Blog

By Ashley Gebb, Photo: Jason Halley/CSU Chico, Chico State Today, November 9, 2021 What will it take to shape the next generation of social workers, individuals poised to support communities who have experienced unimaginable disaster and trauma? Perhaps there is no university better suited to address this challenge than Chico State—or at least, that’s the premise of a new course in the School of Social Work. This summer, three professionals and educators came together to teach “Contemporary...

As 2021 comes to a close, we want to take a few moments to reflect on this busy and fruitful year as we ask you to remember PACEs Connection in your year-end giving. Despite this physically and emotionally challenging time, we have so very much for which to be grateful, and we would love to share our gratitude list with you. When we practice gratitude, we’re actually practicing a very PACEs-Connection thing to do: helping our brains. Brain imaging studies, says Dr. Daniel Amen, show that “...

By Lauren Helper, Photo: Stephen Lam/The Chronicle, November 16, 2021 When Sonoo Thadaney-Israni and her husband signed the paperwork for their home in the hills above Silicon Valley in 1991, they were assured that the red flag in the fine print didn’t really matter. The couple, who immigrated to the U.S. from India a decade earlier, had been surprised to learn that the deed to the roomy house in the San Mateo County town of Ladera still included a ban on all owners and occupants “other than...

By Jeremy Loudenback, Photo: Khari and Kayla Love, The Imprint, November 15, 2021 A coalition of Los Angeles County racial justice advocates, lawyers for parents in the child welfare system, reproductive rights groups and community-based organizations is calling on elected officials to implement wide-ranging reforms to the local foster care system. The demands presented Monday to the county Board of Supervisors draw on national advocacy efforts. They include a moratorium on removing children...

By John Fensterwald, Photo: Allison Shelley/All4Ed, EdSource, November 15, 2021 A n intensive focus on reading skills. Tutoring. More mental health services. Cleaner indoor air. More teaching aides for English learners. Summer activities for more students. These are some common themes in the plans that California school districts and charter schools have adopted for spending a huge amount from the latest round of federal Covid aid: $13.6 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act that...

By Emily Alpert Reyes, Photo: Jason Armond, Los Angeles Times, November 15, 2021 Maria Guadalupe Reyes was worried about the urgent notice that had arrived, saying that her landlord was seeking to evict her from the house she rents. So she went straight to the usual place: the Martin Luther King Jr. Outpatient Center. There, the 72-year-old handed the document over to paralegal Alejandra Patlán — a familiar face with pink hair and an unflappable manner — and waited outside the little room on...

By California State Parks Foundation, November 2021 Once, millions of monarchs overwintered along the Pacific coast in California and Baja, Mexico. In the 1980s,  an estimated 4.5 million butterflies migrated to the coast annually. But by the mid-2010s, the population declined to 200-300 thousand butterflies. And in both 2018 and 2019, volunteers counted under 30,000 monarchs — less than 1% of the population’s historic size. In 2020, volunteers counted less than 2,000 monarchs — that’s less...

Please join us for our new series Education Upended: Talking Out of Turn . This monthly series will feature a conversation facilitated by Lara Kain, PACEsConnection Education Consultant , with special guests on education related current events and hot topics. We will use a trauma-informed and PACEs science aware lens to examine what is going on K-12 education, what needs changing, and strategies being used in the field to disrupt harmful policies and make positive changes in the system.

Replay Now Available Viewable through Wednesday, November 17 The Forward Together: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Protecting Children from Abuse conference had many powerful voices with empirical data, outside perspectives, culture-shifting steps, policy makers on a mission, advocates with hope and so much more. This not-to-be missed conference that provided perspective on protecting children from abuse is available to replay. The replay is available now through Wednesday, November 12 at...

By Aisling Carroll, Photo: Dr. Atul Nakhasi, California Health Care Foundation, November 2, 2021 A patient was on the phone with Atul Nakhasi, MD, internist at Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) Outpatient Center in Los Angeles, after a routine surgery in the summer of 2021. She was recovering well, and she didn’t want anything to mess with that. The vaccine for COVID-19 might, she thought. Similar to the hundreds of conversations he’s had with other patients, staff, friends, and strangers,...

By Carolyn Jones, EdSource, November 8, 2021 A mid calls for schools to diversify their teaching staffs, some are saying those efforts should extend beyond the classroom — to the counseling office. The needs of Black students, advocates argue, are too often overlooked by non-Black middle and high school counselors. Black students are more likely to be placed in classes that don’t prepare them for college or a career, subject to harsher discipline and less likely to have their mental health...

By Nathanael J. Okpych, Suggeun (Ethan) Park, Mark E. Courtney, and Jenna Powers, Chapin Hall, November 2021 Graduating from college is a life-transforming achievement for young people with foster care backgrounds. This memo provides an early look at factors that promote or stymie college degree completion by around age 23 of youths transitioning to adulthood from the foster care system. What We Did The outcome investigated in this memo is whether or not youth completed a college degree,...