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By NLC Staff on May 10, 2019 Cities, towns, and villages are places of innovation and solution finding. If you want to improve early childhood wellbeing—local leaders are key partners. The Networks of Opportunity for Child Wellbeing (NOW) Learning Community is a program of Boston Medical Center’s Vital Village. The learning community’s goal is to support local early childhood coalitions and build their capacity to work together with the broader community to improve the wellbeing of our...

NEW YORK — Christina Young remembers the day the cops came for her at school. She was 15 years old — a sophomore at Murry Bergtraum High School for Business in lower Manhattan. She and four of her friends were sitting together at a table in the school’s large and chaotic cafeteria. It was lunch time but they weren’t eating. They didn’t like eating lunch at school. They didn’t have a reason why really, they just didn’t like to. Instead they used the time to hang out, and listen to music on...

RFQ ANNOUNCEMENT: Celebrating Families! California Expansion Project Update: Due to the expanding ACEs response in California, and subsequent interest in Celebrating Families! we are extending the due date for proposals to May 24 th. Invitation to Expand Celebrating Families!™ Statewide The California State Office of Child Abuse Prevention (OCAP) recognizing the effectiveness of Celebrating Families! (CF!), has awarded Prevention Partnership International (PPI) a $100,000, 2-year challenge...

There is a Chinese proverb that states, “If you want 1 year of prosperity, grow grain. If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people." The benefits are evident, yet the real question becomes, “how do you grow people?” This Big Idea Session, CRI’s Trauma Coaching and Trauma Consultation Training, answers this question. Schools, organizations, and parents are discovering that the traditional “command and control” style of working with...

Last month, an article titled “The Tragedy of Baltimore” in the New York Times Magazine described the upsurge in violence in a city long known for its “blight, suburban flight, segregation, drugs , racial inequality, [and] concentrated poverty.” At the center of the storm are transition-age youth, who too often face long odds and challenging futures in the communities where they live. I recently had the opportunity to talk with Patricia Cobb-Richardson , MS. For the past 20 years, she has...

Evictions are destabilizing events that increase families’ financial stress and strip away the psychological and physical security of having a home. These effects are particularly traumatizing for children, who often suffer emotionally and academically. While these negative consequences are well researched , little evidence exists to estimate the number of children who are evicted during childhood. To help fill this knowledge gap, this study calculates the proportion of children born in...

A book for children who score 5 or more on the ACEs questionnaire .

Last month, an article titled “The Tragedy of Baltimore” in the New York Times Magazine described the upsurge in violence in a city long known for its “blight, suburban flight, segregation, drugs , racial inequality, [and] concentrated poverty.” At the center of the storm are transition-age youth, who too often face long odds and challenging futures in the communities where they live. I recently had the opportunity to talk with Patricia Cobb-Richardson , MS. For the past 20 years, she has...

In a downtown Anchorage courtroom last Tuesday afternoon, a judge declared Andrea Conter and Mitchell Hershey mother and son. It was an unusual adoption: Hershey was a week away from turning 21, and has been in Alaska’s foster care system for more than half his life. Conter is a 53-year-old bookstore manager who had barely considered motherhood until two years ago, when a Facebook post about a college-aged boy who needed a home changed both of their lives. In the fall of 2017, Conter, who is...

SALEM, Ore. (AP) - Oregon's foster care system has failed to shield children from abuse and they are sometimes forced to stay in refurbished jail cells and homeless shelters, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday. The 77-page complaint filed in U.S. District Court details stories of foster children being neglected or harmed while under Department of Human Services care, including a 16-year-old girl sent to a juvenile jail after she had previously tried to kill herself. The agency has...

In this data snapshot, the Annie E. Casey Foundation examines how placements for young people in foster care have changed from 2007 to 2017. Using data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Casey finds that child welfare systems are doing a better job of placing kids in families. At the same time, racial disparities persist for kids of all ages and progress eludes teens in care. To push for further progress, the four-page snapshot tells how states can leverage the federal Family...

How did you find ‘a community’ through FosterClub, a Youth Advisory Board, or another peer network? Why is it important for young people in foster care to connect with other youth with similar experiences? Share your story, poetry, quotes, photos - or any other creative outlet! OFFICIAL RULES AND GUIDELINES: Any young person up to age 24 who have experienced foster care, including kinship (living with relatives), is eligible to apply. Submissions can take the form of stories, poems, quotes,...