April 2019

There is a Chinese proverb that states, “If you want 1 year of prosperity, grow grain. If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people." The benefits are evident, yet the real question becomes, “how do you grow people?” This Big Idea Session, CRI’s Trauma Coaching and Trauma Consultation Training, answers this question. Schools, organizations, and parents are discovering that the traditional “command and control” style of working with...

Sincere Howard - age 17 & Shirleen Caban - age 19 The Camden City School District will have two more empty desks when we return from spring break. These two young people were students of mine at my former Camden, New Jersey school. They were gunned down in a park on Easter Sunday morning. With permission, I am sharing the reflections from Lisa Wallenburg, the art teacher who is working on the #NoMoreEmptyDesks project with me. Lisa was their art teacher and I was their school nurse. On...

When your toddler misses a developmental milestone, like taking her first steps by age two, it’s natural to fret. After all, in very rare cases, such delays may be a sign of an underlying condition. But a recent study suggests that some delays may have a more surprising explanation. Children are more likely to miss developmental milestones by age two if their parents suffered traumatic events during their own childhood, according to researchers from the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical...

What brings you to this work? (this work means job, healing, change-the-world work, movement, anything that "the work" means to you) What makes it hard to show up? (at all, as yourself, in certain spaces) How often do you think, talk, share about these things? These are prompts we'll be pondering together tomorrow in a workshop in KS. This is a space to share some replies, if you're comfortable doing so. Leave a comment below this post. Some inspiration. Check out this early morning tweet...

Last month, an article titled “The Tragedy of Baltimore” in the New York Times Magazine described the upsurge in violence in a city long known for its “blight, suburban flight, segregation, drugs , racial inequality, [and] concentrated poverty.” At the center of the storm are transition-age youth, who too often face long odds and challenging futures in the communities where they live. I recently had the opportunity to talk with Patricia Cobb-Richardson , MS. For the past 20 years, she has...

Greg Grey Cloud stands in the middle of the arena, thumbs in his hip pockets, beside a black-and-white Paint who wanders and roots aimlessly in the dry sand. The space is slightly smaller than a high-school basketball court, walled in particle board with an arched roof of white plastic that seals in the warmth from the overworked radiant heaters on this chilly northern prairie morning. Mud from the pens outside clings to Grey Cloud's boots and to the bottoms of his jeans. He closes his eyes...

Evictions are destabilizing events that increase families’ financial stress and strip away the psychological and physical security of having a home. These effects are particularly traumatizing for children, who often suffer emotionally and academically. While these negative consequences are well researched , little evidence exists to estimate the number of children who are evicted during childhood. To help fill this knowledge gap, this study calculates the proportion of children born in...

Recent changes in immigration policy are presenting new and intense challenges to infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their families, and the teachers and programs that work with them. Families and programs are experiencing increased trauma due to the immigration climate. With funding from the Irving Harris Foundation, the BUILD Initiative has organized a series of webinars and blogs in partnership with the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) for providers, state policy leaders, and...

(Cissy's note: My Friday morning free-write on stuff I've been thinking about a lot of late) At least once a week, if not once a day, people ask about how to have more "authentic engagement" from parents, survivors, and community members - especially who are or have been in crisis related to ACEs. And sometimes, people share how hard it is to get or keep folks on committees who do have lived experience and care about trauma-informed change. I get these questions pretty often. But these...

KPJR Films is pleased to present the selection for the inaugural 2019 KPJR Book Club. Self-Reg: How to Help Your Child (and You) Break the Stress Cycle and Successfully Engage with Life is a ground-breaking book that presents an entirely new understanding of your child's emotions and behavior that serves as a practical guide for parents to help their kids engage calmly and successfully in learning and life. Rooted in decades of clinical practice and research by leading child psychologist Dr.

In this data snapshot, the Annie E. Casey Foundation examines how placements for young people in foster care have changed from 2007 to 2017. Using data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Casey finds that child welfare systems are doing a better job of placing kids in families. At the same time, racial disparities persist for kids of all ages and progress eludes teens in care. To push for further progress, the four-page snapshot tells how states can leverage the federal Family...

Cissy's note: I admire the work of this parent-led and parent-focused organization. I read everything they post. For those not familiar with what they do, this is a recent interview with three staffers and gives a really good look at what and how they work to support families and make systems change. Here's an excerpt. The full piece is here. To read more of this piece recently published in Rise Magazine, go here.