Blog

By Kids Count Data Center, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, September 27, 2019 In 2018, 13 million children in the United States — 18% of all kids — were living in poverty, and for the first time since 2014, the percentage did not decrease compared to the previous year. This is discouraging news; all children should have the economic security that provides them the opportunity to thrive. However, the share of children in poverty remains significantly lower than its recent peak of 23%, seen in...

By Stephanie Gidigbi, SPARCC, October 2019 Dr. Hanaa Hamdi, Director of Health Impact Investment Strategies and Partnerships for New Jersey Community Capital, sat down with NRDC’s Stephanie Gidigbi of the SPARCC national team to expand on a SPARCC Virtual Learning Conversation event highlighting the vital importance of parks in the health and well-being of communities. Stephanie Gidigbi: We got so much good feedback after hearing your keynote at the Virtual Learning Conversation event and...

Given the way the media portray opioid addiction, it's natural to react with panic or moral outrage when you discover your child struggling with the problem. It's not natural to calm down and try to view your child as someone who is using opioids to cope with serious problems, though that is likely the case, according to research.

By A. Hosack, P. Berman & K. Hecht It happened so fast. They are trusting me. This feels unreal. Larry was so very tired, but his brain wouldn’t shut off. He couldn’t stop thinking about how different his life was now. All these people around him had such trust for each other. Why? He and the monks had been at the hospital for a day and a half. Only Larry had money, so he had bought food for everyone- they were so grateful to him. How could they be grateful to him? Didn’t they understand...

By K. Hecht, A. Hosack, & P. Berman Hey, are you okay? Hey, wake up? Larry is crouching down next to the driver whose head has fallen against the front wheel of the bus. Talking to him gently, Larry was trying to help the driver regain consciousness. He didn’t smell sour, so it wasn’t a problem with drinking too much. Could it be drugs? Finally, the driver groans. Larry helps him slide out from behind the wheel, a monk has gotten up and takes one side of the man as Larry takes the other...

Communities Coming Together at Trauma-Informed Chicago Summit: Connecting for a Resilient Future The Illinois ACEs Response Collaborative was thrilled to cohost “Trauma-Informed Chicago Summit: Connecting for a Resilient Future" with the Chicago Department of Public Health on Thursday, September 12 th at the University of Illinois at Chicago Forum. A sold-out crowd of more than 500 attendees from across Chicago gathered to get updates on Chicago’s commitment to becoming a trauma-informed...

By Mark Walker, The New York Times, October 15, 2019 When 6-month-old James Ladeaux got his second upper respiratory infection in a month, the doctor at the Sioux San Indian Health Service Hospital reassured his mother, Robyn Black Lance, that it was only a cold. But 12 hours later James was struggling to breathe. Ms. Black Lance rushed her son back to the hospital in western South Dakota, where the doctors said they did not have the capacity to treat him and transferred him to a private...

By Claudia Boyd-Barrett, California Health Report, October 15, 2019 Nearly 1.2 million California children live in low-income neighborhoods, a number that has decreased in the decade since the Great Recession, but remains troubling, researchers said in a new report. Research has shown that the type of neighborhood low-income children live in can influence their health. Children who live in low-income neighborhoods are less likely than those in more affluent areas to have access to quality...

By The Chronicle of Social Change, October 2019 Who Cares is the nation’s first public resource on foster care capacity. The Chronicle of Social Change collects data directly from each state, and combines that with specially obtained federal reports to shed light on two critical questions: How many kids are in foster care today? And where are they living? This year the data suggests that nationwide, the number of youth in care is going down, and the number of foster homes is going up. But...

By SPARCC, October 2019 In the nonprofit world, it can take up to a year or more to get the money together to fund a program or development. So, when Jose Esparza, executive director of BuCu West Denver, a local economic development nonprofit, saw an opportunity to help a startup company expand in the predominantly blue-collar, Latino neighborhood of Westwood, he knew what he was up against. A building had just become available that would be perfect for the growing bottling company, but he...

By Terry Gross, National Public Radio, October 15, 2019 Ronan Farrow's 2017 exposé of the sexual misconduct allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein in The New Yorker earned him a Pulitzer Prize and helped usher in the #MeToo movement. Now, in his new book, Catch and Kill, Farrow writes about the extreme tactics Weinstein allegedly used in an attempt to keep him from reporting the story. "Harvey Weinstein's attorneys ... signed a contract with this Israeli private intelligence firm...

By Angeline Spain, Angela Sander, and Amanda Brown, Chapin Hall at The University of Chicago, October 2019 Healthcare in the U.S. is increasingly moving “upstream” to address the risk of social determinants of health. One common strategy is the early screening of needs and connection to services. Chapin Hall, in collaboration with national and local partners, is conducting an evaluation of innovations designed to promote screening for contributors to toxic stress during pediatric well-child...