Philadelphia Group Blogs

Philadelphia Children's Alliance and Darkness to Light are two organizations that provide support/prevention for sexually abused children. PA's recent legislative victory is a chance to celebrate their hard work.

It has been a busy and productive year for the Philadelphia ACE Task Force culminating in a big win for our Policy work group. Last week, on December 10, 2019, the Philadelphia City Council approved Resolution No. 19098900 , "Calling upon the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to recognize Secondary Traumatic Stress as a workplace hazard, recommend steps to address mental health injury as a psychological hazard in the workplace as they do with physical injury, and create a...

Please consider joining the Jefferson Trauma Education Network for this four-part series on February 7, March 6, April 3 and May 1, 2020. Trainings will be free to all admitted into the program. For those requesting continuing education contact hours, the associated costs will be $75 in total for the entire series (3 NBCC contact hours per session). NBCC is an approved provider for the PA Board of Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists and Professional Counselors. For all others...

On an afternoon in October, kids in the Sunrise of Philadelphia after-school program made tissue-paper marigolds, assembled little altars and created masks. It was the Day of the Dead celebration held by Sunrise partner, Fleisher Art Memorial . They wrote poems about people who were no longer with them, either lost to death or simply separated across distance — a possibility in this largely immigrant and refugee community. The activity gave them a chance to explore loss and sadness, which —...

Robert Warner and his crew don’t have medical degrees. But in the midst of Philadelphia’s gun violence epidemic, they are in the business of saving lives. Day or night, Warner and his outreach workers are on North Philly streets mediating disputes, organizing basketball games between youth factions, dissuading folks from violence, and helping young people find jobs. When someone gets shot, they’re in the hospital, helping the victim’s family, and on the street, preventing retaliation. “I...

The ACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities launches today. We want to continue to contribute to the ACEs movement for as long as it takes to create a worldwide healing-centered culture based on ACEs science. We want that to take hold in this world in the same way electricity has — we only notice it if it isn’t there. First, a clarification: Nothing on ACEsConnection.com changes! Membership remains free! Everything our current 300+ communities use stays free, and remains free for new ones.

By Abraham Gutman, The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 9, 2019 Growing up in Philadelphia can be a traumatizing experience. Poverty, hunger, gun violence, evictions, and mass incarceration are just some of the difficult experiences that bear down on children here. Over the last couple of decades, public health researchers and policymakers have increasingly recognized that the body "remembers” childhood trauma, and these experiences at a young age can predict illness, risky behavior, and...

We developed ACEs Connection's Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Tool — called the Inclusion Tool, for short — to ensure that ACEs initiatives across the world focus on being inclusive when forming a steering committee, recruiting leaders, providing education about ACEs science, recruiting members, or providing resources and services within their communities. The more inclusive your ACEs initiative is, the more diverse it will be, giving your initiative a real shot at achieving equity and...

By Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, November 1, 2019 Required Components Aligning Systems for Health will explore the degree to which health equity is impacted or results from current models of collaboration incorporating health care, public health, and social services. Gaps in health are large, persistent and increasing, and RWJF is committed to a system that meets people’s goals and needs and addresses these gaps that many populations face. Studies should include a focus on health equity by...

If you will be in Philadelphia, October 11, 2019, Don't miss it! Tickets are going quickly. Reserve your free seat (at the EventBrite link below) now! The film "Cracked Up" features Darrell Hammond's childhood struggles with trauma and their lifelong impacts. From IMDb, It's the "incredible story of actor, comedian, master impressionist and Saturday Night Live veteran, Darrell Hammond."

Robert Mayweather wasn’t pressed to find a job Thursday night at the YMCA in West Philadelphia. However, he’s glad he satisfied his curiosity to “see what was going on.” Mayweather was one of a few hundred people who passed through the doors of the YMCA for the District Attorney’s Office’s One-Stop Job and Resources Hub. The hub opens up on the first Thursday of each month, in a different neighborhood each time. The goal of the event is to connect city residents in under-served neighborhoods...

Philadelphia’s poverty rate, a stark and stubborn indicator of hard times that has long hindered the city’s reputation, dropped to its lowest level since 2008 — near the start of the recession. At the same time, median household income here rose. The findings, contained in a voluminous report from the U.S. Census Bureau released Thursday, showed that the city’s poverty rate declined from 25.7% in 2016 to 24.5% in 2018. The number of Philadelphia residents living in poverty dropped by 14,537...