Tagged With "Peter Levine"

In the late afternoon on Feb. 26, the House of Representatives unanimously passed H. Res. 443 , a resolution recognizing the importance and effectiveness of trauma-informed care and calling for a national trauma awareness month and trauma-informed awareness day. The impetus for the resolution resides with the First Lady of Wisconsin, Tonette Walker, who has taken a strong leadership role in advancing trauma-informed policy and practice statewide through Fostering Futures , and has elevated...

By Matt Levin, Cal Matters, November 8, 2019 Nancy Rich wants to go back home. It’s not just the longer commute that’s wearing on her. Rich, 65, drives an hour each way from her one bedroom apartment in Marysville to her job in the mailroom at the Chico Enterprise-Record newspaper. She works a full swing shift, meaning she doesn’t get home until about 3 a.m. It’s not just the annoying bathroom leak, which she has to keep stuffed with bath towels, or the rumors of car break-ins and burglaries...

Three of four African-American boys in California classrooms failed to meet reading and writing standards on the most recent round of testing, according to data obtained from the state Department of Education and analyzed by CALmatters. More than half of black boys scored in the lowest category on the English portion of the test, trailing their female counterparts. The disparity reflects a stubbornly persistent gender gap in reading and writing scores that stretches across ethnic groups.

By Matt Levin, Cal Matters, May 12, 2020 As missed rent payments and delinquent mortgages pile up across the state, California Democratic lawmakers Tuesday introduced a series of sweeping proposals aimed at shielding homeowners, renters and landlords from the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. A plan put forward by Sen. Toni Atkins, Democrat from San Diego and leader of the state Senate, would grant qualifying renters 10 years to repay missed payments directly to the state, which...

By Matt Levin and Jackie Botts, Cal Matters, December 31, 2019 California’s most vexing issue is also its most shameful: the large and rising number of residents who lack a safe place to call home. In a state with vast amounts of wealth, more than 150,000 of its residents sleep in shelters, cars, or on the street. The United Nations compared the tent encampments of San Francisco to the slums of New Delhi and Mexico City. Nearly 5,000 people live in the half square mile of Los Angeles’ Skid...

Where in California has the gap between rich and poor grown most since the Great Recession? The Bay Area, home of your Zuckerbergs and Steyers and some of the most expensive zip codes in the country, seems like a logical answer. Over the past decade, what other part of California has minted as many members of the “1 percent” as Silicon Valley? But according to research from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California , income inequality in the Bay Area has worsened only marginally,...

The nation’s schools long ago broadened their missions beyond the teaching of academic subjects and participation in extracurricular activities. Educators have for decades been entrusted to teach students a wider range of life skills, including those that touch on emotions, empathy and relationships with other people. Now, a new state guide , released Wednesday, offers a slew of resources for teachers and administrators seeking to bolster kids’ social and emotional development. “Science...

By Matt Levin, Cal Matters, June 9, 2020 Salvador Bradford takes pride in keeping his studio apartment relatively tidy. He needs to. The converted hotel room he calls home has around 250-square feet of space to fit a bathroom, stove-top, and mini-fridge. But there is space enough for the trappings of home: a shelf full of Star Wars and Star Trek DVDs, a small self-described “shrine” to Jesus Christ, to whom Bradford credits his past five years of sobriety. He’s lived in the room at what was...

By Matt Levin, Nigel Duara, and Erica Yee, Cal Matters, August 11, 2020 Like any parent, Jamie Burson didn’t want her 11-year-old son to discover how frightened she really was about the novel coronavirus. But it’s hard to mask anxiety when you’re living and sleeping together in the same car. After Burson was evicted from her two bedroom apartment in Vacaville the second week of April, she heeded Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order to shelter in place by cooping up in a two-door sedan near her Walmart...

By American Psychiatric Association, May 19, 2021 The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Tuesday announced plans to establish a Behavioral Health Coordinating Council focused on collaboration and strategic planning across the department. The council will “ensure that millions of Americans receive prevention, early intervention, treatment, and recovery services for mental illness and substance use disorders,” an APA news release stated. APA applauded the Biden-Harris...

As we look towards the reopening of in-person instruction in the fall, planning and reimagining for a restorative restart to our school systems that emphasizes student and educator mental health is a priority. In addition, there is a windfall of one-time funding coming to districts from federal and local funds for just this purpose. Recently a wise educator said to me, ‘you know, if you want to get to the hearts and minds of school leaders to make changes for the fall you need to do so by...

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,...

By Heather Tirado Gilligan, California Health Care Foundation, August 16, 2021 Jenise Dixon fell behind on rent after losing her job in the film industry last year. Dixon, who lives in Los Angeles, applied for rent relief in April and has yet to receive any help from the billions in federal funds set aside for that purpose. Despite her pending aid application and local and federal protections against eviction, Dixon’s landlord has served her with an eviction notice, Sam Levin reported for...

By Sam Levin, Photo: Jane Hahn/The Guardian, The Guardian, March 22, 2022 W hen California shut down in March 2020, advocates for unhoused people thought the state might finally be forced to solve its homelessness crisis. To slow the spread of Covid, they hoped, officials would have to provide people living outside with stable and private shelter and housing. But in the two years since, California’s humanitarian catastrophe has worsened: deaths of people on the streets are rising; college...