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Child abuse survivors are not selfish people. In fact, we have a toxic habit of putting our needs last and the needs of everyone else first. We do this for two reasons. First, not only were we taught to put the needs of others ahead of our own but we quickly discovered making sure our abusers were happy and cared for was a way for these people to leave us alone. Second, if you had a narcissistic parent, you were constantly punished for being “selfish.” Anytime a child puts his or her basic...

On Thursday, the Republican senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska introduced a bill aimed at addressing paid family leave. The Strong Families Act creates a tax incentive—25 percent of what employees are paid during the leave—for businesses to offer two weeks of paid family leave a year. Versions of the bill has been introduced during the past two Congresses: The Strong Families Act is one Fischer introduced in 201 4 , and pushed again in 2015. But the timing and current political climate may be...

Earlier this month, Jonathan Martin jotted off a sad tweet. “I’ve lost count of the number of people who say they’ve had ministry jobs threatened/been fired for speaking out in some way in this season,” the Christian author and speaker wrote. Confirmation rolled in: one story from a church planter in California, another from a former worship leader in Indiana. These are “not people who would historically self-identify as progressives, at all,” Martin told me later. They’re “people who see...

If a child grows up with addiction, that is probably not the only risk factor in the home. ACEs or adverse childhood experiences tend to cluster; once a home environment is disordered, the risk of witnessing or experiencing emotional, physical, or sexual abuse actually rises dramatically (Anda, et al., 2006). While addiction, with an emphasis today on opioid addiction, is very much a part of the political and public discourse, the needs of the children hurt by addiction in the family – too...

In this video, Dr. Pam Cantor, president and CEO of Turnaround for Children, provides an overview of ACEs science -- in particular, the ACE Study, the neurobiology of toxic stress, the health consequences of toxic stress and how to create resilience-building schools. She asks: "What if it were possible to change the context of a child's life thorugh the design of our schools? What if schools were designed to be physically and emotionally safe, relationship rich, to buffer stress, to support...

At a popular dumpling shop in Manhattan, the newest dumpling on the menu is made with food waste. The owners partnered with the chef Dan Barber, who has been leading a movement to help restaurants begin to address the problem of food waste; by one estimate, a single restaurant can throw out 25,000 to 75,000 pounds of food every year. In 2015, Barber temporarily converted the menu at his restaurant Blue Hill to feature food waste. In January 2017, he opened another iteration of the pop-up,...

People seeking easy answers to the problem of perpetual poverty, or hoping to justify their political ideology about why some achieve upward mobility and others do not, should likely look somewhere other than author J.D. Vance ’s memoir “ Hillbilly Elegy .” Vance’s widely acclaimed 2016 book skyrocketed to the top of the New York Times’ best-seller list, in part because it helps connect the dots about Pres. Donald Trump’s rise to power. But Vance also detailed his own family’s struggles in...

We don't need billboards to tell us we've got a crime problem. Or that police are frustrated. Why wouldn't they be? They're outnumbered. They need reinforcements. Not just more uniformed officers with badges and guns. Not just more SkyCops with flashing blue lights. Not just more manpower and machinery to keep watch over the ground where criminal behavior happens. [For more of this story, written by David Waters, go to ...

It was 34 degrees on December 21st in Chicago. As shoppers crowded the Magnificent Mile, a retail destination that stretches along Michigan Avenue north of downtown, Lucy Connor, 29, sat quietly on the charcoal gray sidewalk with a cardboard sign indicating she was homeless, a cup for change, and bags presumably filled with her belongings beside her. Connor says she and her husband have been homeless for more than two years. They lost their home after Lucy suffered a medical issue and had...

Julie Griffiths, the executive director of the the nonprofit Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, wanted to keep tabs on California’s American Disabilities Act compliance laws. But tracking what lawmakers were saying in the statehouse used to be a massive undertaking. She spent untold hours recording the live broadcast from California’s public access channel devoted to legislative hearings . “You had to sit there and videotape Cal access channels, or you had to order the videotape, which could...

Not long after the vote to appoint Jeff Sessions Attorney General of the U.S., President Donald Trump served up three executive orders for him to get started on. Two of them involve Sessions assembling task forces to address violent crime and protect police officers . In Trump’s address earlier this week to the Major Cities Chiefs Police Association, he told them : Those who demonize law enforcement or who use the actions of a few to discredit the service of many are hurting the very people...

Supporting parents' efforts to help their children develop during the preschool years improves a child's school readiness, reduces behavior problems, enhances social skills, and promotes academic success. The Issue Children begin learning at home before they ever reach the classroom, but many families face barriers to providing high-quality early educational opportunities. There are a number of research-based strategies to bolster parent engagement in ways that improve child outcomes. [For...