Blog

By Jeanne Tedrow, The Business Journals, July 17, 2020 Many nonprofit leaders, along with other business and community leaders, have made public statements recently about structural racism, especially in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery and in light of the impact of COVID-19 on communities of color. These expressions offer hope that we are at a crossroads. Such remarks, including my own, assert our commitment to work together to dismantle structural...

By James Nestor, The Guardian, July 26, 2020 T he place looked like something out of an old horror film: all paint-chipped walls, dusty windows, and menacing shadows cast by moonlight. I walked through a gate, up a flight of creaking steps, and knocked on the door. When it swung open, a woman in her 30s with woolly eyebrows and oversize white teeth welcomed me inside. She asked me to take off my shoes, then led me to a cavernous living room, its ceiling painted sky blue with wispy clouds. I...

Michael Skinner is a nationally known award-winning advocate survivor addressing the issues of trauma, abuse and mental health concerns through public speaking and his music – he has spoken at the National Press Club, was a keynote presenter for a conference held by the United Nations, The State Department and Georgetown University on the sexual exploitation and trafficking of children and adults and he has appeared on many TV, radio and Internet shows – he was part of the Oprah Winfrey Shows .

Yesterday, Guy McPherson of the Trauma-Therapist Podcast shared the interview we did a few months ago. It was just after my last round of chemo and though I was tired and pale and my wig kept slipping - and also - I was super excited to be on one of my favorite podcasts and engaged in conversation. Here's an excerpt and the link to the video and audio. I appreciate how often Guy McPherson shares the perspective of trauma survivors with his podcast audience. Here's the link to the Trauma...

By Danielle Roubinov, Nicole R. Bush, and W. Thomas Boyce, JAMA Pediatrics, July 27, 2020 The reach of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is global, a health crisis with a ubiquity never before experienced. While the physical health consequences of COVID-19 appear to affect proportionally fewer children compared with adults, its psychosocial consequences may be magnified within families who consistently weather a landscape of severe stressors or adverse childhood experiences...

By Jennifer Jones and Bart Klika, The Chronicle of Social Change, July 21, 2020 As we navigate the effects of a global pandemic and economic recession, we have the opportunity to rethink the ways we provide services and supports to children and families before they find themselves in crisis. Essential to this new thinking is the realignment of our systems to make them more prevention-oriented, integrated, science-informed, and equitable, and thereby better meeting the needs of children and...

By Sheilamary Koch, Multibriefs: Exclusive, July 27, 2020 When Christina Bethell was little, she lived in a low-income housing complex in Los Angeles where her neighbor, a quiet lady the kids called Mrs. Raccoon, always had her door open for the neighborhood kids. Every Saturday she threw a little tea party with candy to celebrate any child with a birthday that week. Bethell fondly remembers the woman’s kindness as source of comfort during her challenging childhood. Dr. Bethell, now a...

By Michele Weldon, Take The Lead Women, June 22, 2020 Nonprofits in this country are failing on their diversity and inclusion efforts, even as their missions address social justice and fairness issues, according to a new report of more than 5,000 workers in nonprofits. “The sad — but unsurprising — truth is that people of color and whites have a different set of experiences in nonprofit organizations. This gap in how professionals experience their workplaces — whether they receive...

By William Finnegan, The New Yorker, July 27, 2020 In May, just days after a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, Lieutenant Bob Kroll, the bellicose leader of the city’s police union, described Floyd as a violent criminal, said that the protesters who had gathered to lament his death were terrorists, and complained that they weren’t being treated more roughly by police. Kroll, who has spoken unsentimentally about being involved in three shootings himself, said that he was...

From The Washington Post, July 17, 2020 Diversity has been on the corporate agenda for many years, but it was not until the recent Black Lives Matter protests galvanized the nation that substantial change seems possible across American industry. Fortune 500 companies are committing to new standards and hiring practices. Senior executives are reassessing pipelines to upper management and scrutinizing company culture. Ariel Investments co-CEO John W. Rogers, Jr., joins The Washington Post’s...

July 27, 2020 As a companion to Governor Tom Wolf’s multi-agency effort and anti-stigma initiative, Reach Out PA: Your Mental Health Matters, the Office of Advocacy and Reform (OAR) is releasing the “Trauma-Informed PA” plan to guide the commonwealth and service providers statewide on what it means to be trauma-informed and healing-centered in PA. This plan is the result of four months of work from OAR and the Trauma-Informed PA Think Tank, formed in February. The think tank was made up of...

With introductory remarks from Nadine Burke Harris, MD, MPH, FAAP, California Surgeon General Wednesday, July 29, 2020 Noon – 1 p.m. Register for the Webinar Presenters Brent Sugimoto, MD, MPH, FAAFP – Family Medicine Physician and New Physician Director, American Academy of Family Physicians Mimi Mateo, CNM, MSN, CDE – Certified Nurse Midwife and Clinical Director of Midwifery, North County Health Services Denise Gomez, MD, PharmD, ACP – Internal Medicine Physician and Associate Medical...