Blog

Blog Written by Jeff Hild Policy Director, Redstone Center for Prevention and Wellness At the Building Community Resilience (BCR) collaborative and network — based at the Redstone Center for Prevention and Wellness , George Washington University School of Public Health — we are working to improve the health and wellbeing of children, families and communities across the country. We do this by working to align systems to address the “Pair of ACEs”  — adverse childhood experiences in the...

Colonization, at its core, is about creating separation—separation among people and separation from spirit and our connection to the Earth. Humans have been taking more than we need, and we haven’t been giving enough back. Decolonization starts inside of you. It is a lot about finding compassion and kindness, and less about anger and fear. We should remember that it begins with an internal process of healing and reconciliation. Once we find that peace, then we will be able to move forward...

Maternity Desert, a new documentary from The Atlantic, follows Amber Pierre, a 24-year-old African-American woman living in southeast D.C. Pierre is pregnant with her second child. After two previous miscarriages, she is navigating a high-risk pregnancy that, combined with her Medicaid coverage, requires she visit a hospital every two weeks to be seen by an Ob-Gyn. Following the 2017 closures of Providence Hospital and United Medical Center, Pierre must travel to Medstar Washington Hospital...

Drug-related deaths have grown to be a major US public health problem over the past two decades. Between 2006 and 2015 there were more than 515,000 deaths from drug overdoses and other drug-related causes. The economic, social, and emotional tolls of these deaths are substantial, but some parts of the US are bearing heavier burdens than others. Evidence from the first national study of county-level differences suggests that addressing economic and social conditions will be key to reversing...

When tens of thousands of Americans took to the streets on Saturday to demand more gun control in the wake of a high-profile school shooting last month, several young black women were at the front of the protests. In addition to calling for stricter gun control policy, they had a more nuanced message to deliver: America has failed to focus on black victims, especially black women and girls, who are disproportionately affected by gun violence. “I am here to acknowledge and represent the...

Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Military Assistance Project (MAP) was established in 2011 to provide free legal services for active duty, reserve component, or veteran military personnel and their widow/spouses in the form of pro bono consumer and selected veteran’s administrative law services. We serve all branches, include spouses and widows, and accept clients with every level of military discharge. Military Assistance Project utilizes a trauma-informed approach to lawyering...

WHAT happens to us as children can have a huge impact on the rest of our lives. When young people have adverse or traumatic experiences growing up, this impacts on their emotional and physical development, their capacity to learn and thrive. The experiences we have during our childhood shape who we are and how we interact with the world, especially if those experiences are harmful, and without the right support the effects can last a lifetime. The first adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)...

Our journal and others have published a myriad of studies on the deleterious effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on the developmental and physical well-being of infants and children. But what about the generational effect on offspring of parents who experienced ACEs growing up? Two studies we are early releasing this week shed some light on answering this question. First Racine et al. ( 10.1542/peds.2017-2495 ) present the results of their examination of maternal ACEs on the...

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. March 26th Episode: What happened when a professor called his class "white racism." Two words made him the target of death threats. [To listen to this Otherhood podcast by Rupa Shenoy, go to...

"We did it!" Evaluation of an intervention promoting emotion regulation skills for adults with persisting distress due to adverse childhood experiences. Our first ACE Overcomers study will be published in May in Child Abuse and Neglect and available online: your personalized Share Link: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1Wl82X18YDkQA This link provides you with free access to the article until April 30th. Excerpt from the article: "...the present findings provide evidence that participation in...

Never has it been more important to focus on creating a more trauma-informed culture in Central Florida than now. Bad events anywhere are visible 24-7 to adults and children all over the globe. In our own community, we have daily news cycles of the trauma and displacement of over 100,000 people from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Evacuees fled to Florida as we began our own recovery from Hurricane Irma. Many suffered homelessness, poverty, food insecurity and more. All of these events...

Schools in 15 southern Illinois counties can participate in a program to help students deal with stress outside the classroom. The Consortium for Educational Change and the Partnership for Resilience received a 50-thousand dollar grant to support a program to limit the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences or ACES. The consortium's executive director Mary Jane Morris says many students in the area suffer from broken homes or other trauma. [For more on this story by BRAD PALMER, go to...