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The hurdles Native American teenagers face in and out of school are daunting. College Horizons, a small organization based in New Mexico, has proven they're not insurmountable. Every year, the group sponsors week-long retreats on college campuses for teenagers from some of the more than 500 federally-recognized tribes in the U.S. One of those retreats was at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., where 85 students gathered along with dozens of admissions officers from some of the nation's...

I recoil when I hear the word resilient. It makes me cringe and I don't always understand why. I've been thinking really hard about this topic for two reasons. 1. The word is used all of the time. 2.I'm working on a story about resilience. I'm not trying to convince anyone not to use the word resilient. I just want to share why it is a hot button word for some. Yesterday, I found an example that helps me put this into words. I was reviewing a fascinating study done in 2011 on 746 Danish...

Rutgers University is divided into five residential campuses, and once freshman Imani Hayes figured the system out, she noticed one of them—called Livingston—being referred to as “the black campus.” In part, Hayes found when she began at Rutgers in 2011, that was because Livingston was where the African American studies classes were held. But she said she learned there was another reason: It was one of the cheapest places to live. “If you look at the pictures of the dorms, they were kind of...

High utility bills can be more than a budget-buster. They also can cause anxiety and depression in low-income families, a new study finds. The study included 72 families in the Boston area with annual incomes of $32,000 or less and utility costs that were as much as $650 a month at the height of winter. Utility bills "at $200 per month represent nearly 30 percent of household income for those at or near the federal poverty level, making it a significant, and likely unaffordable, expense,"...

Wearing a New York Mets hat and a denim jacket, Cheryl Wilkins was the perfect hostess. Cracking jokes, she made sure guests — particularly young people — attending a block party in front of the state’s former Bayview Correctional Facility felt welcomed. Wilkins, who was released in 2005 after spending nearly two years incarcerated in the facility, knows what it’s like to be young and not know where to turn. “I have a brother who died of an overdose when I was 9 years old,” Wilkins said. “I...

Those who equate juvenile justice reform with better institutions should consider the California lesson. For the past 13 years, the state’s youth correctional system operated under court monitoring due to its failure to provide rehabilitative services or a safe environment. The “ Farrell lawsuit ,” brought by the Prison Law Office , cited a list of institutional abuses that have plagued the American juvenile justice system since the 19th century. Rather than places of rehabilitation,...

A West Virginia city is teaming up with police, schools, prosecutors, and community and faith-based groups to address drug abuse among at-risk children in what officials are calling a "first-of-its-kind" approach. The Martinsburg Police Department and Berkeley County Schools announced The Martinsburg Initiative at Winchester Avenue Elementary School on Monday, a news release said. The project will target at-risk children and troubled families, with a specific focus on opiate and heroin...

As the ACE Task Force of Shelby County was preparing to launch in early 2014, a task force member told this story to The Commercial Appeal's editorial board: A group of citizens, who lived and worked next to a river, were constantly having to rescue drowning children from the river. Finally someone decided it was time to travel upstream to find out why so many children were falling into the river. Finding concrete solutions to the "why" is the goal of the ACE Task Force. ACE stands for...

During a recent event at the White House focusing on how schools should be addressing the traumatic experiences of girls, and girls of color in particular, a Latina student talked about the childhood abuse she suffered at the hands of her stepfather. “I never really coped with my anger. I thought [the teachers] don’t care about you,” she said. But then she received help from counselors through a trauma-informed approach , called PACE, which stands for playfulness, acceptance, curiosity, and...

More than one-third of calls to a suicide hotline for troubled veterans are not being answered by front-line staffers because of poor work habits and other problems at the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to the hotline’s former director. Some hotline workers handle fewer than five calls per day and leave before their shifts end, even as crisis calls have increased sharply in recent years, said Greg Hughes, the former director of the VA’s Veterans Crisis Line. Hughes said in an...

Two often-overlooked medications might help millions of Americans who abuse alcohol to quit drinking or cut back. Public health officials, building on a push to treat people who abuse opioids with medications, want physicians to consider using medications to treat alcohol addiction. The drugs can be used in addition to or sometimes in place of peer-support programs, they say. "We want people to understand we think AA is wonderful, but there are other options," says George Koob, director of...

The School District of Philadelphia deserves huge congratulations for creating a new position as part of its plan to be a trauma informed education system! They are seeking an excellent candidate to serve in this critically important and cutting edge role. Following is the job description Job Summary Develops, coordinates and implements trauma-informed practices in the schools. Works with administrative, instructional and non-instructional staff, to put into place evidence-based...