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Growing this podcast. Growing its reach. Growing the hope. Thank you for tuning in!

Thank you for listening in on this thought-provoking conversation with ACEs Connection member, Karen Zilberstein, discussing her philosophies and work in the parenting arena. Thank you, Karen, for helping shine the light of hope into the lives of those who might be struggling in their parenting roles due to additional pressures and lack of resources.

Resilience, or the ability to overcome challenges in life, is a trait many parents hope their children will develop. Resilient children are more likely to have good emotional and mental health. Research has shown that children who know more about their families and family history are more resilient and tend to do better when facing challenges in life. This may be because seeing patterns of overcoming failures and surviving hard times can help children recognize that people can recover and...

Louis Boria, a.k.a. Brooklyn Boy, at right, shows New Visions sophomore Russell Arnold, 16, at center left, and other students a new knitting pattern during his two-hour workshop with the Knitting Club at New Visions School on Blue Hills Avenue in Hartford. After Louis Boria heard about the student knitters of Hartford, he came to Connecticut with a message — and a challenge. “Fall in love with your passion. Love yourself first,” Boria — the founder of his own knitting company, Brooklyn Boy...

Nearly 7,000 miles separate the U.S. west coast from Christchurch, New Zealand. But the attack on two mosques that left 49 dead and 20 more injured during Friday’s afternoon prayers feels close. It feels close because we, too, have witnessed the tragic consequences of violent Islamophobia in the United States. We remember the two victims stabbed on a Portland train . We remember the man who was shot and killed in Olathe, Kansas . We remember Nazma Khanam , Maulama Akonjee and Abdisamad...

Today I received a message from a former student who is now a grown man. My favorite memory about him was his big beautiful smile. I have not seen him for at least a decade, if not longer. He found me on Facebook a few months ago and today he sent me this message: Never doubt that those moments of care, the ones where we have to dig really deep to take care of one more student, may just be the moment that makes all the difference. My student, with the biggest smile, was hiding a very sad and...

Like many states, New York has a bail law that is half a century old. The legal rules that in 2010 made it possible for 16-year-old Kalief Browder to be jailed on Rikers Island for three years for allegedly stealing a backpack—just because his family couldn’t pay $3,000 in bail to get him out—all remain on the books. Criminal justice reformers around the country are admonishing the Empire State to change its system, arguing that having to pay money to get out of jail unfairly targets the...

In light of the scandal in university admissions that broke on Tuesday, this article by Clifton Mark on all of the fallacies embedded in our attachment to the notion of meritocracy should have particular resonance. The article came out last week but perhaps can be used to capture a fuller set of learnings from the admissions scandal. The title of the piece is, “ A belief in meritocracy is not only false: it’s bad for you. ” Mark makes the case through research that a belief in meritocracy is...

Talking ACEs in Nova Scotia - Elizabeth Perry joins Charlene Pickrem on her community radio program Mental Health: Let's talk about it.

I know from personal experience that trauma can be life-changing, but I didn’t know that volunteering to talk about trauma could change my life. And the lives of others. First, if you don’t mind, a little background. I’d visited Petersburg, Virginia , over the years because my brother and sister-in-law live and work in the area. I loved it! My brother’s colorful tours of Old Towne and Pocahontas Island were educational and entertaining. My sister-in-law’s encouragement to eat in local...

SALEM, Ore. - Oregon's next State Health Improvement Plan will take on social factors that can affect people’s health, including exposure to racism, childhood trauma, living-wage jobs, food security and access to health care, the Oregon Health Authority said Friday. The PartnerSHIP, a steering committee responsible for developing the 2020-2024 SHIP, determined the priorities during a meeting on Feb. 12. They include: Institutional bias : This is defined as the systematic distribution of...

Imagine identifying a toxin so potent it could rewire a child’s brain and erode his immune system. A substance that, in high doses, tripled the risk of heart disease and lung cancer and reduced life expectancy by 20 years. And then realizing that tens of millions of American children had been exposed. Dr. @Nadine Burke Harris, California’s newly appointed surgeon general, will tell you this is not a hypothetical scenario. She is a leading voice in a movement trying to transform our...