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A pediatrician and the founder and CEO of the Center for Youth Wellness, Nadine Burke Harris, M.D., receives the Heinz Award for the Human Condition for addressing toxic stress in children, a significant, yet often unrecognized risk factor for chronic disease later in life. Having dedicated her career to working with children from underserved communities, Dr. Burke Harris is transforming pediatric care by pioneering protocols to identify and treat the spiraling effects of toxic stress in...

A lot of people in the United States live with suicidal thoughts. One study suggested that about 15% of Americans will have suicidal thoughts in their lifetime. About 40,000 Americans die by suicide each year. I could tell you more statistics too, like how more than half of those are by firearm or how men are three and a half times more likely to die by suicide than women. I can tell you a lot of statistics. And those statistics are important. But for most of us, they're just numbers. This...

Food-insecure teens who don’t get enough to eat sometimes resort to extreme measures to cope with hunger—from saving school lunches for the weekend or going hungry so younger siblings can eat to stealing or trading sex for money to buy food. The most risky behaviors are by no means typical of all teens, even in the most distressed communities, but they illustrate the lengths to which some of the most desperate and food-insecure teens are willing to go to survive. An estimated 6.8 million...

It's not the size of the man, but the strength of his gesture that matters. On Sept. 10, 2016, a young boy faced off against thousands of anti-gay-marriage protestors. Journalist Manuel Rodriguez captured this amazing photo during a Frente Nacional por la Familia march in Celaya, Guanajuato, in central Mexico. Frente Nacional is a nationwide pro-family organization that essentially condemns same-sex marriages. Rodriguez says he initially thought the boy was just goofing around when he saw...

I grew up poor, in the Rust Belt, in an Ohio steel town that has been hemorrhaging jobs and hope for as long as I can remember.” That’s how J. D. Vance begins one of this campaign season’s saddest and most fascinating books, “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis” (Harper). Vance was born in Kentucky and raised by his grandparents, as a self-described “hillbilly,” in Middletown, Ohio, home of the once-mighty Armco Steel. His family struggled with poverty and domestic...

The drug problems in the Mahoning Valley are not improving according to local children's services agencies that are left to care of innocent children, who've fallen victim to addiction. "We see the impact of the crisis every day," said Tim Schaffner with Trumbull County Children Services. About a year and a half ago, local agencies began experiencing increases in the number of cases opened due to drugs. While most times, children services agencies are able to place these kids with other...

Gemyra Wynn doesn't need to go into the details of her childhood in Camden. After sketching out how adverse childhood events can traumatize people and cause lifelong health consequences, the 17-year-old can just offer her ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) score — it's seven out of 10 — and leave it at that. The same goes for her fellow instructors, 16-year-old Aunyay Fussell and 15-year-old LeBaron Harvey. They each survived psychologically trying experiences. But these students are...

Far too many Baltimore students come from impoverished inner-city neighborhoods wracked by drug and gang violence where shootings, stabbings and beatings occur on a daily basis. When impressionable young people witness dreadful things happen to family, friends and neighbors, it leaves a mark on the soul that can last a lifetime. They've been cruelly traumatized by what they've seen and experienced, and if they're ever to get over it emotionally and psychologically they're going to need help.

The new documentary "The One That Got Away" takes a look at the tough problem of dealing with at-risk youth in American schools. In the feature, Dan Gill, a teacher at Glenfield Middle School in Montclair, New Jersey, reconnects with his former student, Tourrie Moses. Moses is serving prison time for manslaughter and aggravated assault. One of the documentary's co-producers, Steve McCarthy, joined us to talk about the work. [For more of this story, written by David Brancaccio, go to ...

Google the definition of play and the first thing that pops up is this: “[To] engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose.” Jack Shonkoff, the director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, finds that language supremely frustrating. “It’s not taking a break from learning when we talk about play,” he told me, rattling off a litany of cognitive, physical, mental, and social-emotional benefits. “Play is one of the most...

Eileen Moore agreed to volunteer as a mentor to veterans in the Orange County Community Court because of her deep commitment to military men and women and her experience as a combat nurse during the Vietnam War. She’s also an associate justice for the state’s 4th District Court of Appeal, so her knowledge of the law likely came in handy from time to time. “Over the years, I’ve mentored most of the women, but sometimes men as well,” she said. In 2015, vets in the OCCC Veterans Treatment Court...

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