April is National Month of Hope. While hope is something we all need right now as we surpass one year of the COVID pandemic, HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences) means something different in our work as ACEs Aware grantees. The YMCA of San Diego County , San Diego State University Social Policy Institute , San Diego Accountable Community for Health (SDACH) and American Academy of Pediatrics – California Chapter 3 are combining efforts as ACEs Aware grantees to work with...

Jennifer is an established Certified Life Coach and author of "5 Steps to Freedom From Fear," a simple guide to removing the obstacles that prevent us from realizing our fullest potential.

One of these days it will be common knowledge that most, if not all, of these rampage killers experienced adverse childhood experiences associated with unsupportive and harmful parenting. The solution is a new kind of public health approach parenting education that reaches everyone, everywhere, all the time. Perhaps national parenting education campaigns akin to the smoking and seatbelts campaigns of the past. Perhaps national multi-media messaging that teaches parenting behaviors and...

Multisystemic Resilience brings together for the first time in one volume a wide range of resilience scholars who have been wrestling with how to explain processes of recovery, adaptation, and transformation in contexts of change and adversity. With contributions from psychologists, epigeneticists, ecologists, architects, disaster specialists, engineers, sociologists, social workers, and public health researchers among others, this innovative volume creates a platform for an...

Before reading: I invite you to take a few deep breaths to take a mini break from your day and calm your nervous system before reading this blog. Go ahead, no one’s watching, and you deserve it. I’m tired. I’m sick and tired. I’m jumpy and can’t sleep. I’m numb and only want to sleep. I’m angry. I want to cry. I want to scream. I want to punch someone. I want to hurt myself. These are some of the common and, believe it or not, normal reactions to all the stress and trauma most of us have...

By Reuters, April 12, 2021 Does having school at the beach sound like a dream? After a year of remote learning and socially distanced classrooms, one school in the Spanish region of Murcia is doing just that, trying to combine clear air and a new way of teaching. Outside the Felix Rodriguez de la Fuente school, mask-wearing children sit before a portable blackboard at rows of green desks neatly spaced out on the sandy shores of Playa de los Nietos (Grandchildren's Beach). "It's safe, the...

By Gina Hijjawi, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, April 8, 2021 When we imagine a caregiver, we often picture a woman: a mother caring for young children, spouse, and the daily household chores, a daughter nursing a father with disabilities, or a female child care provider. Historically, women have been expected to serve as primary providers of “caretaking” work, whether it’s parenting or caring for an aging family member or paid work in positions typically associated with women such as...