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By Jill Filipovic, Photo: Hinterhaus Productions/Getty Images, The Guardian, December 29, 2022 Here is a much-needed resolution for many of us in the new year: make new friendships and shore up old ones. Americans are an increasingly lonely bunch, spending more time solo and on our devices than with others. A decade ago, the average American spent about six and a half hours a week with friends. In 2014, time with friends declined, while time alone shot up. By 2019 – before the pandemic –...

Welcome to 2023! As we head into a new year, I find myself noticing the energy of a "fresh start" and reinvention. As I get older, I am more and more thankful for these moments of invitation to reflect on what was and dream into what will be. Today, I find myself reflecting on the word embodiment and how this relates to the reclaiming/renewal work we must do as those who have experienced the physical violation of s*xual trauma. By definition, embodiment is "a tangible or visible form of an...

Special Discount for Community Partners Welcome to the 24th Annual Families and Fathers National/International Conference Be The Difference 2023 Hilton Los Angeles Airport Hotel 5711 W Century Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045 Specialty Day - Monday, April 24th, 2023 Full Conference Days -Tuesday, April 25th - Thursday, April 27th at 5:00 p.m. Hotel Room Reservation Attendee Registration Page Exhibitor Registration Page Our conference theme is Be The Difference , starting Monday, April 24th, and...

Adverse childhood experiences understandably can numb feelings, including feelings of joy, happiness, and pleasure. Making time to be joyful rewires the wounded brain. Once healing has progressed, the capacity for joy can usually be expanded through the repeated application of proven joy strategies.

New Year's Thoughts and a Song to share - May you have Love, Light, Peace, Joy and Safety in your life. By My Side Live at the River Ledge - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhnwvQXdsmc Take care, Michael

Danielle Del Plato When someone becomes homeless, the instinct is to ask what tragedy befell them. What bad choices did they make with drugs or alcohol? What prevented them from getting a higher-paying job? Why did they have more children than they could afford? Why didn’t they make rent? Identifying personal failures or specific tragedies helps those of us who have homes feel less precarious—if homelessness is about personal failure, it’s easier to dismiss as something that couldn’t happen...

Photo: Courtesy of Alliance for Safety and Justice In a new book, Lenore Anderson says the legal system doesn’t serve most victims or alleviate unaddressed trauma. For decades, the cause of victims’ rights has been one of the most powerful political movements in the US. From the 1980s to 2010s, advocates worked with law enforcement to transform the criminal justice system, passing more than 32,000 laws explicitly in the name of victims. Fueled by backlash to the civil rights era, white...

Loss of parental rights can be the ultimate punishment from a court. Unpaid debts for foster care can delay the reunion. Some parents are still getting bills even though the feds told states to stop. When parents go through periods of crisis and their children are at risk, the state steps in. Kids go to foster care. A judge tells parents all the things they need to do to get their kids back. For mothers and fathers, it's often a confusing process, especially in one state where NPR...

Our first training of the new year, Circles of Safety: Awareness to Action , is open for registration! Overview: In a virtual classroom setting, attendees will become better prepared to support children’s healthy and safe sexual development, identify and respond to warning signs in children and adult’s behaviors in their programs, and design safety plans to address safe boundaries, privacy, consent and respect. In an interactive online environment, participants will discuss barriers to...

HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences) is a growing framework that has spread across the U.S. and world this year. The framework brings hope to many who work to incorporate it into their organization and day to day interactions with children and families. Here at the HOPE National Resource Center (NRC) we see the hard work people are putting into implementing HOPE, training others on HOPE, and sharing the HOPE framework with their coworkers. After such an amazing year working with...

Home for the holidays and what it entails - I do enjoy the lights, the festive feelings in the air, seeing friends, seeing kids and people happy....and mindful of the hard times so many are facing. But truth be told, I can't wait for the holidays to be over. They were a time of pain and suffering as a child and as an adult they are a constant reminder/trigger to the past feelings and memories of abuse. Yesterday, Dec 26 was Betty Skinner's birthday - one of my many pedophile perpetrators,...

History. Culture. Trauma. debuted this year. Our first year has been a success and we are grateful to all of our listeners. We will return in the new year with new episodes and new guests. What better way to close out this year than with our debut episode? The guest was PACEs Connection's founder, Jane Stevens. Long-time health, science and technology journalist Jane Stevens joins PACEs Connection CEO Ingrid Cockhren to do a deep dive into why people aren’t getting an accurate picture about...