miller, experts in school employee sexual misconduct. They cover the scope of the problem, why it is so difficult to address, and best practices for prevention.

By Veronica Chambers, The New York Times, August 18, 2021 The spring and early summer of 2020 was a tough time for me and many other parents. The deaths of George Floyd , Breonna Taylor and the spotlight on previous victims such as Elijah McClain broke our hearts again and again as we watched graphic videos of police-involved killings and stayed glued to the news. There were days that I woke up crying and went to bed crying. I tried to hide these tears from my daughter. But she had just...

This article appears with explicit permission of RACMonitor; a version of this story was published 8/19/21 There was tremendous buzz last week about the U.S. Census report on shifting demographics across the country. Yet the greater concern in the area of the social determinants of health (SDoH) is mitigating prevailing gaps in care. What happens when society’s most vulnerable populations grow due to a pandemic? Just how much trauma can populations endure? Healthcare history was made when...

By JJIE Staff, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, August 18, 2021 Following its July 2017 resolution urging a shift in how juvenile probationers are supervised, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges recently issued its blueprint for how judges and probation officers help make that happen. Based, in part, on results of that organization’s 2020 survey of family court judges across the country, “The Role of the Judge in Transforming Juvenile Probation: A Toolkit for...