June 2019

By Charlotte West, CALmatters, June 13, 2019. As for most high school students, commencement day was big for Osvaldo Moreno. “This is a proud moment for me,” he beamed on a recent June weekend, and not just because he was the first to finish school among six—soon-to-be seven—children in his family. Though it’s not on the parchment, Moreno, 21, earned his Johanna Boss High School diploma over the past two years at a state prison for juveniles in Stockton. And as one of fewer than 800...

By Children's Hospital Boston, Medical Xpress, June 11, 2019. A five-year study at Boston Children's Hospital reports success with a program it started in 2013 to bring much-needed behavioral health services directly into primary care pediatricians' offices. As reported today in Pediatrics, the program improved children's access to behavioral health care, with only minor increases in cost, and got high marks from participating pediatric practices. Based on the findings, Boston Children's...

By Angela Helm, The Root, June 14, 2019. What Taraji P. Henson has been able to do with her first Boris L. Henson Foundation benefit and conference last weekend was nothing short of a revelation—and right on time. The Empire star and Oscar-nominated actress is a native Washingtonian and Howard University graduate. So, it was only fitting that her inaugural foundational event, named for her father, who navigated addiction and mental health issues, be in the city where he lived and worked.

Since 2008 I have been speaking to educators, pastors, and anyone else that would listen about the power of hope. My life is guided by the belief that the future always has the potential to be better than the past, and that hope can be cultivated, borrowed, and spread. It wasn't until my path crossed with Rebecca Lewis-Pankratz and Jim Sporleder that I realized the true depth of this belief and how it relates to the movement of becoming trauma-informed. For the past two years, I have worked...

NAMI San Diego's Children, Youth and Family (CYF) Liaison is offering the PFYPP - Principles of Family Youth Professional Partnerships 1-Hour Online Training with Freshly Updated Content . This impactful training offers information and learning opportunities for individuals with Lived Experience, Youth/Family Support Partners (also called Peer Partners) and their employers working in San Diego's Behavioral Health System of Care. The many benefits Peer Partners accomplish surrounding family...

When you are in rehab for alcoholism it is next to impossible to explain to your two small children why you are in a hospital but you don’t look sick. How do you explain a sickness of the mind they cannot see that is also wrapped in stigma? A little over five years ago I found myself in that situation and I struggled to find resources. Their father and I searched for books to read to my son and daughter but there were precious few. They came for one visit and I got out a large piece of paper...

The ACEs research by Drs. Felitti, Anda and colleagues focused attention on the important consequences of childhood adversity for adult health. Of course, as many in the resilience-building movement recognize, adversities affect children’s health and life trajectories as well. When we recognize the powerful impacts of harsh life circumstances for children and families, it becomes clearer that social policies to strengthen household and community resources are needed as well as...

By Siobhan Adcock, Medium, June 13, 2019. My father was a good man. I really think he was. But when I was growing up, he was also violent. Frightening. Depressed. Alcoholic, and not in a fun-at-parties way. Often mean. Sometimes racist, as liberal, left-voting white people can casually be. He could be — as even the people who loved him most acknowledged — an asshole. But he could also be heroic, as he was for me and my little sister, who adored and feared him. Pop was certainly a...

By Jeremy Loudenback, The Chronicle of Social Change, June 14, 2019. As California works toward finalizing a new state budget, the legislature this week provided some long-awaited clues about the future of reforms to the state’s Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). A budget approved by the state legislature now appears to call for the creation of an $8 million “therapeutic communities” pilot project inspired by a successful alternative to youth incarceration in large facilities. That’s a part...

With a lot of discussion nationally surrounding the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACES), trauma and resilience it is certainly a topic that still needs to reach educators and parents alike. A recent survey showed that only 10% of early childhood educators had ever heard of ACES, yet 100% reported wanting more information about how trauma impacts children’s behaviors. While teachers certainly notice behaviors in the classroom, they often feel overwhelmed or unsure of the best way to...

By K. Hecht, A. & Hosack P. Berman, The Carsons remember how afraid Davy was of Larry. Why did I forget that? Why do I want Larry in my life so badly ? Claire didn’t understand herself. But she was trying. The Carsons found the black eye Larry gave her so unforgiveable. She had seen her dad beat her mother; she hadn’t thought of her black eye as that big a deal. She had only testified against Larry because, at the time, she had realized how much he could jeopardize Davy’s safety. But,...

"In our community, we were first exposed to ACEs and brain architecture. We frequently talked about the impact of ACEs. Until this happened when Dr. Rob Anda came in . Because of this brave mom who shared her 10 ACE childhood. Because of that vulnerability in a first exposure to ACEs. Until finally… I finally knew we had to do this. And now I was convinced to start CRI." - Our own Teri Barila uses the 7-Sentence Story model to tell of CRI's Incubation Stage. We are excited to bring to you a...