November 2019

By Ashley A. Smith, EdSource, November 15, 2019 A San Diego area community college that moved early to eliminate remedial math courses is drawing lots of attention across the state for success in teaching math. Not only are students at Cuyamaca Community College taking math classes that can transfer to four-year colleges, but Latino students are bucking a national trend by outperforming their white counterparts. Cuyamaca, along with College of the Siskiyous in Northern California, were two...

By Taylor Walker, Witness LA, November 11, 2019 Research and the national conversation around racial disparities in school discipline have largely remained focused on the outsized disparate treatment that black students receive when compared with their white peers. Yet Native American youth face much the same disciplinary treatment in schools that black students do, according to a report from San Diego State University and Sacramento Native American Higher Education Collaborative (SNAHEC)...

By The Government Alliance on Race and Equity, November 18, 2019 The Government Alliance on Race and Equity 2020 Annual Membership Meeting, Confronting Today’s Reality: Restoration, Learning, and Action will be held in Portland, Oregon on April 14th-16th! Confronting Today’s Reality: Restoration, Learning, and Action will feature some of the things you’ve loved about past gatherings and some new features incorporated by popular demand: Workshops conceived and delivered by members for...

Are you looking for concrete guidance about how to make your primary care organization more trauma-informed? Earlier this year, to help primary care address the impacts of trauma, the National Council for Behavioral Health, with the support of Kaiser Permanente, launched a three-year initiative, Trauma-Informed Primary Care: Fostering Resilience and Recovery . Over 14 months, seven primary care organizations worked with National Council experts to pilot resources, tools and processes,...

By Casey Gwinn, The San Diego Union-Tribune, November 14, 2019 In 2002, during my tenure as the San Diego city attorney, we opened the nationally acclaimed San Diego Family Justice Center. For the first time anywhere in America, we brought together 25 agencies under one roof to meet the needs of domestic and sexual violence victims. The results were stunning. During our journey from the very beginning of planning the center through 2008, we saw a 90% drop in domestic violence homicides in...

By Jeremy Loudenback, The Chronicle of Social Change, November 15, 2019 The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to boost housing options for transition-age foster youth at its meeting on Tuesday. Two separate investments totaling nearly $9.4 million will open up 237 transitional beds for foster youth at the greatest risk of homelessness over the next year. “Youth transitioning out of foster care have often experienced significant trauma throughout their young lives,” said...

By Ben Brazil, Los Angeles Times, November 14, 2019 In response to increasing hate crimes and incidents, Orange County Human Relations is rolling out its first statewide anti-hate program to equip schools with the resources to launch their own educational and awareness campaigns. The nonprofit will provide schools with a “toolkit” that contains the necessary components for an anti-hate campaign, including templates, documents, posters and digital content. O.C. Human Relations staff will hold...

By Rebecca O'Connor, The Desert Sun, November 15, 2019 A nonprofit organization helping to build a stronger community through affordable housing needs public awareness and support. Founded in 1982, the Indio-based Coachella Valley Housing Coalition (CVHC) has become the largest developer of low-income housing in Riverside County and one of the largest residential developers in Coachella Valley. The organization offers numerous programs that serve low-income individuals and families, creating...

Thousands of paper-made butterflies have been spotted around the San Francisco Bay Area, in libraries, schools and city halls. Created out of everything from coffee filters to scraps of construction paper, the colorful winged insects collectively make up The Butterfly Effect: Migration is Beautiful , a youth-led art and activism project raising awareness about the 15,000 children who have been and are currently being held in U.S. immigration detention centers. “We want [migrant youth] to...

By Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times, November 15, 2019 The University of California plans to enroll 1,400 more California undergraduates next year with no tuition increase under a 2020-21 budget approved Thursday by the board of regents. The UC system also will enroll 1,000 additional graduate students and expand mental health services and academic support in its drive to increase graduation rates and close the achievement gap among diverse student groups. The UC Student Assn. successfully...

By Ken Carlson, The Modesto Bee, November 14, 2019 Paramedic Dennis Flannery is one of eight medics in a Stanislaus County pilot program that is ensuring people in a mental health crisis are taken promptly to the care they need. “Our goal is to help people in a behavioral health crisis to avoid extensive emergency room stays, if the (mental health) crisis is their only emergency at that time,” Flannery said. The community paramedicine program — a first in California — was launched in fall...

All told, roughly 1.6 million Californians are not getting help from the fede ral Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as CalFresh here, even though they are eligible. That means 28% of people with poverty-level budgets didn’t receive the food assistance they needed, according to 2017 state data . At the bookends of adulthood, college students and seniors increasingly struggle to pay their bills yet they are among the groups most likely to miss out on the food stamps they qualify...