Blog

In an era of “us” and “them,” be an “other” -- someone trying to understand how we all live together. Journalism about the multicultural nation America will become -- with Otherhood, a PRI podcast created and hosted by Rupa Shenoy. [To listen to this podcast by Rupa Shenoy, go to https://www.pri.org/programs/otherhood/why-its-so-hard-talk-about-racism-happens-school ]

A controversial state bill in Michigan would exempt certain counties from new work requirements proposed for recipients of Medicaid. On paper, the bill looks like it would rescue rural white constituents from work requirements while imposing the new standards on their urban black counterparts. Yet the bill's likely effect may be vastly overstated—a marker of the uncertainty surrounding Republican efforts to tighten welfare. Just last month, Michigan's senate passed a law that would require...

As a teen mom in foster care with a baby of her own, New Yorker RaiLei Girard resolved never to become “known.” To be “known” meant possibly having her own child placed in foster care — to be accused of child neglect or abuse, then becoming “known” to a child welfare system that takes children from teen moms in foster care at an alarmingly high rate. Girard, who entered foster care at age 3, avoided that outcome. But another challenge emerged raising her son in her foster parents’ home. [For...

The haunting of my family I know now that a ghost haunted my family’s dinner table. Growing up, my mom prepared sumptuous Korean meals and in response, my siblings and I told her daily that the meal was masisseoyo (맛있어요). But otherwise, silence ruled our meals as if an invisible dinner guest bound our tongues. Or perhaps instead the silence provided for a vacuum that the ghost filled. Perhaps it was a bit of both. As a result, I have only bits and scraps of the life stories of my parents and...

Campaign for Trauma Informed Practice and Policy Webinar Tuesday, May 22, 2018 3:00PM - 4:30 PM EDT Parental Substance Use, Opioid Misuse, and Child Welfare In this webinar we will present results from a mixed methods study demonstrating that there is a relationship between substance use and opioid misuse prevalence, and child welfare outcomes. The presenters will discuss the unique challenges the current opioid epidemic is presenting to child welfare systems. Presenters Annette L. Waters ,...

Coaching helps people tap into their potential, unlocking sources of creativity and productivity.” Positive results in the areas of “improved communication, increased self-esteem/self-confidence, increased productivity, optimized individual and team performance ”

“Dear the most highly respected judge and court, I’m writing this because I love my mom. My mom is very important to me. I have no idea what to do without her. Even though my mom’s afraid, she’s not giving up.” This is the beginning of a plea written by a 13-year-old girl to the Department of Homeland Security. The goal: to get her mother the insurance coverage she would need to enter a clinical trial. Two years ago, the girl’s mother learned she had advanced stomach cancer. Undocumented and...

“Have you ever watched a Puerto Rican novela?” Dr. Susana Rivera asked a room full of therapists and social workers. “I don’t know what they say to their therapists, but by the third visit, they always get committed. I tell my families, ‘We don’t do that.’” Based on the work of Dr. Michael de Arrelleno of the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center at the Medical University of South Carolina, Rivera teaches practitioners how to adapt trauma-based cognitive behavioral therapy for...

Rasheed Aziz remembers visiting Baltimore in 2006. The empty, hollow buildings sprawled the entire block, he says. Buildings lacked roofs, doorways were boarded up, and tree limbs grew into missing windows. Aziz is the founder of CityWide Youth Development, which he began in central Florida to bring economic development to impoverished neighborhoods using manufacturing and entrepreneurship. In 2006, he decided to move himself—and his nonprofit—to Baltimore after his trip there. During that...

It’s well known that mental health is a significant issue for young people. Recent research suggests that at least 10% children and young people between the ages of five and 16 in the UK experience a problem such as anxiety and depression. If left untreated these problems can spiral and lead to issues such as drug abuse, suicide attempts and criminality in adolescence and adulthood. But what if primary school children were offered counselling as a matter of course? Early intervention would...

After any disaster, parents and other adults struggle with what they should say and share with children and what not to say or share with them. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) encourages parents, teachers, child care providers, and others who work closely with children to filter information about the crisis and present it in a way that their child can accommodate, adjust to, and cope with. Where to Start – All Ages No matter what age or developmental stage the child is, parents can...

“When I think about resilience at the community level,” Lourdes Rodriguez says, “I think about communities that understand that the conditions creating adversity are bigger than an individual.” In physics, resilience is an object’s ability to bounce back into its original form after sustaining a shock. In communities, it means something much more. Wendy Ellis, project director of the Building Community Resilience (BCR) collaborative at the Milken Institute of Public Health at George...