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Leah Esguerra is a licensed family and marriage therapist, but instead of heading to an office every day to soothe couples’ marital tensions, she reports to the San Francisco Public Library. There she roams the stacks, looking for patrons who might need her help. Some of these patrons are homeless and are looking for a safe place to stay for the day. Others are actively looking for resources, such as showers and food, or just a place to warm up for a while. No matter their need, Esguerra...

Etinosa Yvonne Osayimwen's goal is to get inside her subjects' heads. The self-trained, 28-year-old documentary photographer does just that by using a double-exposure technique. She takes portraits of Nigerian survivors of violence and terrorism — then superimposes it with an image of something that reminds them of how their lives have changed. In one photo, for example, a construction plan is layered over the profile of a building engineer whose community was attacked by Boko Haram. Another...

Last summer, I spent three days in an intensive training to become an instructor in Youth Mental Health First Aid. Mental Health First Aid for youth and adolescents in emotional distress is a course that originated in Australia. The goal is to train 1,000,000 Mental Health First Aiders to gain the skills to provide comfort and care until professional help arrives, much like First Aid/CPR training. Here is a link to explore: https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/ The story I want to share is...

To key to surviving trauma and letting go of the past is changing your perspective about your situation. You have to learn to dream new dreams

It's hard enough for employers to find workers to fill open jobs these days, but on top of it, many prospective hires are failing drug tests. The Belden electric wire factory in Richmond, Ind., is taking a novel approach to both problems: It now offers drug treatment, paid for by the company, to job applicants who fail the drug screen. Those who complete treatment are also promised a job. The pilot program, launched in February, is believed to be the first of its kind, and is an...

Maternal mortality rates have plateaued or dropped in most developed nations, except for the U.S., where it has risen. GETTY IMAGES The U.S. is the most dangerous country in the developed world to give birth in according to a report. About 50,000 women are “severely injured” during childbirth, and about 700 women die every year. Half of these deaths could have been prevented, as could the injuries, if correct safety procedures had been followed, according to an investigation by USA Today .

“Trauma is becoming an everyday word. People are hearing it on the news. They’re reading about it in newspapers as well as magazines,” Lynn Waymer notes. Lynn- the Vice President of Communications and Community Engagement at KPJR Films- was a speaker for CRI's 2018 Beyond Paper Tigers (BPT) conference. In reflecting on the conference, Lynn discussed her perspective of community, the shifts she has witnessed in KPJR Films’ audience, and the power of broad media campaigns. “What we’re seeing...

When Dorothy Paugh was 9, her father bought a pistol and started talking openly about ending his life. Her mother was terrified but didn't know what to do. "She called our priest and called his best friend," Paugh recalled. "They came and talked to him, and they didn't ask to take his gun away." Her father was 51 when he shot himself to death. [For more on this story by BRIAN MANN, go to...

This story was produced in collaboration with the Hechinger Report . It's not uncommon for college students to work to save money for everything from books to spring break vacations. But schools generally don't require students to work—unless they are work colleges. There are nine federally designated work colleges, in which all residential students are required to work; school leaders track their performance at work just as they do in academic classes. There are evaluations, performance...

Under International law (Human Rights Treaty, International Treaty on Children’s Rights (art. 3:1), we have to provide a stable living situation for children. Tough we fail to do so also with refugee children and children who are exploited and maltreated, I want to draw your attention to those children who are placed out-of-home in our countries. Many of these children end up in foster care and orphanages or even (secure) youthcare institutions but these placements are often far from stable.

Five years ago, I remember Googling phrases like "Am I in an abusive relationship?" or "Can an abusive boyfriend ever change?" Now, as a journalist who has been using past personal trauma as a motivator to report on misconceptions surrounding intimate partner violence, I've learned about the soul-sucking process known by psychological experts as the "cycle of abuse." At the start of the cycle, an abuser might use "love," in the form of charm and nice gestures, as a smokescreen to control...

It’s been a little more than five months since the Family First Prevention Services Act, one of the biggest shifts in the history of federal child welfare financing, was shoehorned into a stopgap spending bill. The law’s two main provisions – reimbursement for services aimed at preventing the use of foster care, and limitations on federal funds for congregate care placements – take effect in October of 2019. This week Jerry Milner, associate commissioner of the Children’s Bureau (CB) and one...