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For almost two decades, Alabama residents convicted of a drug-related felony were barred for life from receiving food stamps or welfare payments. Starting this month, the ban will officially be lifted . Alabama is not the only state that is backing away from the ban , which was established in 1996 under President Bill Clinton’s welfare reform law and blocks only drug offenders from receiving assistance, not any other felons. Eighteen states have completely abandoned the federal...

Over the past 15 years, the United States has seen drastic reductions in its world-leading rates of youth incarceration. Nowhere were these reductions more dramatic than in California, which once boasted the largest youth corrections system in the world. To put this change in perspective, in 1996 California confined nearly 10,000 youths in 11 correctional facilities. Today, the state’s youth corrections system is comprised of three aging institutions with a combined population of about...

During the month of January, Partner for Healing provided you with short training exercises to promote trauma-informed care. These exercises were designed for use in existing meetings such as staff meetings, treatment teams and refreshers. They will help your staff develop a deeper understanding of the experiences of people who have endured trauma, and a greater appreciation  of trauma strategies for change.  The first topic was What Helps People Change , in which we explore our...

Over the past 15 years, the United States has seen drastic reductions in its world-leading rates of youth incarceration. Nowhere were these reductions more dramatic than in California, which once boasted the largest youth corrections system in the world. To put this change in perspective, in 1996 California confined nearly 10,000 youths in 11 correctional facilities. Today, the state’s youth corrections system is comprised of three aging institutions with a combined population of about...

Professionals who work with domestic violence offenders and victims say they’re not surprised by the recent revelations of alleged domestic violence by Johnny Manziel, but they are surprised more isn’t done to prevent domestic violence by organizations like the NFL. “I don’t think any of us can be surprised when you have a story like today’s story or the Greg Hardy story comes up on the news,” said President of SafeHaven Tarrant County Kathyryn Jacobs.

Strong mission statements have long guided nonprofit organizations . But mission statements usually focus on external goals rather than internal ways of working. To shape an organization’s internal organizational atmosphere—and to attract talent—nonprofits, social enterprises, and benefit corporations (or B Corps) should consider developing a culture manifesto. The approaches of B Corps Method Products, Etsy, and Warby Parker offer several ideas for how organizations can...

As  The Chronicle of Social Change has been reporting over the past two years, various jurisdictions have been exploring new tools to focus the attention of child welfare systems on the children most at risk of subsequent abuse or neglect. The mainstream media has begun to notice, as demonstrated by CNBC’s recent report on Los Angeles’ contract with software company SAS to develop such a tool for its child welfare system. These new approaches generally rely on predictive...

New research shows that mindfulness meditation training reduces interleukin-6, an inflammatory health biomarker, in high-stress, unemployed adults. The biological health-related benefits occur because mindfulness meditation training alters brain network functional connectivity patterns, according to the study, which was published in Biological Psychiatry. “We’ve now seen that mindfulness meditation training can reduce inflammatory biomarkers in several initial studies, and this...

After viewing meaningful entertainment — shows that provide the viewer with a warm, uplifting feeling — people appear more likely to lend a hand to those they consider different, according to a new study at Pennsylvania State. These positive and meaningful shows evoke “elevated” feelings in the viewer which in turn lead to these altruistic actions, say the researchers, who report their findings in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media. [For more...

At the Booth Memorial Child Development Center  in Oakland, California, kids bike across a new patio or sit cross-legged on a floor that no longer aggravates their allergies or asthma. Those improvements were funded in part by $70,000 in grants from the Low Income Investment Fund , a national community development finance institution. In neighborhoods around the country, similar groups help plan, fund, and build early-education centers like Booth Memorial, where children learn,...

Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court Judge Frank Somerville believed at the start of his career that incarceration was a primary solution to societal ills. One of the things that you thought you could do is jail your way out of the problems. If you just put everybody in jail, everybody would get cured, we wouldnt have any more problems, Culpeper would be safer and wed save money, he said during a panel discussion last week at the State Theatre about the...

   When members of the consortium Creating Sanctuary in the Columbia River Gorge gather for a meeting, they always begin the same way. Each person will turn to the next and ask: How are you feeling today? What is your goal for our time together? If you need support in this meeting, whom would you look to for help?    It’s not just an exercise, said Trudy Townsend, coordinator of the consortium. “What we’re doing is creating community. Building...