Blog

Experiences involving abuse and neglect undoubtedly change the course of a young person's life. Research shows that when children witness traumatic events — domestic violence, shootings, or even fighting — there could a physical impact on brain growth. These changes can lead to lifelong social and developmental issues. What are the neurological effects of trauma and neglect? How can signs and patterns of stress be identified in children? [For more on this story by JAN ROSS PIEDAD, go to...

I don’t want to be your friend. Stay away. I’m not going to share with you. These harsh statements are "very normal to hear at the beginning of the school year," for preschool teachers like Rafaela Campos. To push past those moments of mean, she and more than a thousand other early educators in the Los Angeles Unified School District now have a new tool. This school year, all 86 of the early childhood centers in the district started using a program called Sanford Harmony, which provides...

We are not born “normal” or “disordered” or with a “disability” we “are born” and “we develop” in many different ways. Along our path of development we will encounter various influences and each individual will respond to those experiences differently. The brain actually continues to develop well into adulthood!

In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Day , please stop by our Trauma Transformed Healing Pop-up at the T2 Center in Oakland, CA. WHEN: Thursday, May 10th TIME: 12:00pm – 4:00pm WHERE: Trauma Transformed Center, 1035 22nd Avenue, #14, Oakland, CA. Please consider carpooling as parking is limited at times. WHAT: Healing and wellness activities DIY crafting "Spa" inspired snacks and drinks And more! Drop in and stay as long as you like between 12-4pm. RSVP: ...

Authors note: This piece is co-authored by @Lara Kain and @Christine Cissy White. Though we had never worked together or met, we were asked to co-present on creating t rauma-informed changes in communities by the Attachment Trauma Network for the first national (now annual) Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools Summit in Washington, DC. This article is an expanded essay version of that presentation). Be the Spark Oprah Winfrey helped mainstream discussion about...

My dream is to create a space which feels safe, yet empowering; offering a hand to hold along the road of recovery.

Rather than holding on and remaining focused and alert, we need to get on with living. Keeping our body and minds active helps us move forward. Staying immobile isn’t going to guide us into our healing place. Meditation, while a useful beginning step for some people is not always the answer.

On April 4, the White House posted a fact sheet on its website warning that legal “loopholes” were allowing tens of thousands of immigrant children who entered the country on their own to remain in the United States. The next day, another post went up: “Loopholes in Child Trafficking Laws Put Victims—and American Citizens—At Risk.” And the same week, the Administration for Children and Families, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services not normally known for its politics,...

It’s no secret that America has an incarceration problem. And being “tough on crime” is something politicians proclaim in election years to prove that they care about safety. But a recent poll commissioned by the Vera Institute of Justice shows that the tide is turning when it comes to what people want for their communities. A majority of Americans—67 percent overall, including 61 percent in rural areas—agreed that building more jails and prisons does not reduce crime. While politicians make...

On Rebecca Palacios’s first day in front of a classroom, one of her white students picked up his chair and threw it toward her, declaring that he refused to be taught by a “Mexican teacher.” It was 1976, Palacios was 22 years old, and many of her first-grade students were at the school because of a recently launched busing program in Corpus Christi, Texas, that the courts had mandated in an effort to racially integrate campuses. Large numbers of white students were now traveling across town...

Easing the deep and long-held mistrust between law enforcement and communities of color has no easy fix. But in Newark, N.J., police have embarked on an experiment that they hope will calm tensions by immersing both cops and residents in uncomfortable truths about slavery and Jim Crow, coupled with lessons on epigenetics and trauma. The Newark Police Department has mandated that each of its approximately 1,110 officers participate in three days of training alongside city residents, swapping...

In the midst of riots in 1968 after civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was slain, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act . The federal legislation addressed one of the bitterest aspects of racism in the U.S.: segregated housing. It prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, and national origin when selling and renting housing. The Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, has administered the act with some success. From 1970 to 2010,...