Blog

There’s now no age cap on California’s NextUp program, which helps former foster youth get through college, if they started school by age 26. Illustration by Christine Ongjoco. Author: To read Jeremy Loudenback's article, please click here. Former foster youth Christina Torrez turned 26 in May. And although she was a first-generation college student pursuing an admirable future after overcoming homelessness, the mother of three hit a new barrier. Her eligibility for the program that had...

The Trauma-informed Design Society is pleased to announce the new TiDEvalK12 tool ! This tool is the first of its kind--an evidence-based tool to facilitate interior design renovations and new builds of K-12 schools! It can be used to evaluate the physical space and identify changes that can lower the stress levels of students and staff. The tool is grounded in the Substance and Mental Health Services Administrations' guidance for a trauma-informed approach, the Trauma-informed Design (TiD)...

Source: image Author: To read Abigail Mundy's article, please click here. “I just feel like kids have it harder nowadays,” a 15-year-old boy in Rhode Island, USA, tells his father, shortly before taking his own life. Earlier in Ken Burns' new two-part documentary series, Hiding in Plain Sight , grainy footage from the 1950's shows a boy joyfully throwing a paper airplane. Mid-flight the paper transforms into aluminium and the plane hits the World Trade Center, the scene cutting cleanly to...

Courage to Caregivers will host its third annual Caring for Caregivers Virtual Summit on Wednesday, November 16, and Thursday, November 17, 2022, from 9 am to 12:30 pm ET as part of National Family Caregivers Month. This year’s theme is Getting UNStuck: Moving From Languishing to Flourishing. The event is free for licensed professional caregivers and anyone providing care to a loved one with mental illness. All are welcome to attend one or both days. CEUs are provided for Ohio professionals.

A Theme That Recognizes the Importance of Change “I spent 8 or 9 months really just meeting with pretty much anyone who would ask because there's always something to be learned from a conversation. And, having really thoughtful conversations about not only what the problems are, but what the solutions are, that's also really important.” —Aysha E. Schomburg, J.D., Associate Commissioner, Children's Bureau, “Threading Equity Throughout Child Welfare” podcast Nearly 1 year after her appointment...

by Mike Hixenbaugh and Suzy Khimm , NBC News, and Agnel Philip, ProPublica, October 12, 2022 After the Sandusky child abuse scandal rocked Pennsylvania, the state required more professionals to report suspected child abuse. That led to a strained child welfare system and more unsubstantiated reports against low-income families. More than a decade before the Penn State University child sex abuse scandal broke, an assistant football coach told his supervisors that he had seen Jerry Sandusky...

By Erica L. Green, Photo by Chet Strange for the New York Times, The New York Times, October 13, 2022 The Biden administration proposes spending $20 billion over a decade to help some of the most vulnerable families in the country, including relatives suddenly thrust into child rearing. WASHINGTON — Maria Elena Thomas and her husband were ready for a simpler life after they retired in 2015, sold their home in Colorado and settled on the southeastern coast of Spain. “People would ask, ‘When...

By Robert Sege, 10/13/22, https://positiveexperience.org/category/blog/ HOPE National Resource Center Director, Bob Sege, went to Darwin Australia two weeks ago. Below is his firsthand experience and impression of how international foster care organizations are practicing the HOPE framework. I recently gave a keynote address at the International Foster Care Organization ’s annual meeting in Darwin Australia. This was their first in-person meeting since 2019. About half of participants were...

The How We endUP Convening is a two-day virtual gathering of advocates, activists, researchers, policymakers, and leaders from different communities, agencies, and efforts coming together to explore how we can move toward abolition of family policing--how we can dismantle harmful, racist systems and build different ways of caring for one another. Featured speakers are Angela Davis, Joyce McMillan, and Mariame Kaba. Join in discussions that expose racism in how families are surveilled and...

The October 2022 issue of Children's Bureau Express (CBX) features resources related to the issue of youth homelessness and ways to mitigate the challenges children and youth involved with child welfare face during times of financial insecurity. Read a message from Associate Commissioner Aysha E. Schomburg about the importance of practicing positivity when engaging with children and youth and how the Lakota tribe implements this principle of being acutely mindful of the language they use...

Placing children in need of out-of-home care with relatives can help them maintain connections to family, community, and culture. Discover important resources from Children's Bureau Express on kinship care to help you support the important work kin caregivers do for the children in their family. Speaking of Change: How Can Kinship Care Advance Racial Equity in Child Welfare? Amara's Kinship Program has a second installment in its Speaking of Change webinar series that seeks to break down...

Event Title: Interrupting the School to Prison Pipeline Using a Trauma Informed Lens Event Date: Wednesday, October 19th, 2022 Event Time: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm PST Event Facilitators: Porter Jennings-McGarity & Lara Kain Special Guest: Tia Martinez Join PACEs Connection’s trauma-informed education consultant (Lara Kain) and trauma-informed criminal justice consultant (Dr. Porter Jennings-McGarity) and special guest Tia Martinez for our first ever interdisciplinary collaborative event...