February 2018

YOU ARE INVITED TO JOIN IN ACTION PLANNING TO SUSTAIN ADVERSE CHILD EXPEREINCES (ACE) WORK IN THE COMMUNITY and SCHOOLS On September 22 nd , a group of community members and organization leaders attended a presentation of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE). The September presentation was the just beginning of a journey to raise awareness about ACEs, support the development of resilience and ultimately engage individuals in community transformation in the northwest suburbs of Hennepin...

A new study of race and school discipline in California counties has revealed that the black male student suspension rate decreased 5 percent between the 2011-2012 and 2016-2017 school years—from 17.8 percent of all black boys to 12.8 percent. Racial disparities remain intact, however. Black boys’ 12.8 percent suspension rate during the last school year was more than 3.5 times the rate of the CA public school population as a whole (3.6 percent), according to the report, which was created in...

LAWRENCE — Excess stress is hazardous to everyone. But for infants and toddlers facing toxic stress due to traumatic and adverse events or living situations, it can mean stunted growth, behavioral challenges, struggles in school and troubled adulthood. University of Kansas researchers are part of a grant project that is implementing an intervention throughout the state to help families in adverse situations nurture their children to prevent such problems, all of which can help children be...

“Our society has treated the abuse, maltreatment, violence, and chaotic experiences of our children as an oddity that is adequately dealt with by emergency response systems… These services are needed and are worthy of support—but they are a dressing on a greater wound… Later, in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood [affected persons will develop] behavioral, learning, social, criminal, and chronic health problems.” This is the assessment of Dr. Robert Anda, M.D., one of the principal...

There I was standing at the front of a class filled with trouble makers. The principal asked me to teach the “worst of the worst” students. He asked me to help the students overcome disruptive behavior, angry outbursts, and low academic performance. These were “at risk” kids at an alternative high school. As the students entered the classroom they behaved exactly as I expected. Noisy and disruptive, I knew had my hands full. The bell rang to begin class. Did they become quiet, fold their...

The Rev. Barber is co-chair of The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival . Drug overdoses kill more than 64,000 people per year, and are now the leading cause of death for Americans under 50. To document the nation’s devastating opioid crisis, TIME sent photographer James Nachtwey and deputy director of photography Paul Moakley across the country to gather stories from the frontlines of the epidemic. The result, The Opioid Diaries , is a visual record of a national...

The secret to a narrower waistline and a longer life span might be found in the corridors of our minds as much as in the cardio rooms of our gyms. A recent epidemiological study suggests that our beliefs about how much we exercise may substantially influence our health and longevity, even if those beliefs are objectively inaccurate — which hints that upending our thinking about exercise might help us whittle away pounds, whether we work out more or not. The study, published in Health...

NEW YORK — Youths on probation who participated in a community mentorship program run through the New York City Department of Probation had a lesser chance of recidivism than those who didn’t, according to a study published this week. Youths between the ages of 16 and 24 who went through the Arches Transformative Mentoring Program while on probation had a 69 percent lower recidivism rate within 12 months of starting their probation than youths who did not participate in the program, the...

In Alaska , a coalition of tribal governments has now begun to assume responsibility for offering some child welfare services to Alaska Native children. The Alaska Tribal Child Welfare Compact , which was signed into law in October 2017 by Alaska Gov. Bill Walker (I), allows 18 Alaska tribes to provide child welfare services with the goal of reducing the disproportionate number of Native children in foster care in the state. Previously, these services were managed solely through the state’s...

In Great Britain , midwives deliver half of all babies , including Kate Middleton’s first two children , Prince George and Princess Charlotte. In Sweden, Norway and France, midwives oversee most expectant and new mothers, enabling obstetricians to concentrate on high-risk births. In Canada and New Zealand, midwives are so highly valued that they’re brought in to manage complex cases that need special attention. All of those countries have much lower rates of maternal and infant mortality...

You’re given a choice: Would you rather spend your day feeling happy, versus happy interspersed with some moments of sadness, frustration, and anxiety? Most of us would choose the first option in a heartbeat. Psychologists, too, long championed the importance of cultivating positive emotions as one path toward optimizing well-being, resilience to stressors, and salutary physical health outcomes. Not surprisingly, when people are asked what emotions they want to feel , they place a heavy...

Ijeoma Oluo's So You Want to Talk About Race is an unapologetically honest read about race in the United States. Those who follow Oluo's work have come to expect this sort of realness, whether in her essays on race and identity for Elle and the Washington Post, or in her work at The Establishment, a media outlet created by women that prioritizes marginalized voices, where she is editor at large. Now, in her breakout book, Oluo aims to shift the public discourse toward a more intelligent and...