Blog

California will increase the amount of money new parents can receive through the state's paid family leave program under a bill to be signed on Monday by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, his office said Friday. The measure, passed last month by the state legislature, would increase the amount paid to new parents or people caring for a sick family member to as much as 70 percent of their regular income for the poorest workers, up from 55 percent. Those earning more would still get an increase...

Join this webinar to learn or teach staff how to understand trauma and identify how to apply trauma-informed principles even in non-clinical work.

As the connection between exposure to trauma and long-term health conditions becomes clear, the health care sector is beginning to focus on how to best care for patients with a history of trauma. For many people, trauma may increase their risk of serious health issues leading to poor health outcomes and higher medical and social service costs. Health care providers can address patients’ traumatic experiences and their associated health effects by implementing trauma-informed approaches to...

Santa Ana Unified School District officials -- who as recently as five years ago were heavily criticized for being too quick to kick kids out of school for behavior problems -- are now being credited for a steep decline in out-of-school suspensions. While school suspensions and expulsions declined statewide by more than 33 percent between the 2011-12 and 2014-15 school years, in Santa Ana suspensions dropped by 58 percent during the same time period, The decline is due not only to a...

Following the passage of Proposition 47—which reduced the penalties for certain drug and property crimes in California—the jail population declined by 9 percent. This is among the key findings of a report released today by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC). The reduction in the jail population freed space that counties could use to hold more serious offenders. As a result, early releases due to jail capacity constraints declined by 65 percent in the group of counties operating...

This was produced by KPJR Films, and edited by Jen Bradwell.

Pat Sidmore, our expert for all things data and ACEs and a planner for the Alaska Mental Health Board, Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, has collected new data that outlines when Alaska's children (0-17) acquire their ACEs. The slide below paints a pretty grim picture showing that our children are accumulating 50 percent of their ACEs before the age of 3, and more than 26% of them before the age of 1. Please feel free to share this slide as you see fit.

Los Angeles County elected officials are preparing to consider an overhaul of the county's system for defending minors accused of crimes, following the release of a report that found attorneys contracted by the county to represent juveniles get fewer resources and less oversight than those in other counties. Youths whose families can't afford a lawyer and who can't be represented by the public defender's office because of a conflict of interest are represented by county-contracted private...

A plan to raise California's minimum wage to $15 passed its first legislative hurdle on Wednesday, clearing a key committee and putting the state on track to become the first in the nation to commit to such a large raise for the working poor. If passed by the full state legislature, the plan by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown would commit the state, home to one of the world's biggest economies, to raising the minimum wage to $ 15 an hour from the current $ 10 by 2022 for large businesses and...

Frequent smokers of marijuana tend to earn less, occupy a lower social class than their parents and have more domestic problems than people who don’t use pot, a long-range study concluded. An international research team followed subjects from birth to their late 30s, and measured the outcomes of people who regularly smoked cannabis four or more days a week. The findings were released this week by the UC Davis Health System. Magdalena Cerda, a chief author and epidemiologist with the...

About 80 percent of the homeless people in Merced County first became homeless while living within the county, and about the same portion still think of it as home, according to a recently completed survey. The survey of 104 homeless people followed a census of homeless conducted earlier this year by Continuum of Care, a coalition of advocates and service providers. Results were released Monday by leaders of Urban Initiatives, a Pasadena-based nonprofit that organizes the Continuum. more by...

In a happy coincidence, Haven Women’s Center of Stanislaus reported Wednesday – which is National Puppy Day – that it will begin housing pets of women and children staying in its shelter program. Using a $6,000 RedRover Relief Safe Housing Grant and a $2,000 gift from Walmart, Haven has built two 6-by-10-foot kennels surrounded by an enclosed dog run. The money also provided indoor kitty condos and dog crates to allow smaller animals to stay in families’ bedrooms. Sacramento-based RedRover...