Blog

Inspiring others to find hope in crisis. Crisis and trauma were part of Shelly Pinomaki’s life from the beginning. Her gift for teaching and speaking shines through her own inspiring story of finding hope in tragedy. As a survivor of trauma, Shelly knows firsthand how critical crisis training is, and she’s using her voice to make a difference.

Have you ever wondered what is the motivating force it that relates to how you behave in intimate relationships and how you treat your children? Have you asked yourself how you choose the relationships that you attracted to? The leading theory in psychology today is called Attachment Theory, and for the next several weeks in October, we are going to explore it and its consequences in depth.

By Mike Duffy, ABC 10, February 5, 2020 There is a growing problem on the streets of California, and it could be the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the country. Seniors are increasingly finding themselves homeless, priced out of highly competitive housing and rental markets. After working for years, many are living on fixed incomes that simply cannot compete with the rise in the cost of living. Without adequate familial and community support, some of these individuals are finding...

By Molly Duffy, The Gazette, February 4, 2020 Last Sunday morning, at Gospel Tabernacle Church, Linda Topinka and a few dozen others sat in red pews and listened to young Cedar Rapidians talk about their experiences with gun violence. Topinka, 71, believes city leaders need to listen more to residents who are directly affected by violence in Cedar Rapids — where two young men, 18 and 22, were shot and killed in January. “We need people from the community to be a part of this,” said Topinka,...

By Caroline Preston, The Hechinger Report, February 6, 2020 Charles Golding looked for two things when he was researching colleges: a top economics program and a connection to his native culture. A Google search led him to the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, a state flagship school with prize-winning economists and a history of indigenous activism. The university’s Department of American Indian Studies, founded in 1969, is the oldest such program in the country, and it’s located in the...

By Urban Institute, February 5, 2020 Housing court in Saint Paul, Minnesota, opens just before 9 a.m. on a frigid Tuesday in early November. Dozens of nervous tenants file in, checking in with the clerk at the front of the room and then finding a seat on the long, padded benches angled toward the podium. There isn’t much privacy in this small space, but there’s no question why people are here: it’s housing court, and every case involves an eviction. Ramsey County and the surrounding region...

By Angeline Spain, Angela Sander, and Amanda Brownd, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, 2020 Pediatric well-child visits represent a critical, often untapped opportunity to ask families about unmet social care needs and connect them with early childhood and other community services. Innovating in this space to address social determinants of health, early childhood organizations are increasingly building healthcare partnerships with the goal of increasing family access to services and...

By Will Carruthers, Pacific Sun, February 5, 2020 North Bay residents don’t appreciate the scale of a crime happening all around them, despite an increased effort at public outreach over the past decade, according to a local nonprofit director. “Human trafficking happens every single day,” says Christine Castillo, the executive director of Verity, a Sonoma County nonprofit that offers services and support to trafficking victims and sometimes coordinates with law-enforcement agencies...

By Reggie Ellis, The Sun-Gazette, February 5, 2020 Visalia has the highest percentage of homeless people with highest need in the entire country. The Sun-Gazette reported last week that Tulare and Kings County, where most of the homeless population lives in Visalia, had the highest percentage nationwide of unsheltered, chronically homeless people, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2018 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress. Nearly one-third of the...

From The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, February 5, 2020 The Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program (AMFDP) offers four-year postdoctoral research awards to physicians, dentists, and nurses from historically disadvantaged backgrounds. Scholars should be committed to working toward eliminating health disparities by achieving senior rank in academic medicine, dentistry, or nursing. The program provides scholars with: development of research, academic, and leadership skills; ongoing...

From Mandy Davis, Trauma Informed Oregon, February 6, 2020 Why is Safety Important? As many of you know, it is important to me that I know why I am doing something. When I know why, I can modify and innovate to best meet my practice. So why is safety important in TIC? I realize that this may seem like a simple question and often people say, “Well, safety is important because a survivor has experienced so much harm so it is hard for them to feel safe.” But why is the sense of safety even...

Rising temperatures caused by global heating are likely to increase deaths from road crashes, violence, suicides and drowning, according to new research, and will affect young people most. Deaths from injuries have long been known to be seasonal, and the new analysis uses data on nearly 6 million deaths in the US to calculate the impacts of a 2C rise in temperature. People tend to go outside more and drink more alcohol on hotter days, while higher temperatures are known to increase rates of...