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By Sylvia Cheuy, Mark Cabaj, and Liz Weaver, Illustration: Hugo Herrera, Stanford Social Innovation Review, January 4, 2022 The collective impact framework has gained interest worldwide for mobilizing high-impact and lasting change on a broad array of complex social issues. As highlighted in this series , for the past decade, countless examples have validated the collective impact framework and deepened understandings of it as a field of practice. Looking ahead to the next decade, what’s...

By Caitlin Gibson, Photo: iStock, The Washington Post, January 29, 2022 Andria Hayes-Birchler had barely begun to comprehend her new reality as a single parent before the pandemic hit. In March 2020, she had an 8-month-old infant and a 4-year-old, and her soon-to-be-ex-husband had recently moved from their home in Washington, D.C., to California. What followed was a year and a half of unrelenting crisis as she struggled to balance her career as a research consultant with caring for her two...

Image above represents the " State ACEs and TI Laws & Resolutions clickable map " The steady growth in ACEs and Trauma-Informed laws and resolutions has continued since the last snapshot in PACEs Connection in June 2021 . That article reported that state legislatures and governors in dozens of states enacted nearly 60 laws and resolutions that specially reference adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) or trauma in the years 2019 and 2020. A new tally shows that In 2021 alone, another 36...

By Cory Turner, Image: LA Johnson/NPR, National Public Radio, January 27, 2022 Blink and you could have missed it. For six months, the United States experimented with an idea that's new here but is already a backstitch in the social fabric of many wealthy nations : a monthly cash payment to help families cover the costs of raising children. Less than a year in, though, this U.S. experiment, known as the expanded child tax credit, has already been unwound by a deadlocked Congress . Still,...

By John Fensterwald, Photo: Allison Shelley/Eduimages, EdSource, January 31, 2022 I n coming weeks, California will embark on a massive undertaking to convert several thousand schools in low-income neighborhoods into centers of community life and providers of vital services for families as well as students. Known as community schools, they will be established over the next seven years. New York and Maryland are among states that are investing in community schools, but California’s $3 billion...

By Karen Baynes-Dunning, Photo: Unsplash, The Imprint, January 31, 2022 I titled this essay Stop Blaming the “Uncooperative Mother,” because it has become a racial trope used by well-intentioned people who work with families throughout our nation’s child welfare system. Over nearly 30 years of working in and around the child welfare system, I have heard variations on this theme: the angry mother; the hostile mother; the disrespectful mother; the antagonistic mother; the aggressive mother;...

By Anna North, Image: Getty Images/fStop, Vox, January 27, 2022 That’s the question facing a lot of Americans as we stagger into 2022 still carrying the burden of a pandemic on our shoulders, plus some other burdens including but not limited to the i ncreasingly devastating effects of climate change, the real and disturbing threats to democracy , and the seeming inability of the highest levels of the US government to address these dangers . It’s even boring to talk about how much any of us —...

On January 20, 2022, PACEs Connection hosted the fourth event in our Historical Trauma in America series . The event was facilitated by PACEs Connection staff members Dana Brown (organizational liaison), Donielle Prince (director of state initiatives), John Dovales Flores (California central valley, central coast community facilitator), and Natalie Audage (family and community resources lead). The event featured Dr. Valerie Ooka Pang, a Japanese American professor and author from San Diego...

ACEs Aware in Action January 2022 Looking Back: 2021 Year in Review As we reflect on 2021, we would like to thank you for joining the movement to make our State of CAre ACEs Aware. From raising awareness for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress to supporting practice change and growing trauma-informed networks of care, 2021 was a productive year for the ACEs Aware initiative. We have invested a total of $45 million in grant funds to communities across the state, and Medi-Cal...

Listen First Project is honored to represent the work of bridge building organizations across the country in the PBS documentary, Preserving Democracy: Pursuing A More Perfect Union, that premiered on January 6, 2022. The documentary intends to answer the question: Why is democracy the way it is today? Even with the problems we face as a nation and the rampant toxic polarization that has negatively affected families, workplaces, and communities, there are signs of hope and possible paths...

By Julien Lafortune and Joseph Herrera, Public Policy Institute of California, January 31, 2022 Amid concerns over growing absenteeism since schools reopened this fall , the state legislature is considering a change in how schools are funded. Currently, California is one of seven states that fund schools using average daily attendance (ADA), meaning that districts do not receive funding for students on days they are absent. Critics contend that attendance-based funding penalizes schools...

By Heather Cox Richardson, Photo: Unsplash, Letters from an American, January 27, 2022 Numbers released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which is part of the U.S. Federal Statistical System producing data and official statistics, show that the U.S. economy grew by an astonishing 6.9 percent annual rate from October to December 2021. That puts the growth of the U.S. economy for 2021 at 5.7 percent in 2021. Despite the ongoing pandemic, this is the fastest full-year growth since 1984.