September 2017

San Diego's City Heights neighborhood struggles with crime and poverty and a shortage of everything from parks to doctors. But for 22-year-old resident Jhaga Mahat, the biggest challenge of living in City Heights is getting people to see it the way he does. "When I tell people I live here, they tell me it's a ghetto and there are a lot of gangs here. But for me, City Heights is not like that," says Mahat, who came to San Diego in 2011 from a refugee camp in Nepal. "When I got here, I saw a...

About 70% of youth in detention have mental health diagnoses often related to high levels of trauma. To seek out a solution, the San Diego County Probation Department participated in the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform's "Youth in Custody" certificate program through Georgetown University and developed plans for a specialized treatment unit - TRU or Trauma Responsive Unit - to better meet the specific needs of male youth in custody. TRU has seen many successes in its first year,...

Broken-hearted children are more likely to suffer from mental and physical illnesses as adults. In a study looking at the impacts of toxic stress and trauma, scientists found that many common experiences early on can lead to debilitating illnesses later in life. Leaders from all sectors came together to screen Jamie Redford's Sundance-debuted film, Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope , which chronicles the promising beginnings of a national movement to prevent childhood...

Another exciting meeting, including announcement of our new co-chair (Dana Brown:-), learning about Center for Community Solutions' trauma-informed journey and discussion of our upcoming celebration event! See meeting minutes below (and attached) and CCS's presentation (attached). Introductions: New Members and 1 st time visitors were welcomed. Introductions included “why you’re here” Trauma Informed - Resilience Building Journey Center for Community Solutions – Staff members Allison Johnson...

San Diego Youth Services ’ (SDYS) HERE Now Program , which stands for Helping, Engaging, Reconnecting and Education, in collaboration with North County Lifeline (NCLL) and South Bay Community Services (SBCS), is designed to prevent youth suicide, suicidal ideation, help foster safe schools and create a safer place to learn in San Diego through suicide and bullying prevention education. Specifically, the program focuses on preventing suicide by educating 7th -12 th grade youth and their...

Individuals like Angulo - who have lived the cycles of violence and incarceration in urban communities and come out on the other side - are some of the best to break those cycles. But often their work is informal and unpaid because of their criminal backgrounds. Agencies are hesitant to put them on payroll, or they may lack resources to market and fund their outreach. An eight-week course at Alliant University called the Community Mentors Program is trying to help. Its fourth cohort just...

" The history of humanity is the story of people migrating," French artist JR posted on his Twitter feed. Drawing attention to the plight of innocent children denied entry to, or facing expulsion from the U.S. under President Donald Trump's tough policies, JR erected a 70-foot-tall mural titled Kikito. It depicts a one-year-old boy peeking over the border fence in Tecate, visible from the U.S. side of the border in San Diego's East County. The work, which the artist began work on a month...

According to the latest report, 431 people died by suicide in San Diego County in 2016. That is up slightly compared to the previous year. The annual report from the San Diego County Suicide Prevention Council reveals the suicide rate has fallen to a five-year low. Suicide Prevention Council member Stan Collins said in order to prevent suicide, people need to talk about it. "There's a lot of people in our community who are experiencing pain and don't feel hope that pain will go away,"...

Origins offers a number of training and consulting services. We developed The Basics as a half-day session to provide the foundation to support trauma-informed and resilience practices across sectors and industries. The session includes an overview of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, the neurobiology of toxic stress, the impact of social and historical trauma, and the science of resilience. We have tested The Basics with two cross-sector audiences, in Los Angeles and Phoenix.

By Renee Schiavone (Patch Staff) - ( Updated September 5, 2017) Gov. Jerry Brown signed several pieces of legislation into law on Sept 1st. Here they are. As we turned the page into September, California's governor got a head start on the month by signing more than three dozen bills into law on Friday. Among the 40 pieces of legislation that Jerry Brown approved was a bill aimed at protecting undocumented immigrants who assist law enforcement in solving a crime. AB 493 prohibits police from...