Blog

La Maida Project is thrilled to share videos from our recent webinar series “Exploring the Role of Culture in Healing”. We had an great audience turn out and robust dialogue with our panel of guest speakers including Ken Epstein, PhD LCSW , leader in trauma-informed systems transformation, Anil Vadaparty , CEO of child-welfare agency McKinley, and Omid Naim, MD , integrative psychiatrist and founder of La Maida Project. In these webinars we discuss the role of leadership in trauma-informed...

COVID-19 Vaccine Do it for yourself, and for your loved ones by Dr Elizabeth Duenas Dr. Elizabeth Dueñas shares her thoughts on COVID-19 and urges people to join herself and her family in getting vaccinated. COVID-19, La perspectiva de un medico Dra. Duenas, Para si mismo, para sus seres quieridos La Dra. Elizabeth Dueñas comparte sus pensamientos sobre COVID-19 e insta a las personas a que se unan a ella y a su familia para vacunarse.

By Elizabeth Marcellino, Los Angeles Daily News, June 22, 2021 The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 on Tuesday, June 22, to set up a team to implement the long-promised closure of Men’s Central Jail. Supervisor Hilda Solis said it was time to stop studying the issue and take action, co-authoring a motion finding that the decrepit downtown lockup must be demolished and that no replacement jail is needed. “We have long talked about why we need to close this jail. The jail has...

What turns a terrible experience into a traumatic experience? Often, it’s that the subject is—and remains—alone with their pain. That was one of the many insights to emerge from conversations following an online premiere screening earlier this month of “The Wisdom of Trauma,” a documentary by filmmakers Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo. The film spotlights the work of Dr. Gabor Maté, physician, addiction medicine specialist and trauma expert. He is the author of four best-selling four books,...

June 23rd, 2-3 pm ET Register Here Join us for a 60-minute webinar on Youth Mobile Response Services - a 24-hour service that supports young people undergoing mental health and social crises. During this discussion, we will evaluate the role of law enforcement and mental health systems in the United States and their relationships to racial justice - recognizing that for over a century, these systems have caused more harm than good. Additionally, participants will learn how Youth Mobile...

By the HOPE Team, 6/18/21, positiveexperience.org/blog Tomorrow, June 19 th , marks the anniversary of the day in 1865 when word finally reached Texas that President Lincoln had outlawed slavery in the United States nearly two and a half years prior. Today, 156 years later, we celebrate Juneteenth for the first time as a nation. See the end of this post for more information about the new federal holiday and its long history. While we have celebrated July 4 as our day of independence since...

The Juneteenth flag created by Ben Haith, founder of the National Juneteenth Celebration Foundation (NJCF) in 1997. (Source: Chicago.gov ) Juneteenth refers to the June 19 th date commemorating emancipation in the United States that is marked by annual celebration of African American freedom and achievement . On June 16 th of this week Congress voted to establish Juneteenth as a federal holiday to commemorate emancipation - the first new official federal holiday approved by Congress since...

On June 15th, 2021 we recorded the last discussion of the Transform Trauma with ACEs Science Film Festival series. Our special guest was the Wrestling Ghosts documentary producer and director, Ana Joanes, who spoke about the film and parenting with ACEs. Here is our Zoom discussion which was recorded and uploaded to YouTube. Resources Shared via Chat: CTIPP (The Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy & Practice) First-Person Narratives PACEs Connection Parenting with ACEs Community on PACEs...

This film was made possible through a grant from ACEs Aware and with the support of Owen’s Valley Career Development Center. This project is an attempt to unpack the question “how do we heal from trauma?” The film draws on the lived and professional experience of three women in the rural community of Bishop, California. The subjects of the film are all mothers who have found their calling in the helping professions. Heather is a nurse responding to the opioid epidemic, Tawni is a social...

By Ali Tadayon, EdSource, June 21, 2021 T he name Juan Crespi never meant much to eighth grader Anaya Zenad and her classmates, other than it was the name of their middle school in El Sobrante. But after the students researched the Franciscan missionary — and his role in expeditions that paved the way for the brutally oppressive California mission system in the 1700s — they felt the name had to go. Earlier this year, Zenad joined with faculty to lead a series of community meetings on the...

By Sara Tiano, The Imprint, June 21, 2021 In May, Veronica Vieyra graduated from San Jose State University with a bachelor’s degree — a feat fewer than 6% of California former foster youth achieve. But entering a job market ravaged by a yearlong pandemic has proven an unexpected challenge. Months of submitting applications have so far been met with silence. What has allowed Vieyra to keep forging ahead toward her goal of working in a public health career, she said, is a $1,000 payment she...

By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times, June 23, 2021 The Los Angeles Board of Education late Tuesday approved a record $20-billion budget for the upcoming academic year — a massive influx of funding made possible by two unprecedented occurrences: pandemic relief money and record state tax revenues . How specifically that money is spent on a school level will play out in months ahead, but the budget will include the projected hiring of thousands of new employees in a school system where students...