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Six-month-old Mason had a big smile that showed in his photo. But in July 2015, his parents took the Laurens County boy to a hospital with severe head injuries. He was placed on life support but died the next day. Authorities said his father had admitted to abusing the infant and he was charged with homicide by child abuse. The mother was charged with unlawful neglect of a child. The father eventually plead guilty and was sentenced to 30 years in prison, court records show. The mother pled...

A local initiative is bringing awareness to research that shows traumatic childhood experiences such as poverty, sexual abuse and drug addiction can lead to lifelong challenges in mental, social and physical health. Representatives of the school district, borough and police department, as well as several other organizations, have come together to form the Pottstown Trauma Informed Community Connection. The steering committee was created to decrease some of the violent and chronic health...

This teaching by the Dalai Lama explains how the Buddhist teachings of mindfulness and compassion lead inevitably to feelings of self-confidence and kindness. Developing Compassion Before we can generate compassion and love, it is important to have a clear understanding of what we understand compassion and love to be. In simple terms, compassion and love can be defined as positive thoughts and feelings that give rise to such essential things in life as hope, courage, determination and inner...

Note: A link to all of the Rick Hanson podcasts appear in the Parenting with ACEs Group as resources under Toolkits/Guides and Webinars. If you know of some great resources that might benefits members of this group, please share them with me. Thanks! Oh how I love Rick Hanson. I love how he helps my healing and my parenting. He's taught me so much about the ABC's of being human, being compassionate with fear and healing with mindfulness. He has a series of free podcast talks, Being Well , on...

Almost any news story on the Academy Awards in the last year has been focused on one thing: #OscarsSoWhite. After last year’s much-derided nominees list (where all 20 nominated actors were white for the second year in a row), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences pledged radical action. Members who had been dormant in the film industry were demoted to non-voting emeritus status, while Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs vowed to transform the makeup of incoming voters. That’s...

A strong middle class is, for many people, central to the American idea. There are other core values too, of course—freedom, political representation, individualism, etc.—but an economy in which families can feel economic security, live comfortably, and build up wealth is definitely on the list. But that’s not the economy America has today. The middle class is getting smaller by the year: According to Pew, the percent of adults in solidly middle-income households has fallen to 50 percent in...

A new plan unveiled by Elkhart County staff Wednesday calls for a major reconfiguration in how children, particularly those with potential health issues, should be treated in the county’s juvenile justice system. The project calls for building a Juvenile Resource Center, which would screen and assess youth accused of delinquency to determine the most appropriate intervention. Those actions could include anything from requiring mental health treatment to detention. The goal, however, is to...

In the U.S., the debate around the minimum wage does not lack controversy, but it does lack up-to-date research. Academic studies on the effects of raising hourly pay—especially to $15, which has become something of a magic number for progressive cities and states—have not kept pace with the whirlwind movement . And relatively little research has focused on the non-economic impacts of such significant wage bumps: for example, how they affect the health of infants. This is no arbitrary...

A 35-year-old man with a history of mental illness found cold on the sidewalk. A 38-year-old man cocooned in a blanket on the street, who neighbors heard “ moaning ” before going silent. A 56-year-old woman discovered in an open lot near an underpass. Another woman, age 50, found unresponsive at a friend’s home. A 32-year-old man who security guards caught passed out in an upscale shopping mall’s toilets. [For more of this story, written by John Metcalfe, go to ...

As many as one billion children under the age of 18 experience some form of violence every year. This exposure is not only a violation of child rights; it can also hamper children’s cognitive development, mental health, educational achievement, and long-term labor market prospects. Meanwhile, an estimated 1.9 billion people in 136 countries benefit from some type of social safety net, such as cash transfers and public works that target the poor and vulnerable—presenting a vast policy...

In 2007, Anne Mahlum was living in Philadelphia. She had a habit of waking up early to exercise; each morning, her route took her by a homeless shelter. Even at dawn, there were people out in front. One morning, they waved. As Mahlum built up a rapport with her early-morning neighbors, she started thinking: Why am I running past them when I could run with them? Mahlum had started running as a teenager to cope with troubles at home. Maybe, she thought, running could help other people the same...

Twenty-three percent of homeless youth have pets, according to research from a team led by Harmony Rhoades at the University of Southern California . The team surveyed 398 homeless youth at two drop-in centers in Los Angeles. While previous studies have shown that pets can be very important to homeless young people, this is the first quantitative study to look at pet ownership, mental health, and the use of services among this group. Eighty-eight percent of the young people in the study had...