Blog

By Matt Barnum, Chalkbeat, July 8, 2021 Mackee Mason says families choose his Austin, Texas charter high school because it’s safe, with little bullying or fighting. Mason, the school’s principal and football coach, credits its ethnic studies courses. The two classes, which students take in ninth and then 11th grade, feature discussion and instruction in LGBTQ history, colonialism, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, police brutality, and exclusionary immigration policies. That allows students, who are...

By Danielle Kurtzleben, National Public Radio, July 11, 2021 NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben speaks with professor Lilliana Mason about a recent study she co-authored entitled " Activating Animus: The Uniquely Social Roots of Trump Support ." DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, HOST: Discussions about Donald Trump's voter base and what motivated them is a beloved topic among pundits. But as time goes on, we're getting more and more data that sheds light on what some of those motivations are. A recent study...

The Traumatic Stress Institute (TSI) is excited to announce the four agencies participating in the first-of-its-kind Pilot Trauma-Informed Care Learning Collaborative for Organizations Serving Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD). The Pilot Learning Collaborative is a 16-month initiative where organizations will work intensively together to implement TSI’s Whole-System Change Model with the goal of transforming their organizational cultures to ones that are...

From Futures Without Violence, July 2021 This event is hosted by the National Health Collaborative on Violence and Abuse, American College of Obstetricians, March of Dimes, and Futures Without Violence in conjunction with Representative Gwen Moore. As Congress addresses the threats to Black maternal health, it is important to also discuss the impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) on maternal mortality. The briefing will highlight the leading causes of pregnancy-associated deaths...

From National Overdose Prevention Network, July 2021 Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, are shown to increase the risk of chronic health conditions including substance use disorder. These ACES, frequently experienced as “trauma” in early childhood, can have a profound impact on one’s health. Fortunately, there is growing recognition that a trauma-informed approach can help individuals, organizations and systems better serve those living with addiction. Join us for a conversation with a...

July 12, 2021 No one should ever look at their complex trauma and be grateful for it, and no one has the right to tell you to do so. Stating that it would be like asking someone to be thankful because they had cancer or some other horrific disease. The statement is insensitive and wrong. However, many therapists will ask you what did you learn from your experiences? Did you learn resilience? Did you learn compassion? Did you learn how strong you indeed are? What did you learn? By asking...

By Adam Grant, The New York Times, July 10, 2021 In late June, over 15,000 vaccinated people packed in to watch the Foo Fighters reopen Madison Square Garden. When the band brought the comedian Dave Chappelle onstage to sing the Radiohead song “Creep,” the audience erupted in the closest thing I’ve seen to rapture in a solid year and a half. No one cared that Mr. Chappelle was off key. They were all participating in an experience that was unimaginable just months earlier. One day they’ll...

By Ibram X. Kendi, The Atlantic, July 9, 2021 The United States is not in the midst of a “culture war” over race and racism. The animating force of our current conflict is not our differing values, beliefs, moral codes, or practices. The American people aren’t divided. The American people are being divided. Republican operatives have buried the actual definition of critical race theory : “a way of looking at law’s role platforming, facilitating, producing, and even insulating racial...

By Grace Hauck, USA TODAY, July 9, 2021 Amid a dramatic rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic , the governor of Illinois signed a law Friday requiring public schools to teach a unit of Asian American history – a move education experts said is the first of its kind nationwide. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History (TEAACH) Act, which mandates "a unit of instruction studying the events of Asian American...

By Majlie de Puy Kamp, CNN, July 9, 2021 Andrea Macklin never turns off his TV. It’s the only way to drown out the noise from the wood mill bordering his backyard, the jackhammer sound of the plant piercing his walls and windows. The 18-wheelers carrying logs rumble by less than 100 feet from his house, all day and night, shaking it as if an earthquake has taken over this tranquil corner of North Carolina. He’s been wearing masks since long before the coronavirus pandemic, just to keep the...

Although what follows happened more than forty years ago and although eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa do not receive the same attention as they once did, they still occur in 30 million Americans/year and are still one of the most frequent chronic illnesses in adolescence. She weighed in at 85 lbs and looked beyond skeletal on her 5’8” frame. I was the psychiatric resident on call in the UCLA emergency room forty-two years ago when a deathly twenty two year old young woman, who I...

This podcast is a powerful conversation with Kyle & Kamar, founders of A Long Talk. They are fathers, turned advocates following the trauma of George Floyd's murder. Their mission is to to have an Anti-Racist at every dinner table. Their focus is to help folks "find your frontline and step up to it" They understanding that repeated acts of violence against black men causes harm and that we need to talk and understand eachother to address the trauma it inflicts. <a...