What an amazing event! The 800 available tickets sold out quick so they also had a big room open for more people to participate via a big live stream screen. The event was: Racial Trauma: Healing Ourselves, Our Clients, & Our Communities: Addressing the aftermath of historical trauma and today’s societal need for racial humility. The San Francisco Health Network organized it for Black History month on Friday, February 26 at Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in San...

Join me and my guests, John Brooks and Nancy Newton Verrier, on “About Health.” Monday March 7th from 2-3PM on KPFA.org or 94.1FM. We will discuss, The Girl Behind the Door, A Father’s Quest to Understand His Daughter’s Suicide , by John Brooks. It provides a profound look into adoption, teenage suicide, and attachment issues. When John and Erika’s daughter Casey jumped off of the Golden Gate Bridge in 2008, John began to unravel a heartbreaking truth—Casey had been in pain since birth,...

Wisconsin elementary-school teachers are incorporating simple mental exercises in the classroom to promote well-being, thanks to a partnership between the Madison Metropolitan School District and the Center for Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison. The school's 5th graders recently made a music video for the song, "Don't flip yo' lid," by SF Bay Area hip hop artist, Just Me. The song's hook is, "mindfulness will change your life."

Last week, on two separate days in Los Angeles and in San Francisco, about 150 people (total) convened to listen and brainstorm about creating trauma-informed communities. Futures Without Violence, which is rolling out its Changing Minds campaign later this year, hosted both events.  Some very interesting and important themes emerged from the two days: Residents with lived experiences should participate in the decision-making bodies of service providers and vested...

Talmadge King Jr. , MD, dean of the UCSF School of Medicine, tells the story of an ER physician who had lost a document and was searching frantically for it in the garbage bins behind Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. What he found instead in the mountain of rubbish were crumpled prescription slips that patients had tossed in hospital trash cans throughout the week. “Going forward, the conversations that ER doctor had with his patients changed. They became,...

Tell the truth. Your collective impact effort for social change is no doubt collective—but does it really have impact? If your experience is like mine (through five initiatives and counting), I suspect the answer is, “Not as much as it could.” And I bet I know why: It’s your backbone. Most nonprofits know the five central components of any cross-sector, collective impact initiative. The first four—a common agenda, a shared measurement system, mutually...

Over 130 residents from across the San Francisco Bay Area representing education, health, and law enforcement attended the sold-out screening of Paper Tigers and panel on December 9 at the Brower Center in Berkeley, CA. The panel discussion was so involved it went 25 minutes longer than scheduled and spilled into the lobby where attendees talked until 10 pm! The documentary Paper Tigers follows six students during a school year at Lincoln High School in Walla Walla, WA. Lincoln is the...

Picture: La Cultura Cura drumming circle Original post by Justin Slaughter, TAYSF, April 28, 2015 Picture: Lizbett Calleros, MSW, Healing Specialist, Instituto Familiar de la Raza As a trauma specialist, what recommendations would you provide to other case mangers/ therapists/ counselors? In my experience, it is imperative for service providers working with trauma-impacted youth and young adults to meet individuals where they are at in their stage of change.  This is especially...

The San Francisco Bay Area—stretching from San Jose and Silicon Valley in the south to Oakland, Berkeley, and the city of San Francisco in the north—is the world’s foremost tech hub. But the city and region also suffer from deepening urban challenges such as an acute housing affordability crisis and rising inequality. Congestion in the area is rising, commute times have become unbearable, and long-time residents and even members of the creative class are being priced out of...

Council Members, Co Chairs, City Dept. Members, SFUSD Members, Community Members The San Francisco Our Children, Our Families Council consists of up to 42 members, including: the Mayor and 13 appointed City department heads the Superintendent and up...

Bridge Housing Corporation and Health Equity Institute, San Francisco, CA Federal housing programs such as HOPE VI and CHOICE Neighborhoods mandate community leadership as integral revitalization efforts and have institutionalized this...

Nearly 300 impassioned and committed people crowded into the Green Room at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center last week to launch Trauma Transformed. Known as T2, the regional effort representing the San Francisco...