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On the first day of the 2016–17 school year, the San Francisco Unified School District was short 38 teachers. That meant about 6 percent of the district's classroom vacancies had gone unfilled, forcing the district to rely on substitutes. Since then, SFUSD has turbo-charged its recruitment and retainment efforts, working to attract existing teachers and launching a number of new programs to establish a robust, predictable pipeline of qualified teachers. "This was our deliberate response to...

When fire leapt up the walls of Mendocino houses, a team of prisoners from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation fended it off. When a blizzard turned Boston into a blanket of impenetrable snow in 2015, a squad of prisoners from the Suffolk County jail shoveled it. When a historic African-American cemetery in Baltimore fell into disrepair, it was inmates nearing release from the Maryland state prison system that rescued it. In cities across the country, it’s the...

School is about to begin and for the first time in my 18 years as a school nurse, I am fearful to welcome another September. I work in an urban district where community gun violence is sadly commonplace, but that is not my fear. I travel throughout the city from school to school where drug dealing is an open-air exercise, but that is not my fear. Emergencies are often solitary experiences because school nurses work independently, but that is not my fear. Families facing deportation from...

Adolescence awakens new emotions, social experiences and physical energy for many people. It’s often a time when young people try new things, make new friends, depend less on parents, and live more passionately. But as an adult, your role is still important. You can have a positive impact on helping your loved ones avoid the dangers of teen substance use. Adolescence is also a time when some explore alcohol or drugs (such as heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and prescription medicine, among other...

Every spring and fall the ITRC offers a series of free 1-hr webinars on different aspects of building Transformational Resilience for climate change. The list of free September 2018 webinars, dates, and times is below. For more details about each of the webinars click here . Introduction to Transformational Resilience for Climate Change When : Thursday September 6 , from 12 noon--1 pm Pacific Time A major ecological--turned mental health--turned social--turned humanitarian crisis is underway...

Applications Now Open for Nov 15-16 Transformational Resilience Intensive Train-the-Trainer Workshop The ITRC is offering a Train-the-Trainer Workshop on Transformational Resilience for climate change aggravated traumas and toxic stresses workshop. The workshop will be held November 15-16 in San Francisco. This will be an intensive 2-day training offered in cooperation with the SEI Resilient Community Fellows Program. It is open to a maximum of 20 people who want to learn how to apply...

NEW YORK — At Crossroads Juvenile Detention Center in Brooklyn, barbed wire and tall unclimbable fences enclose the housing building, basketball courts and outdoor areas, like in every jail or prison. Detention hardware and security cameras are all over the place, like in every jail or prison. Yet, says the facility director, Louis L. Watts, Crossroads is anything but a jail or a prison. “When parents come, they see the outside and they tell me, ‘Oh my god, my son is in jail,’ but when they...

California Governor Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed legislation that ended money bail in California. The bill abolishes paying money as a condition of release from jail pre-trial. The money-bail system has been consistently criticized as unfair to low-income people: Unable to afford bail, poorer people were forced to spend more time in prison pre-trial. Hoping to resolve these inequalities—and compelled by years of activism —state legislators put forward legislation that sought to replace...

Research shows an undeniable link between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and socioeconomic crises, such as poverty, crime, poor educational outcomes, chronic illness, behavioral health problems and more. Through collaboration within the human services, community restoration, healthcare, educational and criminal justice sectors, Wisconsin is at the forefront of the trauma informed care (TIC) movement. That's why Milwaukee is host site for a large conference Sept. 26-28, 2018. About the...

Hi ACEs Community! Wrestling Ghosts , a new documentary about breaking the cycle of trauma, has launched a social media campaign. Follow us on Twitter ! And on Instagram ! We want to reach the widest audience of trauma-informed persons possible, and we would love your help. Follow us on our social media pages if you feel passionate about the work we want to do. Wrestling Ghosts is premiering at the at LA Film Festival on September 27th, and the premiere will be followed by two other event...

Whether it's microbes in the dirt or fresh air—or both—researchers do know this: Gardening is strong medicine.

Fallout of Change occurs when positive change initially causes our clients to get worse before they get better. It is like stretching a rubber band that will snap back when we let go. This is a normal occurrence, especially with traumatized children. As a result, a tension point emerges between “I want to change but I don’t want to change”. This tension can then lead to relapse or the fallout of change until the traumatized child and family is able to hang on long enough to settle into a new...