September 2019

Cal State LA’s Prison Graduation Initiative is the state’s only public bachelor’s degree program sending professors to teach behind bars. College programs like it were once far more common, and today advocates are hopeful the political winds have shifted enough to bring public dollars back to prison education. Federal legislation that would make grant aid available has bipartisan support, and in California, a bill to open the state’s financial aid program to incarcerated students is headed...

Results come from survey by Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation Earlier this year, Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation , in partnership with California’s Mental Health Services Oversight & Accountability Commission , surveyed 485 Californians, ages 13 to 24, about mental health, access to mental health services, and what they’d like to see in that area in California. The resulting report, “ California Youth Mental Health: Understanding Resource Availability and Preferences ,” was...

By Mountain View Voice, September 25, 2019 The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday, Sept. 24, to increase funding for services for victims of sexual assault and create a new office to address gender-based violence in the county. The board voted to create the Santa Clara County Office of Gender-Based Violence to oversee services for survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and human trafficking. County leaders plan to fill the positions in the new office...

By Narges Zohoury Dillon, East Bay Times, September 25, 2019 I find that I have some of the most meaningful conversations with near strangers when I tell them that I work in the field of suicide prevention. So often, people share that they have lost a loved one to suicide or that they have struggled with their own mental health challenges. On an Uber ride from the airport, a driver shared with me a history of trauma and suicidal thinking and her hope to go back to school so she could help...

By The Annie E. Casey Foundation, September 2019 All children and youth deserve to live in communities where they can learn, play and grow. When neighborhoods have quality schools, accessible job opportunities, reliable transportation and safe places for recreation, children are better positioned for success in adulthood. Yet millions of children live in high-poverty neighborhoods that lack these critical assets. Though the number of children living in areas of concentrated poverty *(census...

By Yuxuan Xie, Daniel J. Willis, and John Fensterwald, EdSource, September 24, 2019 California school districts need to significantly increase their education spending to ensure that students have adequate resources and support to provide the state’s content standards and meet its academic goals. Based on 2016-17 numbers, funding schools adequately to meet these goals would have required a 38 percent increase in spending, or $25.6 billion. That would mean an average increase of $4,686 per...

The California Children’s Trust and First 5 Center for Children’s Policy just announced the publication of their vision for a new approach for California to conceptualize, deliver, and fund a system of care—grounded in family wellness—for Medi-Cal eligible infants and toddlers. Whole-Family Wellness for Early Childhood: A New Model for Medi-Cal Delivery and Financing was developed by The California Children’s Trust and the First 5 Center for Children's Policy. The primary authors are Ken...

CYW has also expanded its model for healing families and communities facing childhood trauma.

The United States Department of Health & Human Services’ Children’s Bureau has developed the 2019 Prevention Resource Guide to help individuals and organizations in every community strengthen families and prevent child abuse and neglect. The Resource Guide focuses on protective factors that build on family strengths to foster healthy child and youth development. Download a free copy of the 2019 Prevention Resource Guide by utilizing the link below! ...

Learn more about CalAIM workgroups. Deadline to join: This Friday September 27!

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/experimentations/201909/how-adverse-childhood-experiences-cost-133-trillion-year

By Jeremy Loudenback, Chronicle of Social Change, September 19, 2019 Soon after being appointed California’s first-ever surgeon general, Nadine Burke Harris took off on a barnstorming tour across the state to talk about adverse childhood experiences and toxic stress, an issue she calls “the biggest public health crisis facing California today.” Before the pediatrician was appointed to her position in January by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), Harris had founded and led the Center for Youth Wellness,...