The World Peace Library has over 375 audio recordings with inspirational stories, skills training and powerful solutions by the world’s top peacebuilders, social change leaders, scientists, Indigenous elders and spiritual mentors. The World Peace Library is a gift to the world from The Shift Network. Designed to inspire, inform and involve people by highlighting best practices from around the world, the Library is a collective effort in partnership with hundreds of individuals and...

Al Franken CreditIllustration by Jillian Tamaki In case you didn't see the Sunday, May 28 "By the Book" interview with Senator Franken, I'd recommend it, especially the answer to the question about which book he would recommend that his fellow senators read—here is his answer: Paul Tough’s “ How Children Succeed ,” which is about the role trauma plays in a child’s development. It explains how, when a kid experiences events like extreme poverty or domestic violence or the death of a parent,...

The West Virginia Defending Childhood Initiative, commonly referred to as Handle With Care, is tailored to reflect the needs and issues affecting children in West Virginia. The Initiative, a result of a collaborative effort of key stakeholders and partners, builds upon the success of proven programs throughout the country. The goal of the Initiative is to prevent children's exposure to trauma and violence, mitigate negative affects experienced by children's exposure to trauma, and to...

How we form perceptions that mentally ill people are violent Sixty-three percent of Americans believe mass shootings are a mental health issue, according to a 2015 poll . Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that news stories linking mental illness and violence are on the rise. Between 1994 and 2005, 1% of front-pages stories linked violence with mental illness. That percentage rose to 18% between 2005 and 2014. A 2013 Gallup poll found that 48% of...

New Insights into the Role of Positive Experience on Child and Family Development *Health Outcomes of Positive Experience Abstract This report presents evidence for HOPE (Health Outcomes of Positive Experiences) based on newly released, compelling data that reinforce the need to promote positive experiences for children and families in order to foster healthy childhood development despite the adversity common in so many families. These data: Establish a spirit of hope and optimism and make...

Senator Heidi Heitkamp at lectern—(l to r) Kana Enomoto, Zach Kaminsky, Judge Dan Michael, Dr. Joe Wright, and Wendy Ellis ___________________________________________________________ The first congressional briefing on trauma held during the 115 th Congress and the new administration was held May 11 before a rapt audience of Hill staff amidst a swirl of controversy around the firing of FBI Director Comey and the speculation that the fallout will derail progress on the domestic policy agenda.

Recent federal legislation put forward by senators Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Al Franken (D-MN) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) proposes to address the issue of childhood trauma through the creation of a federal trauma task force. The Trauma-Informed Care for Children and Families Act would gather federal officials and members of tribal agencies to create a set of best practices and training to help create a better way to identify and support children and families that have experienced trauma. In...

(4-21-17) The White House announced late tonight that it had chosen Dr. Ellie McCance-Katz, as the first Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Abuse inside the Department of Health and Human Services ending months of speculation about who would be selected. The announcement came after much speculation that Dr. Michael Welner , a forensic psychiatrist, would be chosen. As early as yesterday, some of my sources in the Senate were saying that Welner had a “lock” on the job. He had...

This story in today’s Wall Street Journal by Michelle Hackman supports what I reported in a blog last month about efforts by Republican Pennsylvania Representative Tim Murph y to get Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and the White House to appoint Dr. Michael Welner as the first Assistant Secretary for mental health. Whether this appointment will really happen, however, is still anyone’s guess given the oftentimes erratic temperament of the White House. To read the entire article...

Habitat for Humanity , the largest nonprofit homebuilder in the world, was already planning its first-ever nationwide campaign to raise money for affordable housing before the budget proposal was released. But after the 2018 proposal–which would cut $6.2 billion (a 13.2% reduction) from the department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), as well as numerous local improvement and anti-poverty programs–was released, it lent an extra layer of urgency to the Home is the Key initiative, which...

Research shows the capacity to put ourselves in someone else's shoes is crucial to our ability to live among and relate to others. Studies show that empathy can especially make a difference in health care, notably among patients who suffer from chronic and/or life threatening disease. With this in mind, more providers and hospitals, including the Cleveland Clinic, whose ethos is based on caring for the patient's mind, body and soul, are building empathy into the DNA of their operations -...

Senators Heidi Heitkamp and Dick Durbin at the Dec. 1, 2016 Congressional Briefing on addressing childhood trauma ________________________________________________________ The “Trauma-Informed Care for Children and Families Act” ( S. 774 , H.R. 1757 ) was introduced on March 29 in the Senate by Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) with co-sponsors Dick Durbin (D-IL), Al Franken (D-MN), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) and, for the first time in the House of Representatives by Chicago Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-IL7).