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Los Angeles County agreed Thursday to new jail-release planning policies designed to interrupt the incarceration-to-skid row pipeline for inmates with mental illness and dementia. The new procedures are aimed at stabilizing an estimated 2,500 to 3,000 mentally ill inmates who leave jail each month and at helping them find housing, benefits and employment and thus avoid reoffending. “We know if you leave the jail with a place to stay and your next follow-up appointment you’re less likely to...

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a motion aimed at improving housing services for foster youth transitioning to adulthood, a population at particular risk of homelessness. “Youth transitioning out of foster care have often experienced significant trauma throughout their young lives,” said Supervisor Hilda Solis, the motion’s author. “Coupled with supportive services, housing can make the difference between homelessness and long-term success. By addressing some...

We have been banging the drum at Echo for some time now about trauma and how it gets stored in our bodies. We uphold the work of people like Dr. Peter Levine, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk and other researchers who have concluded that talk therapy alone is not enough to release and overwrite the disruptive patterns trauma creates in our bodies. At our 2019 conference , Trauma Recovery: Community Evidenced Practices (March 18 & 19) you will be able to explore for yourself a variety of new and...

The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) has $10 million in its budget this year for its Community Reinvestment Grant Program (CRGP) and plans to make these grants to community-based non-profits and local health departments by June 2019 . The goal of this grant is to support communities disproportionately affected by past federal and state drug policies. This week, GO-Biz kicked off by leading the first 15 local workshops in California which will run through the...

Building healthy families is key to reducing ACEs. A friend of mine recently referred her grandchild and his pregnant wife to a Bringing Baby Home class, because she noticed that the wife had a background of abuse and at times had difficulty functioning. What the grandmother noticed with this couple was a change in the family dynamics following taking a Bringing Baby Home class. The couple learned how to get along, the father is more engaged in parenting, and the baby thriving. This is...

As a young man growing up in the Westmont neighborhood of South Los Angeles, violence once seemed like an inescapable way of life for Kevin “Twin” Orange. In high school, Orange lost his best friend to gang violence, he said. Later, he got caught up in gang activity himself, and narrowly survived a shooting in 2006. Three years later, his brother and a cousin were killed. “You became immune to homicides, shootings, acts of violence,” Orange said. “We thought that was normal. You’d walk down...

ACEs Conference Registration closes in 1 week on Friday 9/28! Note: There is a very limited cap on on-site registrations, so registering online by September 28 is the only way to guarantee your admission.

“We had one household where the participant was eating every other day,” said Lisa Varon, senior analyst with the city of Santa Monica. “We had another household where the participant was trading her parking space for protein powder. We had people who were forgoing medical or dental care that they needed and making really difficult choices. They were all managing to hang on by a just a tiny thread and they were doing it with a lot of dignity the last quarter of their lives.” Aging in...

Hi ACEs Los Angeles community! Would you be our VIP guests at the Los Angeles Premiere of Wrestling Ghosts on Thursday Sept. 27th @7:30pm at the Santa Monica ArcLight? We have a limited number of FREE tickets that we want to share with you. You are the forefront of the resilience movement and we would be honored to have you for the premiere! Please email charlotte@wrestlingghosts.com if you’d like a ticket (first come first serve). And PLEASE, let us know if there’s anyone in LA we should be...

Many of the children who visit the St. John’s Well Child and Family Center at 58th and Hoover in South Los Angeles are anything but well. The dentists treat children who suffer excruciating pain from swollen gums and rotting teeth. The doctors routinely see chronic preventable diseases common in third-world countries, and developmental delays are standard. Dr. David Bolour said he sees children daily who suffer from trauma they’ve experienced in their high-crime neighborhoods or in the...

When California voters passed a tax on high-income residents in 2004, backers said it would make good on the state’s “failed promise” to help counties pay for the treatment of the mentally ill. After nearly 15 years, Proposition 63 — the Mental Health Services Act — has steered billions of dollars to the counties across the state. But huge sums remain unspent at a time when mental illness has become an epidemic among the homeless population. As of June 2017, $1.6 billion was being held in...

by MSW@USC Staff In 1955 , the Los Angeles Police Department adopted the motto “To Protect and Serve,” and over the last seven decades, many other American law enforcement departments followed suit. But in the Black Lives Matter era, those words may not resonate with some members of the communities police are tasked with protecting and serving. Community members may feel law enforcement officials exercise more authority than necessary. How can both sides work to create a more positive...