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When it comes to fighting addiction, they say you have to hit bottom. For Rutland, Vt., a town of 17,000 devastated by heroin, the bottom came in September 2012. A popular high school senior was struck and killed by a driver who was high. Local resident Joe Kraus says the tragedy galvanized the community. "People who perhaps never would have gotten involved in a meaningful way decided it was time to get involved," he says. And they did. City officials, police and neighborhood activists came...

Last week, I was fortunate to be a part of a small group of professionals in San Diego to attend the Academy on Violence and Abuse preconference session for the 30 th Annual San Diego International Conference on Child and Family Maltreatment. The conference draws over 1,800 professionals in the maltreatment field from around the world each year. The session, titled: Building Trauma Informed, Resilience, and Healthy Communities: Regional, National, and Global Perspectives , had an ambitious...

From Feb. 1 - 15, you'll be able to screen, for free, all five episodes of Raising of America , the five-part documentary about early childhood and the future of the U.S., from the Raising of America web site .  If you'd rather attend a screening, check out the list of upcoming events here  to see if there's one near you. You can also find out if your local PBS station will be showing it here ; some PBS stations are hosting live in-studio discussion after the broadcast. ...

Yes, that's at 2 p.m. this Thursday at the Lobero Theater , California's oldest, continuously operating theatre! James Redford, who directed  Resilience , will be doing a Q-and-A following the screening on Thursday. (He will not attend the Friday screening.) Resilience premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday, Jan. 22 , followed by several more screenings last week.   Here's the description from the Resilience page on the Santa Barbara International Film Festival web...

I attended Syl Jone's play BECAUSE at the Mixed Blood Theatre last week.   It's a moving piece that explores living with mental health issues from multiple perspectives leaving the audience with a personal sense of what it's like to be this person, live with this person and understand this person .   Syl is now the Resident Fellow for Narrative Health at HCMC (I think every hospital should have such a position - how else can these stories be told?) I asked Syl at the play if he...

I lived in Kotzebue, AK, for four months. One reason I was attracted to the community was an opportunity to introduce the concept of childhood trauma and ACEs. I did that. The Northwest Arctic School District had a wonderful and compassionate superintendent, Dr. Norm Eck. I had a few conversations with Dr. Eck about ACEs and how it affects children as they become adults. Dr. Eck accepted the information and had plans to examine it more deeply, but eventually retired and the spread of...

Under pressure from the courts to reduce his state’s prison population, California Gov. Jerry Brown has thrown his support behind a plan that’s likely to slash the number of teens who get prosecuted as adults. If approved by voters, the Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act of 2016 would block district attorneys from charging a suspect under 18 as an adult. Instead, a judge would decide whether teens accused of a violent crime should stand trial as an adult. Those measures are...

Is there ever a “good” youth arrest? Even without the use of excessive force, arrest can prove traumatic and destructive and the effects long lasting. One police leader from a small Pennsylvania town recounted the story of a young person who lost his promising future, with a merit-based scholarship to a four-year college, when police arrested him and charged him with a curfew violation. He spent no time in a detention center, but his criminal record, even for a status offense,...

A court settlement reached this week transforms the way Indiana treats prisoners with serious mental illnesses, ending practices that often worsened their symptoms and sometimes led to suicide, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana. Under the agreement, prisoners with serious mental illnesses will receive better access to mental health care and, with few exceptions, will no longer be held in solitary confinement in state correctional facilities. The...

Amid the stats and figures, dot-driven maps of New York City and questions about the minutiae of neighborhood issues, a hearing at the City Council on Thursday included more than the usual amount of personal revelation from Council members. One spoke of his struggles with alcoholism that nearly derailed his life as a young man. Another of a family friend who died of opioid addiction. Another, the suicide of a friend. Listening attentively to the outpouring was Chirlane McCray , the first...

Registration is open for our webinars! The Devereux Center for Resilient Children has posted its FREE webinar schedule through June 2016. Register now to learn the most up-to-date information on promoting resilience in infants, toddlers, preschoolers, school-age youth, adults, and families!   http://www.centerforresilientchildren.org/home/informational-webinars/