Tagged With "Los Angeles Women"
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Advancing a Plan for Addressing Trauma and Building Resilience within L.A. County Systems (prnewswire.com)
Center for Collective Wisdom Releases Extensive Report Outlining Research and Recommendations First 5 LA, the California Community Foundation, The California Endowment, The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation along with other local, state and nationally-recognized expert organizations today released a report to advance a comprehensive trauma and resiliency-informed approach in Los Angeles County . "Trauma is a serious health concern affecting many children and...
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An Introduction to #MeToo in Japan (globalvoices.org)
In December 2017, the #MeToo movement finally reached Japan after three women decided to speak out against their abusers. The experiences of these three women provide insights into the challenges Japanese women face when speaking out about their experiences of sexual assault. While the #MeToo movement is generally regarded to have started in October 2017, when multiple women spoke out about their experiences of being allegedly sexually assaulted by Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, the...
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Andi Fetzner joins the ACEs Connection Network as the Los Angeles Community Manager
Andi Fetzner MA, LAC joins the ACEs Connection Network as the Los Angeles Community Manager. A recent transplant to California from Arizona, Andi brings with her passion and expertise in training and social connecting. Her experience and education in Political Science and Psychology gives her a unique perspective on how ACEs Science will unfold as a social movement worldwide. Andi studied at Arizona State University (B.A.), University of Phoenix (M.A.), and is earning her PsyD through...
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Anne Douglas celebrates her birthday at the skid row women's shelter that bears her name (latimes.com)
Anne Douglas could have celebrated her birthday at home in Beverly Hills with her husband, actor Kirk Douglas. Instead, she sat behind a silver-and-pink birthday cake Wednesday as women lined up, weeping, to embrace and thank her for starting the Los Angeles Mission's Anne Douglas Center for Women — one of skid row's first homeless shelters for women. "When I first encountered the women at this homeless shelter it was heartbreaking, and I was determined to make it better," said Douglas, who...
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Assembly OK’s Bill to Expand ‘Gravely Disabled’ to Include Mental Illness (scvnews.com)
The California Assembly passed AB 1971 Wednesday, legislation which amends the state’s definition of “gravely disabled” to include medical treatment as a basic human need for those suffering from a serious mental illness, just as necessary to well-being as food, clothing or shelter. AB 1971 is sponsored by Los Angeles County, the Steinberg Institute, and the California Psychiatric Association. The bill passed with bipartisan support by a vote of 66-0. The proposal for the change in state law...
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At Transgéneros Unidas, Latinas find refuge and fellowship (latimes.com)
Every Thursday in Long Beach, a group of transgender women ranging in age from early 20s to 60s, catch up, swap advice and talk about past traumas. The meetings provide a needed refuge — a once-a-week respite from the too-long stares of strangers and the heaviness of hyper-vigilance. Transgender women are disproportionately targeted as the victims of hate crimes in L.A. County. The women walked to chairs arranged in a circle, and Del Rio gave them the week’s theme: hate crimes and suicide in...
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“BECOMING MS. BURTON: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women” by Susan Burton and Cari Lynn
I met Susan Burton in 2010, but I had learned her name years before. I was doing research about the challenges of re-entry for people incarcerated due to our nation's cruel and biased drug war. At the time, I was in the process of writing The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness - a book that aimed to expose the ways the War on Drugs had not only decimated impoverished communities of color but had also helped to birth a new system of racial and social control eerily...
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Black students and families need more support — and they need it now. An unprecedented coalition dives in with a new LAUSD task force. [laschoolreport.com]
An unprecedented coalition of community members, educators, parents, and students at LA Unified have convened a new task force to urgently address why African-American youth continue to have the lowest test scores and why black students and families continue to feel ignored by the education system. Black students persist in having LA Unified’s highest rates of dropouts and suspensions. They are most likely to be identified as needing special education services, and they are least likely to...
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Black Youth In Los Angeles County Face An ‘Accumulation Of Disadvantage’ [scienceblog.com]
By Science Blog, October 14, 2019 Black youth in Los Angeles County face an accumulation of disadvantage, undermining their academic, social and economic success and placing them at greater risk of structural disenfranchisement — not in school, not working and ensnared in the criminal justice system, according to a new study Beyond the Schoolhouse: Overcoming Challenges & Expanding Opportunity for Black Youth in Los Angeles County, released today by researchers at the UCLA Graduate...
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Blake and Magic Launch Series to Advance Black Males (lasentinal.net)
Bishop Charles E. Blake, pastor of West Angeles Church of God in Christ, and businessman Earvin “Magic” Johnson are partnering to offer advancement services to equip African American men to succeed in life. “This initiative was birthed out of a deep concern about poor academic achievement, financial disenfranchisement, high unemployment, soaring crime levels, the desperate state of the African-American male and the breakdown of the family unit that plagues our cities, small and large, urban...
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California issues update on state residents' ACE scores from 2011 & 2013 surveys
The latest adverse childhood experiences survey from the California Department of Public Health shows that 42% of the population has an ACE score of 3 or higher; 16% have an ACE score of 4 or higher. Those with an ACE score of 4 or higher are: 3x more likely to be current smokers 4x more likely to have a depressive disorder 2x more likely to have asthma 2x more likely to be obese 4x more likely to have COPD 3x more likely to have a stroke Here are a few other highlights from the six-page...
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Community weighs in on plans to address homelessness (latimes.com)
Community members got their first chance Wednesday to weigh in on new plans by the city and county of Los Angeles to address the region's growing problem with homelessness. During two public hearings, advocates for the homeless praised the proposals while others pointed to gaps in the plans, including a lack of strategies to help women who are forced out of their homes because of domestic violence. The county's draft, released last week, proposed spending $150 million in county and state...
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Consumer Corner: Putting More Eyes on Human Trafficking in Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County is one of the top three points of entry into the U.S. for victims of slavery and trafficking. The diverse communities here make it easier to hide and move victims from place to place, and that in turn makes it difficult for law enforcement to locate and help them. New efforts in Los Angeles and Santa Monica focus on the place to place aspect of trafficking; to find and protect trafficking victims by identifying the places and situations where trafficking occurs or crosses.
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Crisis Worsens for Homeless Women, Report Finds [ladowntownnews.com]
By Nicholas Slayton, Los Angeles Downtown News, February 5, 2020 Homelessness among women has increased in the last year, with 10,845 women experiencing homelessness in the City of Los Angeles, and more women experiencing homelessness for the first time, according to a new report from the Downtown Women’s Center. The Downtown Women’s Center, in partnership with the University of Southern California, unveiled the 2019 Los Angeles City Women’s Needs Assessment on Thursday, Jan. 30 at its...
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Echo Conference Spotlight: Restorative Justice
This year’s conference has something for everyone! Opening the conference, Echo’s Co-Executive Directors will be joined by some very special guests, including Anne Hudson-Price, an attorney from Public Counsel. Anne will be speaking about the legal action taken by Public Counsel to bring trauma-informed services to Compton School District. “You have to address trauma in order to do anything about the achievement gap,” she says in this article . In addition to featuring the Public Counsel,...
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Echo Parenting Changing the Paradigm Conference: March 5-6, 2015
10% discount for all LA County ACES Connection group members! Enter code "ACEs" when completing the online registration . Childhood trauma is responsible for many of our physical, mental and societal problems and interferes with a parent or...
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Facing Rising Homelessness, Los Angeles Adds Hundreds of Beds for Older Foster Youths [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
By Jeremy Loudenback, The Chronicle of Social Change, November 15, 2019 The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to boost housing options for transition-age foster youth at its meeting on Tuesday. Two separate investments totaling nearly $9.4 million will open up 237 transitional beds for foster youth at the greatest risk of homelessness over the next year. “Youth transitioning out of foster care have often experienced significant trauma throughout their young lives,” said...
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Leadership Commitment to Creating a Trauma Informed Los Angeles County
The California Community Foundation , First 5 LA , The California Endowment and The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation sponsored a convening of leaders from county departments, philanthropic foundations and community organizations to discuss and learn how Los Angeles County could become a model for identifying and addressing trauma in children and families in a systematic way. The event was held at the California Community Foundation in Los Angeles. A full summary is available here:...
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Funds From Ballot Initiative Help Newly Released Prisoners Find a Home in Los Angeles [calhealthreport.org]
As Latanja Madison’s release date from prison inched closer, she felt more terrified than elated. During a decade behind bars at the California Institution for Women in Corona, the 55-year-old Madison underwent multiple orthopedic surgeries and now uses a walker. Her immediate family members passed away during her incarceration, creating grave doubts she would have a support system. She feared leaving prison may lead to a worse fate – habitual homelessness. “I’m more blue collar than white...
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Hope Springs Anew in Center for Los Angeles Foster Youth [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
A year and a half after Los Angeles County shut a pair of emergency shelters for hard-to-place foster youth, Astrid Heppenstall Heger is still working to find ways to reach the county’s “invisble children.” Last week, Heger’s Violence Intervention Program (VIP) opened the doors of the Leonard Hill Hope Center, a space that she hopes will help Los Angeles County’s most vulnerable foster youth – those who are at the highest risk of leaving county-run care and ending up homeless, being sexually...
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How a Group of Female Inmates Won the Right to Live with Their Children [Vice.com]
The springtime sun blazes over East Arrow Highway in Pomona, California, and the glare off the whitish-gray concrete walkways forces everyone to squint. Regina Dotson moves busily in and out of her office on the second floor of a residential...
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How L.A. County can open more doors for homeless women: Guest commentary [DailyNews.com]
Los Angeles County’s 2015 Homeless Count showed a 12 percent jump in homelessness, grabbing headlines and leading to a declaration of “emergency” by elected officials. Yet another number stands out — 33 percent, representing the over 13,000 women who make up the county’s homeless population. A woman experiencing homelessness enters a system designed by and for the majority. Her homelessness may have resulted from a violent home, a final paycheck, or untenable...
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L.A. County and Planned Parenthood to Open 50 High School Sexual Health and Well-Being Centers [latimes.com]
By Sonali Kohli, Los Angeles Times, December 12, 2019 A high school senior decided recently that she wants to become sexually active with her boyfriend. But she is not yet comfortable talking to her mom about birth control and would be unable to get to a doctor’s appointment on her own. Instead, she walked over to the new well-being center at school during a free period. It was easy. Planned Parenthood runs a sexual healthcare clinic at Esteban Torres High School in East L.A. once a week.
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L.A. County has seven female police chiefs. They've brought different skills — and set an all-time high (latimes.com)
(Lisa) Rosales is one of seven female police chiefs in Los Angeles County, an all-time high. Women lead departments in Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Claremont, Hermosa Beach, Alhambra and Manhattan Beach. Several of the chiefs gathered recently at USC’s Sol Price School of Public Policy for a panel discussion on female leaders in law enforcement. Rosales said her style of policing encompasses listening, empathy and patience — qualities she said have helped de-escalate potentially volatile...
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Women Surround Crying Mom Whose Toddler Was Having A Meltdown At The Airport (sunnyskyz.com)
This wonderful story was posted on Facebook by Beth Bornstein Dunnington who took part in an unforgettable moment at the Los Angeles International Airport. "Something extraordinary at LAX today... (writing this on the plane). I was at the gate, waiting to get on my plane to Portland. Flights to two different cities were boarding on either side of the Portland fight. A toddler who looked to be eighteen or so months old was having a total meltdown, running between the seats, kicking and...
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2019 Los Angeles Women's Needs Assessment [downtownwomenscenter.org]
By Downtown Women's Center, February 2020 A report on women experiencing homelessness The 2019 Los Angeles Women’s Needs Assessment is a community-based research project developed in partnership with unsheltered and sheltered women in the City of Los Angeles. Expanding on the legacy of six past projects documenting the demographics, needs, and conditions of homeless and low-income women in downtown Los Angeles, this project includes women from a broader geographic swath of the city. [ Please...
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San Francisco Trauma Informed Systems Initiative 2014 Year In Review
The Department made the commitment to train all of its 9,000 staff to become trauma-informed. From the report: The Trauma Informed Systems Initiative Workgroup is led by Dr. Ken Epstein and currently staffed by a full time Coordinator, a team of 4...
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Santa Monica offers cash to seniors to help with rent (calmatters.org)
“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...
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Self Care Webinar on 11/16/16 Hosted by Futures Without Violence
Compassion Fatigue & Self-Care for Individuals and Organizations Brought to you by Futures Without Violence’s Supporting Organizational Sustainability Institute (SOS Institute) in partnership with the Office on Violence Against Women. Date: Wednesday, November 16, 2016 Time : 9:30 a.m. PT, 10:30 a.m. MT, 11:30 p.m. CT, 12:30 p.m. ET (1 Hr. 30 Min.) ***Closed caption will be provided. Registration Link:...
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Should Los Angeles County Predict Which Children Will Become Criminals? (psmag.com)
Photo: thomashawk/Flickr One major difference separates the troubling Minority Report policing programs from what happened in L.A. County's Child Welfare system. One of the primary goals of Los Angeles County’s child welfare system is keeping kids out of lock-up. But in this pursuit, the county took a surprising step: It used a predictive analytics tool as part of a program to identify which specific kids might end up behind bars. The process wasn’t incredibly complicated: It...
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Spirituality in Post-Traumatic Growth
One of the five domains of post-traumatic growth is spirituality. Helping us understand the role of spirituality in recovering from trauma at the Echo Frontiers of Resilience conference is Shaun Tomson . If you think the name and face look familiar then perhaps you know him from his days as a world champion surfer. Shaun needed every single one of the lessons he had learned about facing challenges in the form of towering waves and overcoming wipe-outs when he lost his 15-year-old son to a...
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Study: Community Trauma from Gun Violence Results in Negative Health and Behavioral Outcomes (Violence Policy Center)
Research on trauma is frequently featured in mainstream news outlets, pointing to its connection to a range of behavioral and health outcomes. While trauma can have multiple interpretations, for the purposes of this report, it is the result of experiencing or witnessing chronic and sustained violence, or specific events that can have lasting effects on individuals. Researchers have identified 13 distinct types of trauma, including community violence. Community violence is an umbrella term...
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Supervisors Want More Diversity Among County Doctors (egpnews.com)
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to diversify the pool of doctors working at county hospitals, trauma centers and health care facilities. Supervisor Hilda Solis proposed coordinating with labor unions to recruit more culturally and linguistically competent physicians to staff the second largest municipal health care system in the nation. By ensuring that our physicians are as diverse as the patients they see, we place a strong emphasis on effective and...
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The Hollywood Reporter includes ACEs in coverage of sexual harassment and abuse (socialjusticesolutions.org)
Following a previous essay about my encounter with Harvey Weinstein, The Hollywood Reporter interviewed me for their 2017 Women in Entertainment issue. It is so important that the science we now have about trauma and resilience reaches a larger audience. At Echo Parenting & Education , we want people to understand that our relationships with one another, and especially our children, will determine whether we continue in these destructive cycles, or whether the trauma and abuse stop now.
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The Lost Children of Los Angeles County: Foster Care Reform Moves Steadily Through Growing Pains [pasadenanow.com]
From Pasadena Now, March 9, 2020 As upwards of 18,000 children now move through the LA County Foster Care system, it has long meant that those young people may continually bounce from home to home, with an ever-dwindling number of care providers among the County’s 88 cities. But now the State is almost three years into implementing a new system with one simple goal—to move foster children into “forever families,” or long-term homes, more swiftly. The lofty aim requires a massive budget, a...
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Trauma Informed LA-Grief and the Holidays
Even before receiving this email from Trauma Informed Los Angeles, I was having a conversation with my sister about how the Holidays remind me of the people who are no longer with us. The logical part of me knows that people cannot live forever, the emotional part of me is sad about the loss and even a little angry. Special Thanks to "Our House" and RANDI PEARLMAN WOLFSON, MA, LMFT, Clinical Coordinator of Adult Programs and Volunteer Trainings for sending this out. Grief and the Holidays...
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Want to get certified in Echo's new trauma-informed nonviolent parenting curriculum?
Want to get certified in Echo's new trauma-informed nonviolent parenting curriculum? For the last 18 years, Echo has been providing sliding-scale parenting classes in Los Angeles. The 10-class series includes the latest science on the brain and childhood trauma and gives parents many tools for creating the kind of safe, stable nurturing relationship we all want with our children and underpins healthy development. Classes are available in English and Spanish. This fall, Echo will be offering...
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Want to reinvent probation? Do it right (correctionsone.com)
Image: Wikipedia.org Today, probation is the linchpin of the criminal justice system The Los Angeles Times article states the present lens of the County of Los Angeles Probation Department. When Sacramento transferred responsibility for...
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Why am I acting crazy?
What do Harvey Weinstein, sexual assault, and the #MeToo campaign have to do with childhood trauma? Everything! Please join us for the February 6 Working with Childhood training where I will be making these connections on a personal and professional level. In the training we will talk about how trauma shows up in how we think and behave. So often, people who have experienced trauma are labeled 'difficult' 'neurotic' 'paranoid' 'volatile' 'control freak' etc. when these are the outworkings of...
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Why mentoring matters, and what you can do for Los Angeles-area youth: Guest commentary (svgtribune.com)
The failure to engage the needs of inner-city boys is an ongoing American tragedy. Inner-city violence is causing death and injury that resonates with all it touches while burdening entire communities with the dread of daily insecurity. One third of those murdered in Los Angeles County are African American, who comprise only 8 percent of the population. This violence kills and scars the bodies and psyche of the men and women who are subjected to it. It is a tragedy that drains billions of...
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LA County Supes Seek Better Care And Outcomes For Pregnant And Post-Partum Incarcerated Women And Girls And Their Babies (witnessla.com)
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to identify ways to better support pregnant women and girls in the county’s jails and juvenile lockups. The motion, authored by Supervisors Hilda Solis and Janice Hahn, directs the Department of Health Services and the sheriff’s department, in coordination with other relevant county departments to report back to the board in 90 days with data on the number of pregnant women and girls in sheriff’s department or probation custody,...
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LA County Supes Vote To Keep Pregnant Teens Out Of Lockup
Written by Taylor Walker In February 2018, the LA County Board of Supervisors voted to look at ways to better support pregnant women and girls in the county’s jails and juvenile lockups. Acknowledging that incarcerated pregnant girls and women often live in poor conditions before giving birth and being separated from their babies, the February motion , authored by Supervisors Hilda Solis and Janice Hahn, directed the Department of Health Services to report back to the board in 90 days with...
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LA County to provide more support to relatives caring for foster children (svgtribune.com)
Image: fostercarekidsneedlovetoo.files.wordpress.com About 9,000 foster children in Los Angeles County — or 52 percent of all county foster youth — live with relatives, DCFS Director Philip Browning told the Board of Supervisors. A 2015 survey of relative caregivers, many of whom care for more than one child, found that 51 percent of those responding were 51-70 years old. About half of the foster children are grandsons or granddaughters. That means that many of the caregivers are...
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LA County women are getting healthier, study finds, but poverty and homelessness rise [DailyNews.com]
More of Los Angeles County’s women now have medical insurance, are employed, don’t smoke and are less likely to die of breast cancer or heart disease, according to a report released Wednesday. But an increased number also live in poverty, are homeless and have difficulty accessing health care. The concluding message behind the data compiled in a triennial report by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is that while many gains have been made for women in the last several years,...
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LA’s new Family Justice Center to be ‘a place of refuge,’ for those fleeing domestic violence, abuse (dailynews.com)
In one of the busiest hospitals in the nation, a refuge now resides. Officials declared that the Family Justice Center, inside the LAC+USC Medical Center in Boyle Heights, will be a place where Los Angeles County residents can escape domestic violence, finding all the pieces to put their lives back together. The new center formally opened Thursday, hailed as a one-stop shop where medical, mental-health, legal and social-service components all come together for victims, officials said. It’s a...
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LA supervisors want to beef up home visitation programs (scpr.org)
Two Los Angeles County Supervisors are calling for steps to better coordinate and expand the work of several voluntary home visitation programs that help parents raise healthier children. Arguing that the various programs and their funding are disjointed, Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Janice Hahn proposed a motion for Tuesday's board of supervisors meeting that would order the County Department of Public Health to develop a plan "to coordinate, enhance, expand and advocate for high quality...
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Los Angeles County Sheriff Beefs Up Mental Health Evaluation Teams [nbclosangeles.com]
By Lolita Lopez, NBC Los Angeles, September 9, 2019 More than a dozen more Los Angeles County Sheriff Department Mental Evaluation teams, or MET teams, hit the streets of the county this week. MET teams, which partner a Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health clinician with a sheriff's deputy, are requested by other deputies or other law enforcement who arrive at a scene and find a person dealing with a mental health crisis. The department says these types of calls that have resulted...
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Los Angeles Tests the Power of ‘Play Streets’ [nytimes.com]
LOS ANGELES — The temporary transformation of Fickett Street in Boyle Heights began with yellow shades resembling huge kites suspended over the sun-scorched asphalt. Soon, a thoroughfare known for its speeding vehicles and gang activity became something else entirely — a “play street” in which women gathered for Lotería, or Mexican bingo, and kids fashioned seesaws out of giant snap-together plastic shapes in colors inspired by local Mexican-American murals. There are roughly 7,500 miles of...
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Mind Matters: Overcoming Adversity and Building Resilience Two-Day Intensive Training
with Author, Carolyn Rich Curtis, Ph.D. 8:30 AM–5:00 PM $399 for 2-day Intensive Training CEUs are available for an additional charge. Each trainee must have a copy of Mind Matters ($299 plus tax (CA and SD only) plus S/H) As a result of this training , you will learn to teach: Self-soothing skills to manage emotions Ways to analyze stressful thoughts How to deal with intrusive memories Ways to develop a protective lifestyle And you, as an instructor, will learn . . . How to provide a safe...
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New Youth Council to Advise LA County Officials on Child Welfare, Juvenile Justice, and Other Matters Affecting LA's Kids [witnessla.com]
By Taylor Walker, WitnessLA, February 5,2020 On Tuesday, Feb. 4, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a plan to launch a Youth Commission to advise the board and county departments on matters of policy, budget, programs, and other issues that affect the county’s youth and their families. With this commission, the county has the opportunity to create a “trailblazing model” for jurisdictions across the nation, Supervisors Janice Hahn and Sheila Kuehl wrote in their motion. “In...