Blog

On September 4, Indian Country Today Media Network ceased publishing. Although the site’s existing content will remain available online through January 2018, the owners of ICTMN, the Oneida Nation of New York, has decided to call it quits. The self-described “leading source of news and information for contemporary Native cultures” is for sale. The Oneida Nation bought the Indian Country Today newspaper in 1998 from Tim Giago, a Lakota journalist from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South...

For more than 15 years, Catherine Coleman Flowers has worked as an advocate in America’s Black Belt, where improper sewage treatment is putting people at risk of diseases usually found only in the developing world. Flowers has deep roots in the rich soil of Alabama. She grew up in a small community between Selma and Montgomery, in Lowndes County. The rural county, known as “Bloody Lowndes” during the civil rights era, had a long and violent history of whites retaliating against black...

A few months ago, President Donald Trump devoted his weekly address to the beleaguered American employee. “For too long, American workers were forgotten by their government—and I mean totally forgotten,” he said. “My administration has offered a new vision. The well-being of the American citizen and worker will be placed second to none.” No doubt he’ll come up with more pro-worker blather for Labor Day. Don’t listen. The only way Trump is helping the average employee is if you consider The...

Origins offers a number of training and consulting services. We developed The Basics as a half-day session to provide the foundation to support trauma-informed and resilience practices across sectors and industries. The session includes an overview of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, the neurobiology of toxic stress, the impact of social and historical trauma, and the science of resilience. We have tested The Basics with two cross-sector audiences, in Los Angeles and Phoenix.

As Houston ’s school district of more than 200,000 students scrambles to repair damaged schools before classes begin next week, they must also plan for traumatized students to enter the classroom. The Houston Independent School District is in the process of working with counsellors, nurses and social workers to develop a “mental health recovery plan” for the district’s hardest hit schools, according to a statement from HISD. In the meantime, Mental Health America of Greater Houston and...

What supports exist to "uplift" fathers who have survived abandonment, abuse or torture as children? Where can men go to discuss the joys, struggles and issues of being a father with ACEs? Where are the men who face hard, heavy and complicated realities to make life easier and lighter for all who come after? We found two of them and they will be the featured guests in the next Parenting with ACEs chat . Meet Charles Clayton Daniels, Jr. of Father's Uplift and "Trauma Dad" Byron Hamel. Both...

My dear friends, I just survived one of the most intense ordeals of my life. A series of traumas - one after the other over the past two years - have threatened to level me in a way that is reminiscent of the Perfect Storm that led me to leave medicine ten years ago. That Perfect Storm fundamentally transformed my life, resulting in a quantum leap in my consciousness, my career, my relationships, my spiritual journey, and how I live my life. I can only assume this one will as well. But damn...

From Kali Joy's Facebook page... September is National Suicide Prevention Month. This song I wrote is about suicide. But it is a song about hope. I believe that together we can raise awareness and help prevent suicide. Please share this video and encourage others to share it. If this subject has affected you in your life in any way, whether through a family member, friend, or something you have experienced, this is a chance to talk about it. And we need to talk about it. We all need to be...

Today’s college students desperately want to change the world, but too many think that living a meaningful life requires doing something extraordinary and attention-grabbing like becoming an Instagram celebrity, starting a wildly successful company or ending a humanitarian crisis. Having idealistic aspirations is, of course, part of being young. But thanks to social media, purpose and meaning have become conflated with glamour: Extraordinary lives look like the norm on the internet. Yet the...

In a year of big stories, the opioid crisis has become one of the biggest, though it’s been a problem since the early 2000s. Around then, people in Kentucky, West Virginia, and southeast Ohio started referring to Percocet, OxyContin, and Vicodin as “hillbilly heroin.” The pills were easy to get and easy to abuse. Between those, and heroin and synthetics like fentanyl—which many have since moved on to—West Virginia in 2015 had the highest overdose mortality rate in the nation, with 41.5...

When high school student Kia Reid’s brother was arrested, she withdrew emotionally, missing more than a week of school. But in her absence, Reid didn’t fall through the cracks. Her teachers texted and called to check on her. “They told me [they were] not here to pressure me, but they wanted me to keep on track with my schoolwork.,” Reid said. “They were really patient, and even came over to my house and brought me my work and went over all [of it] with me.” Reid graduated in the spring with...

When consultant Stephanie Pollack was brought in to work with the state chapter of a national nonprofit, morale was low. The organization was in the middle of a transformation that brought in new leadership, a new culture, new rules—and lots of tension and uncertainty. Her task? To teach appreciation and gratitude. [For more of this story, written by Kira M. Newman, go to https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_gratitude_can_transform_your_workplace]