June 2017

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s most recent numbers, the unemployment rate in Illinois is 4.6 percent. But if you look at certain segments of the state’s population, the numbers tell a different story. Illinois’s youth are experiencing joblessness at a rate of nearly 70 percent—almost 16 times the statewide average. Chicago’s Cook County is home to the largest share of this demographic, with the situation particularly difficult for the 21,500 16- to 24-year-olds without a...

I know the importance of breaks in a workday. The science clearly shows that taking a cognitive timeout helps us to work better and feel better, and personal experience confirms that. But, still… Like many Americans, I sometimes find myself working right through lunch. I get lost in my work, or I think, Hey, if I just finish this project, it will be out of my hair and then I can relax. But a newly published study suggests that this is the wrong approach. It turns out that taking a deliberate...

Seattle and San Francisco began raising their hourly minimum wage to $15 in 2015. Now Washington, D.C. , and New York City are following their lead, and Democratic leaders in Congress have endorsed a bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2024. [For more of this story, written by Joseph Darius Jaafari, go to http://nationswell.com/raising-minimum-wage-15/] Read more: http://nationswell.com/raising-minimum-wage-15/#ixzz4kb1baCGa

An ancient spiritual practice is helping rehabilitate men and women at the Santa Barbara County Jail. Prison Yoga Santa Barbara (PYSB) invites inmates to practice yoga, meditation and mindfulness during incarceration at no cost to taxpayers. Ginny Kuhn is the force behind the non-profit staffed by volunteers. The program is modeled after The Prison Yoga Project which was started yogi James Fox at California’s San Quentin State Prison 15 years ago. Kuhn's motto for PYSB is 'Working Freedom...

Children with special health care needs have or are at increased risk for chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional conditions and also require health and related services of a type or amount beyond that required by children generally. There are 11.2 million children with special health care needs as of 2009-2010, and 59% (6.4 million ) of them have one or more emotional or behavioral difficulties, such as depression, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or...

President Donald Trump is trying to keep his promise to end the “American carnage” of crime and drugs. His proposed budget would allocate hundreds of millions of dollars to swelling the ranks of federal prosecutors, who Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered last month to pursue the most severe penalties possible. But that’s not where the “law and order” ends. By cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for mental health care and substance abuse treatment, the budget would...

According to the professionals attending the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative's 25th anniversary celebration in Orlando, Florida, initiating positive, developed relationships with youth in the justice system requires patience, tenacity and understanding. [For more go to http://jjie.org/2017/06/19/interacting-with-kids-in-the-juvenile-justice-system/]

If schools are to be guided by data, the data says more than 2 of 3 children experience at least one ACE: children of all incomes, all colors, all social levels, all educational levels. It is all of us. Is your school trauma-informed?

More than five years of lobbying, arm twisting and a fair dose of shaming finally paid off. North Carolina voted Monday to end its status as the only state in the country that still automatically charges 16-year-olds as adults, no matter the crime. The state legislature added the sweeping juvenile justice reform to a vote on the final state budget, rather than as a standalone bill. In the end it didn’t matter because supporters got virtually everything they were hoping for, and lawmakers on...

LaWanda Marshall and Candace Graham both teach pre-kindergarten at the Carver STEM Academy on Detroit’s west side. Both have colorful, toy-filled classrooms, computers for students to use and assistant teachers to help guide their 4- and 5-year-olds as they learn and explore. But Marshall’s classroom has other things too—lots and lots of other things that regularly arrive like gifts from the pre-K gods. [For more of this story, written by Erin Einhorn, go to ...

To fully appreciate the money flowing into addiction treatment, consider the size of the bill Tara Richards ran up during a five-month attempt to achieve sobriety at a rehab center in San Clemente — $416,050. Richards, of Maple Valley, Washington, came to Sovereign Health for help in July of 2014, according to court documents. She had private insurance – Regence Blue Shield – and signed forms agreeing to residential mental health treatment costing $3,410 per day. That care – plus 15 urine...

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday signed into law a measure that seeks to address the circumstances that led to the death of Sandra Bland , a black woman found dead in a county jail days after being arrested during a routine traffic stop. The Sandra Bland Act mandates county jails divert people with mental health and substance abuse issues toward treatment, makes it easier for defendants to receive a personal bond if they have a mental illness or intellectual disability, and requires that...