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Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced an ambitious-sounding pilot program that will give participants in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—best known by the colloquial term “food stamps”—a way to purchase their groceries online. The two-year trial, which will begin this summer, provides low-income Americans in seven states with a system to have eligible items delivered to their homes through retailers like FreshDirect, Amazon, Safeway, and ShopRite...

In the summer of 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the closing remarks at the March on Washington. More than 200,000 people gathered to cast a national spotlight on and mobilize resistance to Jim Crow, racist laws and policies that disenfranchised black Americans and mandated segregated housing, schools, and employment. Today, more than 50 years later, remnants of Jim Crow segregation persist in the form of mass incarceration —the imprisonment of millions of Americans, overwhelmingly...

According to federal data , there are more than427,000 in U.S. foster care and nearly 112,000 waiting to be adopted. Those of us committed to ensuring safety and security for these children are anxiously waiting to see what President-elect Donald Trump has to say about child welfare. Children in care didn’t come up during Mr. Trump’s campaign, as he focused on the economy, security, and immigration. As the country moves toward a government controlled by one party — the party that often...

Historical injustices—perpetuated by racial and cultural conflicts, and exacerbated by a lack of empathy—are at the heart of America’s growing economic, social, and political inequalities. Nowhere is this gap of authentic empathy and justice more pronounced than in the American philanthropic sector, where often well-intentioned people make decisions for communities they do not come from, may not understand, rarely interact with, and almost never step foot into. “Philanthropy is commendable,”...

How can you help a young person with a painful history prepare for the working world when you can’t see what stops her from keeping a good job? The answer lies, according to a nonprofit called Hopeworks ‘N Camden , in therapy that teaches the young person to know and change how she deals with past trauma. A person may show up on time, sustain eye contact, speak crisply, and dress properly, but still lack readiness for the job. Consider Melissa*, a young woman in Camden, New Jersey. According...

Lynchings formed the bloody backdrop of Southern life for a century after the Civil War. Between the 1860s and 1960s, thousands of black Americans were killed in public acts of racial terror. Millions more fled to cities in the North and West in an effort to escape this environment. Many soon discovered that, in many ways, the rest of American society was no less racist . How many lynchings occurred during the Jim Crow era? Where? These are difficult questions to pinpoint. A November 2015...

It’s been ten (10) years since Dr. Bruce Perry published his groundbreaking work , The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog. If you haven’t read his book, especially if you are involved in any trauma-related work, it should be on your next-book-to-read list. In the book, Perry shares a story that involved a child involved in a foster care court case. In Dr. Perry’s recount, he shares that during his years of work in clinics and mental health, he had little introduction to those involved in child...

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This country and its juvenile justice systems are facing an important set of transitions as we enter 2017. A new president is about to take office who is committed to taking the country in a different direction. While most of the policies his administration will promote are outside the scope of this column, they will undoubtedly impact our ability to build the best and most effective juvenile justice systems across the nation. How investments are prioritized will translate to whether there...

The U.S. Department of Justice and the city of Baltimore announced an agreement to reform the city’s troubled police department on Thursday. The 227-page document lays out a detailed plan for the Baltimore police to try to correct egregious violations of constitutional rights, racial disparities in their practices, excessive use of force, and a culture of retaliation against whistleblowers. The agreement could represent one of the last hurrahs for the police-reform movement before the Trump...

The United States is one of the richest countries in the world. It is also one of the most unequal. As a report released today shows, the U.S. ranks 23 out of 30 developed nations in a measure known as the “inclusive development index,” which factors in data on income, health, poverty, and sustainability. The index comes from the World Economic Forum , whose annual summit is taking place in Davos this week. It is a rather comprehensive measure of inequality, and the fact that the U.S. ranks...

Across the country, tent cities are a controversial approach to helping the homeless. Preferred by some bureaucrats as a way of cleaning up the streets, and by some homeless people because they offer a sense of community as well as a sliver of permanence in an otherwise mobile lifestyle, they are often criticized for creating neighborhood eyesores, increasing fire danger and crime, and undermining other programs that aim to help the homeless find housing and jobs. Photographer Eirik Johnson...