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For generations of white American families, homeownership has been a fundamental means of accumulating wealth. Their homes have grown in value over time, providing security in retirement and serving as an asset against which they can borrow for education or other purposes. But African-Americans were essentially shut out of early federal programs that promoted homeownership and financial well-being — including the all important New Deal mortgage insurance system that generated the mid-20th...

The Trump Administration plans to cut thousands of Department of Justice positions, which may mean a 25 percent (or more) culling of the already tiny 60-person federal agency focused on juvenile justice, according to several sources at the department or with connections to the department. News of these cuts comes as advocates are working feverishly to hammer through a reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA), a 44-year-old law that trades federal grants...

The Taking Freedom book series, a collaboration between The Social Justice Foundation , the Service Employees International Union's Racial Justice Center , and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Community Innovators Lab (CoLab) , is intended to address a wide range of issues, from housing rights, to debt burden, to police reform, and more. On August 1st, five black students in satiny green and red robes and mortar boards waited inside an elementary school classroom, listening for...

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to both enforce existing work requirements for participants in programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and to consider adding federal work requirements for participants in programs like Medicaid . The executive order argues that work requirements are necessary to encourage more recipients to become self-sufficient, concluding that...

Rhonda Spencer-Hwang, DrPH, MPH, once dressed up as a “pirate” doctor and danced on a stage at an elementary school fair to attract children and their parents to sign up for a health study. It was 2012, and she was using a $2-million grant from the First Five Riverside Commission to provide educational services and conduct research among 10,000 children and families in Riverside County, searching for why asthma was so prevalent in that community and how the health issue could be addressed.

“Sometimes it’s the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.” – Keri Russell Everyone has a favorite theory about what constitutes a happy life. Likely you know a few people who’ll readily tell you theirs. Allow me to share my five secrets to a happy and more productive life. 1. Only do what matters. On any given day, we’re assailed with nonstop demands on our time, from the insatiable fount of hard-to-discern-what’s-valuable information on the Internet, to work, home,...

Lioness Roar A voice for the voiceless, protector, innate prowess and determined maternal instinct. This evolution from abuse bloomed after 40 years. Like the Amorphophallus Titanium, Corpse Plant. Stunning, beautiful and strong the largest flower in the world that blooms after 40 years of parasitic sustenance. The enormous flower cultivates growth, perseveres silently, until the flower blooms magnificently for only 3 days, dies and begins again. As a child I perfected being silent and...

What children see, hear and experience molds them into the adults they become. What the Grant children see, hear and experience molds them into adults perfectly positioned to fall for the seduction of —drug and alcohol addiction and the chaotic world of mental illness.

Wow, this issue is big! It has many layers. Who is responsible and who is in charge? Our society has evolved over time. People have had adverse childhood experiences from the beginning of time. That is because we are human! We make decisions and choices everyday. How we chose to respond to things that happen outside of our control is what determines our experience. So, when children experience neglect or abuse or are exposed to violence (domestic violence or TV or Video Games) they have...

This is one of a series of product developed from discussions and research exploring many issues associated with collaborating across sectors to improve the health of families and communities, as well as the economic, educational and social health of neighborhoods. This publication touches on the beneficial role of housing-based strategies and partnerships in a variety of sectors, including health, education, and social services. You will see the publication also provides hundreds of links...

Tired Of Struggling With Finding or Maintaining Intimate Relationships? Join Me For My LIVE Interview With Kathy Brous Author Of Don't Try This Alone: The Silent Epidemic of Attachment Disorder Kathy was an overachiever—an economist, technical writer, and classical singer married 27 years to her college sweetheart. It looked like Kathy was fine. But deep within her hid a pain from infancy so severe that a cascade of adult life crises finally triggered it. And once it exploded, the pain was...

What do you look for in a community? How about helpful, giving residents—people who are eager to lend a hand? Recently published research suggests you're more likely to find them in racially diverse neighborhoods. A research team led by Krishna Savani and Jared Nai of Singapore Management University reports people who live in such areas are more inclined to voluntarily help others. This reflects the fact they are more likely to identify with all of humanity, and therefore "see the world as a...