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Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Data Report A new report on ACEs was just released! The Adverse Childhood Experiences Data Report: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), 2013-2019: An Overview of Adverse Childhood Experiences in California, details the statewide prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in California collected from 2013-2019 through the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS); describes ACEs-related demographic disparities; and describes...

By Allison Stephens, 6/17/22, https://positiveexperience.org/category/blog/ Fathers are an important part of family life and contribute significantly to child development. This Father’s Day, the HOPE National Resource Center is celebrating the impact that fathers can have on access to positive childhood experiences, even though fathers often go unrecognized. The National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse’s #Dadication campaign lets us hear directly from fathers about their relationships...

From Hurdle, Image: Screenshot, Hurdle, June 2022 The Second Annual Black Mental Health Roundtable was a success! We are grateful for our collaborating partners, the Kennedy-Satcher Center for Mental Health Equity, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and the American Psychological Association (APA) for helping to make the Second Annual Black Mental Health Roundtable a success. Mental healthcare providers and leaders from across the country attended the event virtually and...

By Libby Stanford, Photo: John Tully/Education Week, Education Week, June 13, 2022 Nonprofit organizations that have spent decades offering social-emotional learning and equity-based support to schools are facing a new challenge: defending their existence. This year, education terms like SEL and equity have become embroiled in the controversy surrounding “critical race theory,” an academic framework that argues racism is a social construct that has been embedded into legal systems and...

By Sally Weale, Photo: Blend Images/Rex/Shutterstock, The Guardian, June 14, 2022 Children who learn to play well with their peers by the age of three are likely to enjoy better mental health later in childhood, according to research from the University of Cambridge . The study is said to be the first to establish a connection between “peer play ability” before children go to school and improved mental health at the age of seven. Researchers say it is the quality – rather than quantity – of...

By Aaron Hutcherson, Photo: Lynsey Weatherspoon/The Washington Post, The Washington Post, June 8, 2022 After I exit the highway heading to my hotel, the first business I notice is a lunch spot called Plantation Buffet. The sign slaps me in the face with irony, as I’ve traveled here to meet with Nicole A. Taylor, the author of the recently released “ Watermelon and Red Birds ,” the first major cookbook honoring the Juneteenth holiday . The restaurant served as a harsh reminder of Black pain,...

By John Verdejo, 6/16/22, https://positiveexperience.org/category/blog/ Sunday, June 19 th is a day of celebrating both freedom and fathers. In part, Juneteenth honors Black children and families, including fathers, who were separated from each other during Slavery. The freedom to have a family and to raise children is fundamental to HOPE. Although racism still affects the ability for Black families to access the Four Building Blocks equitably, the team at the HOPE National Resource Center...

The NCJFCJ recommends that states should establish specialized, dedicated juvenile/family court judges responsible for hearing delinquency cases; develop state policies to support informed judicial decision-making for dispositional decisions, particularly the use of detention and incarceration

By Javiera Salman, Photo: Terrell Clark/The Hechinger Report, The Hechinger Report, June 9, 2022 C ierra Kaler-Jones wasn’t your traditional dance teacher. When Kaler-Jones taught dance, her students didn’t come just for the dance lessons. Her classes involved lessons on Black history and women’s history, as well as wide-ranging conversations about was happening in the world. Many of Kaler-Jones’ students — most of them Black — weren’t taught about important Black figures or positive history...

By Aman Azhar, Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images, Inside Climate News, June 8, 2022 As a professor and climate scientist in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Benjamin Zaitchik has found the perfect workshop: the rest of the city. A Boston native, Zaitchik intended to work on desert plants and agriculture after his doctoral studies at Yale University, and started out in the Middle East, studying ecology and chasing after...

By Lucy Tompkins, Illustration: Lennard Kok, The New York Times, June 14, 2022 Living on the streets, Hanif Hightower learned which Philadelphia shelters were likely to have an open bed during the cold months or where he could get a meal or a hot shower. But his resourcefulness had limits. Addicted to crack cocaine and struggling with clinical depression, he cycled in and out of jail and temporary rehab programs, returning to the streets each time he was released. Years passed this way. Then...