November 2017

In 1991, the city of Medellín in Colombia registered a homicide rate of 381 per 100,000 —among the highest ever recorded anywhere. In neighboring cities like Barranquilla, Bogotá, and Cali, the levels of violence associated with drug trafficking and political unrest were equally fearsome. Entire neighborhoods were cordoned-off, even to police and public service providers. Gangs, paramilitaries, and guerrillas routinely brought city services to a standstill. The rampant insecurity had severe...

(Des Moines) -- A new study finds Iowa children face more Adverse Childhood Experiences or ACEs than kids in many other states. ACEs might include the death of a parent, being a victim of violence, or living with someone with a drug or alcohol problem. Martha Davis, a senior program officer for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, says ACEs can have a far-reaching impact. “They have implications for schools, for families and communities, for health care systems,” Davis says. “What it says is,...

In April 2015, Ashley Sprague was making $2.13 an hour plus tips as a waitress at Waffle House when she was pulled over for speeding in a small city near her home outside Nashville. The speeding ticket, plus another citation for failure to have proof of insurance, totaled $477.50, a sum that might as well have been a million dollars. Over the course of the next 13 months, she was cited twice more for administrative infractions, including — she was surprised to discover — driving on a...

Police officers kill and injure an alarming number of people in the United States each year. According to a 2016 study published in Injury Prevention, the police killed or injured over 55,000 people in 2012; the police-brutality monitoring website Mapping Police Violence reports that over 1,000 people have been killed by police so far in 2017. Previous studies have found that the police disproportionately use excessive force against, search , and kill people of color, particularly black...

There’s been a fight at Marrero Middle School. Two sixth graders traded insults during football practice, someone threw a punch, and soon enough they were on the ground with a ring of students egging them on. A few years ago, a fight like this might have ended with someone being suspended, or even arrested. But over the past year and a half, the New Orleans-area middle school has rebuilt its entire approach to discipline. Now, the two boys are sent to John Kulakowski, a teacher who splits...

Last week, we bought more than a dozen housing ads excluding categories of people explicitly protected by the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Were these actual ads? No. And as someone who’s spent the past month on a New York City apartment hunt, I’m pretty confident that no one would mistake our “ real estate company ” for an actual brokerage. But here’s the question: could they have been real? Yes — and our ability to limit the audience by race, religion, and gender — among other legally...

Becoming a father for the first time can be difficult for anyone, but when you do so in your teens or early 20s and have been incarcerated, it can be overwhelming. The right supports — stable housing, reliable networks, ties to employment, knowing how to build skills in fatherhood and healthy relationships — are essential. This was certainly true for 22-year-old James* and 20-year-old Marcus*. Both became fathers before their incarceration; both wanted to be the best dads they could be, and...

Eunju Lee, assistant professor at the University at Albany, is a leading contributor to a body of research focusing on kinship care. Kinship care occurs when children cannot safely stay in the care of their parents due to child maltreatment, parental substance abuse, parental mental health issues or other reasons. In these cases, relatives, or family friends in some jurisdictions, take over the care of the children. Kinship care is often utilized by child welfare services as a diversion from...

This afternoon, Charlie Rose was fired from PBS and CBS. This morning, G ayle King and Norah O'Donnell, who anchor with Charlie Rose, reported on this national story. Here's an excerpt from an article by J. Freedom du Lac , Amy B Wang and Marwa Eltagouri which discusses this video clip. I'm okay and not okay. How are you? Are you talking about this with your kids, friends, partner, co-workers? I've been asked how I'm handling all the news reports of sexual harassment, assault and abuse being...

Did you know that yoga can reduce stress and heal the mind, body, and soul? Let me explain how yoga can prevent, treat, and heal Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s) and toxic stress. In my personal experience as a Sonoma County preschool teacher, I noticed many children, parents, and teachers in our program had very high levels of stress and anxiety. We all live busy lives and tend to focus on the next activity instead of the one at hand. So I decided to try yoga. I started doing yoga with...

"Frontiers of Resilience" is the theme of Echo's Changing the Paradigm conference in March 2018 and we wanted to make sure that ACESConnection members got a preview of our not-to-be-missed speakers and workshops as well as a special discount (see end of article). The much anticipated Dr Ken Hardy will be speaking on the "Healing the Hidden Wounds of Racial Trauma." (He was scheduled to speak at our conference in March but a snowstorm prevented him from traveling.) The preeminent scientist on...

In 2015 alone, 127,500 Americans died from drug- or alcohol-induced causes or suicide. That is 350 deaths per day, 14 per hour, and one person dying a preventable cause every four months. Projections say it will only get worse. But there are solutions if we choose to act. A full scale National Resilience Strategy can move us in the right direction. Deaths from drugs, alcohol and suicide could account for 1.6 million fatalities over the coming decade (2016 to 2025) according to a new report,...