June 2018

What happens when all government agencies in a town, county, or state work together to build healthier communities? They create jobs, make sure families can afford healthy food, and build parks where all kids can play. And ultimately, they build communities where all people feel healthy, empowered, and connected to the place they call home. It’s impossible to make this vision a reality unless everyone works together. Behind the scenes, government agencies must collaborate. That means...

Last year Hope and Heal Fund made its inaugural grant to Berkeley Media Studies Group (BMSG) to begin the process to change the current narrative on gun violence in California to one that is hopeful and solution-based. Today we are excited to announce that the issue brief, More than mass shootings: Gun violence narratives in California news , is live now on BMSG’s website here: http://www.bmsg.org/resources/publications/gun-suicide-community-domestic-violence-news-narratives-california . The...

Therapists can be challenged to know the right tools when working with families with trauma histories. Dr. Scott Sells, the author of Treating the Traumatized Child: A Step-by-Step Family Systems Approach , is offering a free webinar on using feedback loops. Webinar: Convert Trauma Undercurrents Into Feedback Loops: How to Draw Out “Before” and “After” Feedback Loops for Your Clients Date: Tuesday, July 24, 2018 Time: 1:00-2:00 pm, Eastern Standard Time Cost: Free To register, Click here...

You've read the series. Now watch the documentary that brings "The Children of Central City" to an emotional, hopeful close. The multi-part special report by Jonathan Bullington and Richard Webster, with photos and video by Brett Duke and Emma Scott, premiered June 13 on NOLA.com and in The Times-Picayune. Produced as a project with the USC Annenberg School, it provides an in-depth look at the impact of growing up surrounded by violence in one of New Orleans' most culturally significant and...

The separation of children from their parents at the US-Mexico border under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy is, to many people — liberals and conservatives alike — a viscerally repellent act. Reports like the recording ProPublica obtained of children crying for their parents, or accounts of children in temporary foster care crying themselves to sleep every night, inspire in a lot of people the idea that something deeply wrong is happening. They make it apparent that not...

Teachable moments are those seconds of clarity when someone experiences an absolute understanding that previously eluded him or her. In my work as a School Nurse, I was accustomed to creating the “teachable moments” for my students. On this particular late afternoon, it was my turn to experience a “teachable moment” from a student. Who recognizes this scenario? It was another endless day of problem-solving, crisis management, sewing ripped pants, helping a staff member deal with a personal...

Seventeen years as a school nurse in Camden, New Jersey has given me plenty of opportunities to meet families from many countries. There is one mother and son that stand out in my recent experience that speaks to the power of respecting our families’ cultural perspectives. There is a part of Guatemala where the commonly spoken language is Mam, a Mayan Indian dialect that is not commonly found in Camden. One of my parents and her preschool-age son found themselves resettled in Camden from...

People seek therapy to get help making an important personal change, by their choice or urged by loved ones. Maybe you are being proactive and preparing for a happy event such as a wedding or a new baby, and you want to get off to a strong start. Maybe you are struggling with a relationship, a diagnosis, alcohol or substance abuse. You may be experiencing thoughts and feelings that make it very difficult to get through each day. Regardless of the reason, you want an effective therapist to...

https://medium.com/@drjimwalters/hacking-the-principals-office-in-a-trauma-informed-school-environment-5531f255ac5b

Resilience and Paper Tigers have been screened more than 40,000 times all over the globe. From the United States to the United Kingdom and Ireland, to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Colombia, communities are learning the biology of stress while championing the science of hope. This year, like every year, KPJR Films is grateful to be a part of a very important societal web and are so honored to serve those who are on the ground, working every day to help children combat the...

How can Trump Republicans—like Jeff Sessions and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, to cite but two notable examples—justify the cruel and psychologically abusive separation of children from their parents at the US border, simply because those parents crossed into our country seeking asylum as undocumented (“illegal”) immigrants? It’s not principally a matter of their values. The content of morality is very important, of course. But of at least equal importance is an appreciation of to whom and for...

"Adverse experiences in infancy and toddlerhood: Relations to adaptive behavior and academic status in middle childhood", will be published in the August issue of the journal Child Abuse and Neglect . The study, conducted by University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences researchers Lorraine McKelvey, Nikki Edge, Glenn R. Mesman, and Leanne Whiteside-Mansell, along with Arizona State University researcher Robert H. Bradley, collected and analyzed interview data from a sample of low-income...