Blog

By David L. Kirp, The New York Times, April 25, 2021 The boy I’ll call Jackson is the kind of youngster who drives a preschool teacher around the bend. The 4-year-old bites and hits other children, and curses out his teacher, Mariana Lopez. During circle time, when the class is supposed to cluster around and listen to one another, he is a hellion, and nap time turns into a pitched battle. Preschool teachers rely on parents to relate what’s happening on the home front, but Jackson’s mom...

By Katie Jane Fernelius, The Appeal, April 21, 2021 In recent years, prosecutors on a mission to challenge mass incarceration have been using their power to keep people out of prison, but now they’re beginning to turn their attention to those who are already locked up. Few have pursued this as promptly and publicly as Jason Williams, the new district attorney of New Orleans, who may be setting the bar for DAs nationwide. And this focus could be transformative in New Orleans, the largest city...

By Ashley Vaughan, CNN Health, April 20, 2021 "There is a difference between being informed and getting retraumatized." That's what clinical therapist Paul Bashea Williams tells himself and his clients as they struggle with the distressing images that resurfaced during the Derek Chauvin trial. The proceeding churned up a persistent trauma. The frequent replay of George Floyd's final moments may have left many feeling raw, vulnerable and without relief. [ Please click here to read more .]

It’s always stressful to do things that scare you, but, generally speaking, it usually helps you learn something. Last year, our NGO, Jojo's Sanctuary , was invited by Carmen Filbeck, the director of Lanna Theological College in Chiang Mai, Thailand, to come teach a course about child protection and trauma informed care to the seminary students there. The goal was to broaden the educational curriculum of the school and prepare the students to work with children and adults who may have...

Hi Folks, The latest edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php Once again I've tried to create a mix of articles, videos, music, books, podcasts, resources, etc, that offer Hope, Healing & Help. As the saying goes, “ Take what you like and leave the rest. ” or here's the PDF - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/pdfs/2021-04-The_Surviving_Spirit_Newsletter_April_2021.pdf To sign up for an e-mail copy, please...

Written By Teju Ravilochan . Some months ago, I was catching up with my dear friend and board member, Roberto Rivera . As an entrepreneur and community organizer with a doctorate and Lin-Manuel-Miranda-level freestyle abilities, he is a teacher to me in many ways. I was sharing with him that for a long time, I’ve struggled with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs . The traditional interpretation of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is that humans need to fulfill their needs at one level before we can...

Developing intimate connection with even one other person can create fertile soil for social transformation.

Wednesday, April 28, 2021 Noon - 1 p.m. Register Here On April 28, 2021, join us for the first in a series of webinars that will explore research demonstrating how racism and other forms of discrimination can serve as risk factors to activate a toxic stress response, and lead to health conditions that have been empirically associated with exposure to Adverse Childhood Experiences ( ACEs ). Presenters: Nadine Burke Harris, MD, MPH, FAAP – California Surgeon General Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH –...

We carry our story - from toxic stress to excitement - in our body. Peter Levine states, "Trauma is not in the event itself; rather trauma resides in the nervous system." So, what if you could use your body as a resource to relax and restore wellness? At our upcoming Yoga for Trauma Recovery training, we will teach people how to use their body (or guide others) to practice resonant breath, rhythmic exercises, and tools to heal from trauma. In addition, we will also be having our first ever...

April 29, 2021 from 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM (EDT) During the last decade, there has been an increasing understanding of how the social determinants of health (e.g., systemic and environmental challenges such as poverty, poor housing, and poor health care) affect the health and well-being of young children and their families. The multi-faceted nature of these challenges led many communities and states to build – or expand – initiatives from multiple sectors, disciplines, and systems to join to...

By Cecilia Nowell, The Lily, April 20, 2021 Growing up in Canada, Agnes Woodward, who’s Plains Cree and originally from Kawacatoose First Nation, always knew that her family cared deeply about missing and murdered Indigenous women. In the 1990s, she watched as her aunt Mona and a few others began trying to draw attention to the lacking police response when Indigenous women went missing: They would hold up images of missing friends on street corners. In 1992, they organized the first march in...

By Jack P. Shonkoff, Natalie Slopen, and Davie Williams, Annual Review of Public Heath, April 2021 Abstract Inequalities in health outcomes impose substantial human and economic costs on all societies—and the relation between early adversity and lifelong well-being presents a rich scientific framework for fresh thinking about health promotion and disease prevention broadly, augmented by a deeper focus on how racism influences disparities more specifically. This review begins with an overview...