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Living close to nature and spending time outside has significant and wide-ranging health benefits -- according to new research from the University of East Anglia. A new report published today reveals that exposure to greenspace reduces the risk of type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, premature death, preterm birth, stress, and high blood pressure. Populations with higher levels of greenspace exposure are also more likely to report good overall health -- according to global data...

The 16 Kentuckians who recently won a lawsuit challenging the legality of Medicaid work requirements include a law student with a rare heart condition, a mortician with diabetes, a mother of four with congenital hip dysplasia and a housekeeper with rheumatoid arthritis. It’s a mixed bunch, united by two grim facts: They live at or below the federal poverty level, and they’re caught in the cross hairs of a debate over what society owes its neediest members. Their lawsuit argued that insisting...

A majority of child care workers in California are paid so little they qualify for public assistance programs, according to a new report on the early education workforce. Fifty-eight percent of child care workers in California are on one or more public assistance programs, such as the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families , a federally funded program that helps pay for food, housing and other expenses, the report by UC Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment found. This is...

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST: Black babies are two times as likely to die before they reach their first birthday than white babies. That's just one of the startling facts in Priska Neely's reporting on a gap in birth outcomes that has persisted for years. Poverty, education, health care access are all factors. But now research is focused on the role of racism in these statistics. It's simply a chronically stressful condition to be a black woman in the United States. Priska Neely is the senior...

This is painful. It’s something I never wanted to, or thought, we’d have to talk about. With the upheaval in our country on all sides caused by the election results, everything feels a bit tougher these past few weeks. It’s like many of us are trying to walk through mud with every step… wondering how to move forward in these uncertain times. In my counseling practice, clients who have experienced trauma work hard in therapy to feel safe enough and calm enough each day. Understandably in...

I started a weekly peer support group for women survivors of trauma in April 2018. It took a few weeks to get any uptake on the offer. In the beginning a few people who knew me trickled in to provide some encouragement. Some people working at the center that eventually agreed to give me access to a room to host the event, told me that if people got the sense that I was in it for the long haul, they would then start taking me up on my offer. I was determined to persist, so I stuck it out even...

Cissy's note: The Trauma Project posts the best stuff on Facebook and this is an example of the gems I find. The excerpts below were published in the New York Times and written by Avi Klein. Read more.

Thanks to the ever-present media and and rise in social media use, people across the economic spectrum are seeing dramatic examples of racism in our society in clear video. We’re talking about Black men shot for no reason, youth sentenced to disproportionate sentences and customers being arrested for sitting in a coffee shop, to name a few. Similarly, we are beginning to hear and understand the dramatic stories of our most vulnerable young people, young people who have been victimized,...

[DFINNEY PHOTOGRAPHY] J oy Harden Bradford, an Atlanta-based therapist who founded the mental health platform Therapy for Black Girls , is an advocate for black women’s well-being. The founder of the website Therapy for Black Girls is working to empower black women to make their mental health a priority. Slowly but surely, mental health has moved from the sidelines to the center of our national conversation around well-being. But discussing feelings and emotions is still a touchy subject in...

I just saw this video and comment on my friend Heidi's Facebook page and it made me teary. Here's the video: Here's Heidi's comment: I hope she does because she's been a mom at 16 who is poor and has an ACE score of 9 and who has had to fight to become and to feel safe. We need people like Heidi running programs and organizing support because getting it, having lived it makes one know things those who haven't don't.

Fellowship Story Showcase by Priska Neely Black babies in the United States are far less likely than white babies to reach life's simplest milestones: to form words, to learn to crawl, to take their first steps. That's because black babies born in America are two times more likely to die before their first birthday than white babies. The numbers are even worse in Los Angeles, where black babies are three times more likely than white babies to die in their first year of life. Nationwide that...

Hi everyone, I'm new here, but wanted to share a funding opportunity. Please read below: The Jewish Federations of North America’s Center for Advancing Holocaust Survivor Care seeks applications to expand Person-Centered, Trauma-Informed services for Holocaust Survivors throughout the United States. The Application can be found at www.holocaustsurvivorcare.org. An Intent to Apply is due July 16, 2018 and the Application is due August 27, 2018. Successful applicants will join a prestigious...