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BROOKLYN, N.Y. – When it first opened in February, locals viewed it with suspicion. For starters, with its comfy sofas and flat-screen TV, the vibe at “The C.R.I.B.” – aka East New York Family Enrichment Center – is more living room hangout than social service agency. And secondly, in this rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, longtime residents don’t always view new things as harbingers of good things to come. People would poke their heads in the door and say, “What are you doing here?” And...

Jillian Broomstein starts to cry when she talks about the day her newborn son Jeremy was taken from her by New Hampshire's child welfare agency. He was 2 weeks old. "They came into the house and said they would have to place him in foster care and I would get a call and we would set up visits," she says. "It was scary." Broomstein, who was 26 at the time, had not used heroin for months and was on methadone treatment. The clinic social worker told her that since Jeremy would test positive for...

When Tramischa Cole , a homeless 24-year-old mother of one, stumbled across a Civicorps flier in 2015, she didn’t expect to be accepted into the Bay Area’s only accredited high school and job training program for 18 to 26 year olds. It’s not that Civicorps had a waiting list: Cole was worried her parenting responsibilities and lack of housing would be an issue. “I told them I’m homeless and I don’t have child care,” Cole said. “I thought everything I was telling them would be something to...

The Healing Trauma Summit is a free, online series of speakers presenting a wide range of trauma-related topics. It starts today and continues every day until next Wednesday, June 13. A recording of each presentation is available on the website 24 hours after it ends. * Keep in mind the times listed on the website are in EST *

Excerpts from an article by Shawn Ginwright Ph.D.:

Link to entire piece here . Excerpt below:

An unsolicited letter from a teen leader: May 20th, 2018 Chanaiah Maxwell Philadelphia, PA To Whom It May Concern: Not long ago, I was asked to name three of my biggest influences in the world. Naturally, as the only child of a supportive and loving single parent, the very first person I thought to state was my mother. The second person was Judy Nelson, my very first boss. Judy was no typical boss. She was in no way conventional. Judy was honest, an open ear and heart, and a true leader.

The kids noticed, discussed and laughed as I tried many silly warm welcomes, so they can lead their own warm welcome to the children who would be arriving later. They named the workshop, made a workshop outline, making sure to ask about allergies (used Sunflower seed butter instead of nut butters). We smelled, and tasted everything both separately and together to notice flavor combinations and our preferences. # cyouthlead # sbtilp . # fjmyers # judynelson # mindfultrauma -informed #...

The Adverse Childhood Experience (ACEs) Survey has been used across the country, and to nobody’s surprise, we find significant parts of the population likely suffering some sort of trauma after enduring one or more adverse childhood experiences. If you stood in front of a kindergarten classroom, you could estimate that every fourth child--more than a quarter of the students (and their parents)--could endure at least one adverse childhood experience which means living in households where...

You thought you were “over it.” Then you had your kids and you were reliving your childhood abuse through flashbacks and panic attacks. You are not alone and healing is possible.

Did you know that kids growing up in poverty hear 30 million fewer words by age 3? Chances are, if you're the type of person who reads a newspaper or listens to NPR, you've heard that statistic before . Since 1992, this finding has, with unusual power, shaped the way educators, parents and policymakers think about educating poor children. But did you know that the number comes from just one study, begun almost 40 years ago, with just 42 families? That some people argue it contained a...

HOUSTON — For years, she slept with a gun under her pillow, living in fear of a boyfriend who beat her, controlled her life and threatened to kill her and her children. Domenica, who came to this country illegally from Mexico in 1995 and became part of the booming immigrant community in Houston, said her partner was a United States citizen, and often reminded her that she could be deported if she went to the police. “He told me nobody would help me, because I don’t have papers,” said...