January 2017

Historical injustices—perpetuated by racial and cultural conflicts, and exacerbated by a lack of empathy—are at the heart of America’s growing economic, social, and political inequalities. Nowhere is this gap of authentic empathy and justice more pronounced than in the American philanthropic sector, where often well-intentioned people make decisions for communities they do not come from, may not understand, rarely interact with, and almost never step foot into. “Philanthropy is commendable,”...

How can you help a young person with a painful history prepare for the working world when you can’t see what stops her from keeping a good job? The answer lies, according to a nonprofit called Hopeworks ‘N Camden , in therapy that teaches the young person to know and change how she deals with past trauma. A person may show up on time, sustain eye contact, speak crisply, and dress properly, but still lack readiness for the job. Consider Melissa*, a young woman in Camden, New Jersey. According...

Lynchings formed the bloody backdrop of Southern life for a century after the Civil War. Between the 1860s and 1960s, thousands of black Americans were killed in public acts of racial terror. Millions more fled to cities in the North and West in an effort to escape this environment. Many soon discovered that, in many ways, the rest of American society was no less racist . How many lynchings occurred during the Jim Crow era? Where? These are difficult questions to pinpoint. A November 2015...

It’s been ten (10) years since Dr. Bruce Perry published his groundbreaking work , The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog. If you haven’t read his book, especially if you are involved in any trauma-related work, it should be on your next-book-to-read list. In the book, Perry shares a story that involved a child involved in a foster care court case. In Dr. Perry’s recount, he shares that during his years of work in clinics and mental health, he had little introduction to those involved in child...

Hi Everyone -- Just a reminder about how to control the emails you receive from us: If you want to receive only the weekly roundup, unsubscribe from the daily digest you received today. (The daily digest and the weekly roundup are sent to you via MailChimp.) If you want to control the email notifications you receive about activity on ACEsConnection.com, here are some options: If you want to suspend all emails, do this: http://www.acesconnection.com/blog/how-to-suspend-all-email-notifications...

This country and its juvenile justice systems are facing an important set of transitions as we enter 2017. A new president is about to take office who is committed to taking the country in a different direction. While most of the policies his administration will promote are outside the scope of this column, they will undoubtedly impact our ability to build the best and most effective juvenile justice systems across the nation. How investments are prioritized will translate to whether there...

The U.S. Department of Justice and the city of Baltimore announced an agreement to reform the city’s troubled police department on Thursday. The 227-page document lays out a detailed plan for the Baltimore police to try to correct egregious violations of constitutional rights, racial disparities in their practices, excessive use of force, and a culture of retaliation against whistleblowers. The agreement could represent one of the last hurrahs for the police-reform movement before the Trump...

The United States is one of the richest countries in the world. It is also one of the most unequal. As a report released today shows, the U.S. ranks 23 out of 30 developed nations in a measure known as the “inclusive development index,” which factors in data on income, health, poverty, and sustainability. The index comes from the World Economic Forum , whose annual summit is taking place in Davos this week. It is a rather comprehensive measure of inequality, and the fact that the U.S. ranks...

Across the country, tent cities are a controversial approach to helping the homeless. Preferred by some bureaucrats as a way of cleaning up the streets, and by some homeless people because they offer a sense of community as well as a sliver of permanence in an otherwise mobile lifestyle, they are often criticized for creating neighborhood eyesores, increasing fire danger and crime, and undermining other programs that aim to help the homeless find housing and jobs. Photographer Eirik Johnson...

The Administration for Children and Families, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administrations, the Administration for Community Living, the Offices of the Assistant Secretary for Health and the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at HHS have worked together to develop this Guide to Trauma-Informed Human Services. The guide is intended to provide an introduction to the topic of trauma, a discussion of why understanding and addressing trauma is important for human...

[Photo by Michael ] “The Child is the Father of the Man”—William Wordsworth 1 Wordsworth’s observation (forgiving his gender pronouns) is truly one of the core principles of family medicine. Yes, we care for children because we are concerned about them, but also because we are concerned about the adults that those children become. As family physicians we may or may not care for a specific child into adulthood, but we certainly care for adults whose health has been influenced by their...

Many major news media outlets covered an important story about the decline in life expectancy in the United States. This is based on research released by the National Center for Health Statistics that found life expectancy dropped from 78.9 to 78.8 years in 2015. This information is significant because there has been a steady increase in American life expectancy and many people, including experts hoped and expected that this trend would continue. The last clear reduction occurred in 1993 and...