December 2017

As Hurricane Matthew stalled over the eastern part of North Carolina in October 2016, large parts of Edgecombe County were inundated. The storm damaged about 3,500 buildings across the county and at least 250 filled with more than four feet of water. Thousands were displaced from their homes and forced into makeshift shelters. When the Tar River peaked, it drowned the town of Princeville. Edgecombe residents young and old were caught in the disaster. The flooding displaced many students at...

I was at my dentists office the other day when I heard the assistant, I’ll call her Emily, talking with the office receptionist. Emily asked her boyfriend to buy an anxiety cube. My ears perked up when I heard the word “anxiety” so I asked how the cube worked and if she suffered with a lot of anxiety. She smiled sheepishly nodding yes. I told her I was a psychotherapist and asked if she wanted me to share a bit of education that might help. She and the office receptionist both nodded yes. I...

Once again, our great partners have stepped up to share their "peace/piece" with us! Our MARC Program manager, Wendy Sedlacek connected us with Dave Cook, her former colleague from Pinellas County Schools. Turns out, Dave was a gem of a find; a cracker jack professional who put together this video for us in record time. Wendy pitched in as producer adding the slides and visuals. Together, they were able to create this great little video describing Peace4Tarpon. That's not the easiest task by...

As the calendar year ends, Congress is poised to head home after the likely passage of a massive tax reform package today. But with less than two full weeks left in 2017, a lot of programs and policies important to youth and families are in limbo. Here’s a quick rundown: [For more on this story by John Kelly, go to https://chronicleofsocialchange.org/child-welfare-2/lots-youth-related-programs-policies-line/29072 ]

"I've personally spent only one night in jail,” Frank Gehry confessed. “I didn’t like it very much.” Gehry, 88, who has been described as our greatest living architect (and, by an admiring pro-cannabis website , as a Very Important Pothead), said he got his only taste of incarceration when he was busted for possession many years ago. Last Friday in New Haven, that night behind bars was a kind of credential. An invited audience of architects and students, corrections officials and campaigners...

For the first time since the early 1960s, life expectancy in the United States has declined for the second year in a row, according to a CDC report released Thursday . American men can now expect to live 76.1 years, a decrease of two-tenths of a year from 2015. American women’s life expectancy remained at 81.1 years. The change was driven largely by a rising death rate among younger Americans. The death rate of people between the ages of 25 and 34 increased by 10 percent between 2015 and...

The food justice movement is one of the most promising political developments of the last generation. It has broadened and deepened environmentalism by knitting together concerns about economic inequality, labor rights, environmental health, and sustainable agriculture. But what often goes unmentioned in our discussions of food justice is that it all begins with land—who owns it, how they own it, and how it gets passed down from one generation to the next. This is something Savi Horne never...

Throughout the morning of Sunday, August 27th, Angela Wrigglesworth kept her concerns off social media because she didn't want to worry her parents. But as the waters slowly rose into her Brays Bayou home in Houston, she discovered that emergency services were overwhelmed, dealing with more urgent crises than even the flooding in her neighborhood. Finally, a little after noon, she posted on Facebook: "There is water in our home and we need to get out at some point soon. ... If you know of...

Earlier this year, I suffered my first major panic attack. For days afterward, my heart would race and my mind would fill with doomsday visions as I worried about everything around me, including whether I’d have more panic attacks and if I’d ever be able to stop them. ' Knowing that it wasn’t just me, however, was strangely reassuring. “Anxiety disorders are the most common condition in psychiatry,” said Dr. Naomi Simon, professor of psychiatry at N.Y.U. School of Medicine and director of...

Earlier this week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke in Toledo, Ohio on “eradicating violent crime in America,” addressing a room of law enforcement officials. Sessions acknowledged in his speech that crime has been on a downswing since the 1990s, but he warned that this trend has “reversed” over the past two years. After citing stats from the latest Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) report that showed violent crime and murder rates increased in 2015 and 2016, Sessions turned his...

The science is in. Singing is really, really good for you and the most recent research suggests that group singing is the most exhilarating and transformative of all. The research suggests that creating music together evolved as a tool of social living. Groups and tribes sang and danced together to build loyalty, transmit vital information and ward off enemies. What has not been understood until recently is that singing in groups triggers the communal release of serotonin and oxytocin, the...

The evidence is clear. When bad things happen to us as young children, we are at significantly increased risk for not only mental health problems, but also a wide range of physical health problems including asthma, heart disease, and even early death. These "bad things" all involve disruptions in caregiving relationships. A national movement directed at screening for ACEs in pediatric practices has emerged from this work. My suggestion that the implication of the Adverse Childhood...