Video

An amazing must watch documentary. With unprecedented access over the course of a year this feature-length documentary, Love Them First — Lessons from Lucy Laney Elementary, follows the determination of a charismatic north Minneapolis elementary school principal, Mauri Melander Friestleben, as she sets out to undo history. Not only does the state have the largest achievement gap between black and white children in the United States, Friestleben faced another seemingly impossible obstacle,...

Can a school save a community? Oyler profiles how a "community school" helped fuel a dramatic turnaround in one of Cincinnati's most poverty-stricken neighborhoods, part of a growing national movement to help poor children succeed by meeting their basic health, social, and nutritional needs at school. Before 2006, very few kids from the Lower Price Hill area finished high school, much less went to college. The neighborhood is Urban Appalachian--an insular community with roots in the coal...

Getting into college for disadvantaged students is only half the battle. Anthony Abraham Jack, Assistant Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, reveals how and why they struggle and explains what schools can do differently if these students are to thrive. He urges us to grapple with a simple fact: access is not inclusion. A nthony Abraham Jack is a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and Assistant Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Everyone makes assumptions about people they don’t know. Melanie will teach us to recognize these assumptions and work toward a common understanding. Ms. Melanie Funchess is currently employed by the Mental Health Association where she serves as the Director of Community Engagement. She is also involved in several community based coalitions and organizations such as the African American Leadership...

More than two decades ago, two respected researchers, clinical physician Dr. Vincent Felitti and CDC epidemiologist Robert Anda, published the game-changing Adverse Childhood Experiences Study . It revealed a troubling but irrefutable phenomenon: the more traumatic experiences the respondents had as children (such as physical and emotional abuse and neglect), the more likely they were to develop health problems later in life—problems such as cancer, heart disease, and high blood pressure. To...

We need to understand how scarcity affects the way we lead and teach, we have to engage with vulnerability and we need to learn how to recognize and combat shame. What would it mean for our schools and classrooms if we showed up for tough, honest conversations about what it takes to bring our best, most authentic selves to work? These conversations may sound risky and vulnerable, but risk and vulnerability are essential to courageous schools. A daring classroom is a place where both teachers...

How is Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome different from PTSD? Dr. Joy DeGruy explains how trauma can be passed on generation after generation. POST TRAUMATIC SLAVE SYNDROME As a result of twelve years of quantitative and qualitative research Dr. DeGruy has developed her theory of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, and published her findings in the book Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome – America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing”. The book addresses the residual impacts of generations of slavery...

Building relationships of healing, redemption and reconciliation in families and communities impacted by crime and mass incarceration. We cannot talk about healing communities without talking about restorative justice.

The 90-minute professional webinar will introduce family support professionals to the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study and deepen their understanding of ACEs science which shows how toxic stress in childhood influences health for a lifetime. They will learn how using an ACEs science lens allows them to reframe behavior from “what’s wrong with you” to “what happened to you”. Participants will discover tools and resources available at ww.acesconnection.com , the world’s largest...

Working together creates empowerment. Thunder Valley CDC is a community development organization that is working with the local grassroots people and national organizations in the development of a sustainable regenerative community, that creates jobs, builds homes and creates a National model for alleviating poverty in America’s poorest communities. Nick is a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation and the founding Executive Director of the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation. Nick...

As we work towards healing communities, it is imperative we understand the difference between gentrification and revitalization. Gentrification is a term that people throw around a lot, but it’s often oversimplified as neighborhood revitalization. In an enlightening talk, urban planning scholar Stacey Sutton shows us the true costs of gentrification. Stacey Sutton teaches at Columbia University. She thinks deeply about our common misconceptions around gentrification. This talk was given on...

Protective and promotive factors are vital. The Youth Thrive framework (PDF) can be found in our RESOURCE section.