Philadelphia Group Blogs

It was a moment of sheer terror that surely none of the hundreds of kids flooding the corridors for the end of the school day will ever forget. One moment, 17-year-old Courtlin Arrington — already accepted to college for the fall, with dreams of becoming a nurse — was seen with another teen student, a wide receiver on the football team. Then came a loud pop as a bullet went right through Courtlin’s heart , ending her life way too short of adulthood. “The last thing I told them was ‘I love...

There is a toxin in Philadelphia that our children and families are being exposed to near constantly: trauma. Trauma lingers and isn’t just limited to a single incident, like a gunshot. Trauma manifests in hunger, housing instability, or living without utilities. It can include exposure to abuse, neglect, gun violence, police brutality, imprisonment, and domestic violence. And trauma can pass through generations as the result of historical violence, slavery, redlining, and mass...

Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia, Thomas Scattergood Behavioral Health Foundation, and United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey are pleased to release Trauma-Informed Philanthropy, Volume Two , a new guide that feature s lessons learned from leading local and national efforts that provide insights on strategies for advancing the trauma-informed movement in Philadelphia. The three partnering organizations collaborated in 2016 to publish Trauma-Informed Philanthropy,...

The City of Philadelphia will begin testing trauma-informed facilities as an alternative to holding cells for arrested youth. Those facilities, which will be “child-centered” and “service-oriented,” will be funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies’ 2018 Mayors Challenge . Philadelphia’s city-led social enterprise incubator FastFWD was funded by way of the Mayors Challenge in 2013 . The 35 finalists for the 2018 challenge have received grants of “up to $100,000” to test public prototypes of their...

Christina Garcés, a medical student at Temple University in Philadelphia, spends some of her time in the places where heroin users congregate. She’s one of a group of nurses, doctors and medical students who offer the users basic medical care, socks and the overdose-reversal drug naloxone; drive them to the hospital; and connect them to drug treatment and other resources. On Feb. 11 she was about to go home from one such encampment, near the Emerald Street Bridge, when a man in his 50s...

There are a few more days to submit your proposal for a 90-minute workshop to be presented at our 2nd Annual Philadelphia Trauma Training Conference - Preventing Childhood Trauma and its Impact across the Lifespan: An Interprofessional Agenda for Providers, Advocates, Policy Makers, and Community Members The submission deadline is March 1st . If your proposal is accepted you will be granted free admission to the three-day conference . First launched in 2017, the Philadelphia Trauma Training...

Anthony Ballard grew up with multiple adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) before those disruptive childhood experiences had a name. Ballard was raised, along with 11 siblings, in a North Philadelphia housing project by “a beautiful God-fearing mother and a loving father who suffered from alcoholism.” Ballard witnessed relatives who developed addictions or landed in prison; in his early 20s, he, too, abused alcohol. He got sober. He became a firefighter. And when he learned about ACEs a few...

How many people would say something if they saw a harsh interaction between a parent and child at a grocery store, at a park or elsewhere? How many people would recognize distress in a child or adult related to something that happened in childhood? More than two-thirds of children report experiencing at least one traumatic event by age 16, studies show, and health experts, caregivers, teachers and others gathered for a workshop Wednesday to find how best to help both children and their...

Next week the Philadelphia Eagles are going to the Super Bowl, and while some of us already have plans to cheer them on from our living rooms, there is another opportunity for us to show them our support. Eagles players and coach Jeffrey Lurie are waging a battle to ensure criminal justice reform and bringing an end to racial inequality. These issues are at the heart of much of our community trauma, and we need to uplift the work of the Eagles to help our communities heal. The New York Times...

People on welfare can earn more money in their jobs—and potentially leave the program—if the trauma they've faced since childhood is addressed, Drexel University research shows... "Financial education without the trauma-informed peer support had virtually no impact on improving income and in promoting health," said Mariana Chilton, PhD, director of the Center for Hunger-Free Communities and professor in the Dornsife School of Public Health. "Once the trauma-informed peer support was mixed...

Philadelphia is a step closer to opening what could be the nation's first supervised site for safe drug injection. But turning the idea into reality won't be easy. City officials gave the proposition the green light Tuesday. They were armed with feasibility studies , harrowing overdose statistics and the backing of key leaders, including the mayor and a newly elected district attorney. "There are many people who are hesitant to go into treatment, despite their addiction, and we don't want...

Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities (MARC) is a vibrant learning collaborative of fourteen sites actively engaged in building the movement for a just, healthy and resilient world. Using the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and resiliency as their organizing framework, these communities have built strong cross-sector networks to help heal and prevent early childhood adversity. From October 2016 through May 2017, we were privileged to travel to all fourteen MARC...