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Nearly 9 in 10 Americans believe that "a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment is essential to bringing about change in our society." At a time when partisan opinions are so polarized on a range of issues, Republicans and Democrats are relatively similar in believing that society should crack down hard on sexual harassment, a new poll from Ipsos and NPR suggests. About three-quarters of Democrats and about two-thirds of Republicans agreed, for example, that "pretty much every woman has...

Last spring, as the homeless population swelled in the port city of Tacoma, Washington, it faced a problem: water everywhere, but almost none to drink. Of the city’s more than 210,000 people, 1,231 were living unsheltered in January 2017, up from fewer than 500 in 2015. By this spring, many residents—both housed and unhoused—were voicing concerns about living conditions and safety in the city’s encampments. In May, Marilyn Strickland, the city’s mayor, declared homelessness a public health...

ROWNSVILLE, TEXAS — The land agents started working the border between Texas and Mexico in the spring of 2007. Sometimes they were representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers. Other times they were officers from the U.S. Border Patrol, uniformed in green, guns tucked into side holsters. They visited tumbledown mobile homes and suburban houses with golf course views. They surveyed farms fecund with sugar cane, cotton and sorghum growing by the mud-brown Rio Grande. They delivered their...

SAN DIEGO—Anthony Rodriguez recalled sitting in a remedial math class at Grossmont College, bored out of his mind. The professor was teaching basic math skills that the 18-year-old had already learned in high school. Rodriguez was forced into remedial math by the community college’s placement test, which assesses a student’s ability to succeed in for-credit, higher-education classes. Rodriguez’s placement-test scores dictated at least a year of these low-level math courses. They cost the...

Ask Edith Smith, a proud 103-year-old, about her friends, and she’ll give you an earful. There’s Johnetta, 101, whom she’s known for 70 years and who has Alzheimer’s disease. “I call her every day and just say ‘Hi, how are you doing?’ She never knows, but she says hi back, and I tease her,” Smith said. There’s Katie, 93, whom Smith met during a long teaching career with the Chicago Public Schools. “Every day we have a good conversation. She’s still driving and lives in her own house, and she...

There's new — and shocking — evidence about the toll that health care costs are taking on the world's most vulnerable. A joint report pulished in the journal Lancet Global Health this week by the World Bank and the World Health Organization estimates that each year more than 100 million people are pushed into extreme poverty in order to pay for health services — meaning that after covering their health bills, their income amounts to less than $1.90 a day. Another 800 million people are...

A 90-MINUTE PLAN FOR SHOWING "RESILIENCE" "Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope" KPJR Films (2016) is a 60-minute documentary film. Depending on your audience and your circumstances, you might consider the following 90-minute plan for showing the film. PART I (1) Screen first 20 minutes of "Resilience." (2) Ask participants to reflect, "What are your thoughts about the film so far?" Instruct participants to reflect silently and write some notes. (10 minutes) PART II (1)...

Don't miss the most economical way to attend the National Conference for Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools in Washington DC, Feb 18-20, 2018. Early bird registration is only $395 through Fri, Dec 15. After that, full registration will cost $450. Here's the link to register. "Registration has been brisk," explains Melissa Sadin, Director of ATN's Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools Program, "and the program we're offering is an incredible array of experts in the trauma-informed education field.

Second Annual Philadelphia Trauma Training Conference Preventing Childhood Trauma and its Impact across the Lifespan: An Interprofessional Agenda for Providers, Advocates, Policy Makers, and Community Members The Second Annual Philadelphia Trauma Training Conference, to be held July 23-26, 2018 at Thomas Jefferson University East Falls Campus in Philadelphia will provide an intensive, collaborative training experience to providers, educators and leaders across health, education, and social...

At 7 p.m. on a Thursday inside the Bronx Criminal Court, Lisa Whiteside is trying to determine who she can prevent from spending the night on Riker’s Island. She scans the docket of 30 scheduled arraignments, knowing it will likely double in length as the night gets longer. Whiteside sits across one side of a thick glass barrier and asks promising candidates whether they have secure housing. What the circumstances were behind their arrest. What headspace they are in now. Not all people get...

Housing activists in Canada have long decried the hypocrisy in their nation's rhetorical commitment to housing as a human right while its affordable housing supply has shrunk and fallen into disrepair. Canada, like most other countries in the world, ratified an international covenant that guarantees the right to housing. But over the past few years, powerful moves by housing activists, a worsening housing crisis in big cities and small towns alike, and a series of negative reviews by the...