A bill to provide mental health care for Indiana students narrowly passed the Senate this week. The legislation was written in response to school safety. Bill author, Sen. Michael Crider (R-Greenfield), says the creation of an integrated mental health system is a key step in preventing school violence. "Every recent incident in Indiana that I’m aware of has not been a total surprise," says Crider. " Someone knew that student was having issues." [For more on this story by JILL SHERIDAN, go to...

A local nonprofit company partnered itself with an Indiana school district to make sure kids have enough to eat. Elkhart Community Schools , in the northern part of Indiana, saw how much food they had left each week. They also noticed that some of their students may be without food on the weekends when they go home from school. This issue partnered with the leftovers the school accumulates from making school breakfasts and lunches, there seemed like there needed to be a solution reached.

On April 10 and 11, 2019, the Lake County ACEs and Resilience Coalition partnered with Northwest Indiana Community Action and the Northwest Indiana Reinvestment Alliance to host the reimagine conference. The first of its kind in Northwest Indiana, the reimagine conference provided an opportunity for groundbreakers and community leaders to explore the truth about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), to forge new partnerships, to create actionable recommendations, and to build a resilient...

Friday, April 12, 2019 marked an exciting, auspicious, and perhaps pivotal day in the history of Monroe County, Indiana. That’s a lot of adjectives—and pressure—to pile onto just another glorious spring day in Bloomington. But I think many folks who virtually congregate on a site that supports communities implementing trauma-informed and resilience-building practices grounded in ACEs science would agree that a county’s first-ever ACEs conference deserves a little ballyhoo. But this ACEs...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (WTHR) — For the last two and a half years Tia Arthur and her golden retriever Jordy have made the same walk just about every day from the CASA office to the Monroe County Justice Center. "As soon as we walk into the Justice Center he knows what will be happening," Arthur said. "He's already looking to me to see what I might ask him to do. He gets a little pep in his step when you walk into the justice center." Jordy's job is to give comfort in the courtroom to children who...

GRIFFITH, Ind. -- Erica Rios understands the importance of support in a time of crisis. It's one of the reasons she became a social worker. When her first husband, Duane Rios, died two months after being deployed to Iraq as a Marine on April 4, 2003, Erica Rios was consumed with the feeling of "having absolutely nowhere to turn." Duane was only 25 at the time of his death. The two were high school sweethearts. "No one knew what to do," she said. "And, like so many people in helping...

Laura's Note: The Hoosier Times paywall may prevent most without a subscription from accessing this article. I am hoping that other publications or sites with free access will cover this story too. If I see such a story, I will share it here. ELLETTSVILLE —The Richland-Bean Blossom Community School Corp. board approved a $2.5 million grant Monday night that will provide more mental health services directly to students. The trauma-informed multi-tiered systems of support grant, or TIMS grant,...

Hi, Tina. IU Riley is just about an hour up the road from me. Are you still in Indiana?