Tagged With "Virginia"

Social workers, law enforcement officers and other children’s advocates gathered Wednesday for the first day of the West Virginia Children’s Justice “Handle With Care” Conference to learn more about child trauma, intervention and ways to help children become successful. In a state that leads the nation for opioid overdose deaths and babies born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, West Virginia children are often witnesses to and victims of trauma. The West Virginia Defending Childhood...

By Samantha Michaels, Mother Jones, January 22, 2020 Antonio was tired of people calling him names. Staff members at the Virginia juvenile hall where he was held would call him pendejo and “onion head,” he said. After fleeing violence in Mexico at age 15 and arriving alone at the US border, he’d been sent to Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center in 2016 and held alongside American teens while he awaited immigration proceedings. Shenandoah is one of two juvenile halls nationally that the Office...

Service providers and the children, youth, and families whom they serve have long faced system barriers which often present more challenges than solutions. In today’s climate, the COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated many of these issues, forcing child and youth-serving providers to find unique ways to meet the needs of individuals and communities. For many reasons, the relevance and timing of the arrival of the Virginia HEALS model of service delivery could not have been more perfect.