Malory Ruesch was a bright, outgoing, and attractive teenager. She was also an ACEs survivor and a heroin addict about to be sent to prison for years. And then something extraordinary happened.
By Christine Vestal, PEW, July 29, 2021 Although no one wants to see it happen, some state and local public health officials soon may recommend reinstating mask mandates, imposing curfews, limiting travel and even reclosing schools and businesses. But in numerous states, including many with low vaccination rates and escalating COVID-19 hospitalizations, newly minted laws may prevent many of those public health precautions—or at least make them difficult to impose. Earlier this year, when...
By Jason DeParle, The New York Times, July 28, 2021 The huge increase in government aid prompted by the coronavirus pandemic will cut poverty nearly in half this year from prepandemic levels and push the share of Americans in poverty to the lowest level on record, according to the most comprehensive analysis yet of a vast but temporary expansion of the safety net. The number of poor Americans is expected to fall by nearly 20 million from 2018 levels, a decline of almost 45 percent. The...
By Rachel Scully, The Hill, July 29, 2021 The Alternative Response Pilot Program, a part-time pilot program in Columbus, Ohio, has been a large success for the city, leading officials to plan an expansion of the program, city officials announced Thursday . The pilot program, which consists of a "Triage Pod" of a social worker, emergency communications dispatcher and paramedic, aims to cut down police involvement in mental health, drug addiction or other social issues in emergency situations.
By Shanon Lee, The Lily, July 28, 2021 Marking the second time in recent months a world-class Black woman athlete publicly prioritized their mental health over competing, gymnast superstar Simone Biles withdrew from Thursday’s individual all-around competition at the Tokyo Olympics. “I have to do what’s right for me and focus on my mental health,” Biles told NBC . In May, tennis champion Naomi Osaka also made headlines after withdrawing from the French Open , citing mental health concerns.
By Carolyn Jones, EdSource, July 29, 2021 College savings accounts can help cover tuition costs, but some researchers say their real value is more nuanced. The very act of opening a college account for a young child can motivate that student to excel in school and aim for post-secondary education, they say. “Child savings accounts set up these high expectations from a young age,” said Shira Markoff, director of children’s savings at Prosperity Now, a nonprofit focused on closing the racial...
ACEs Aware in Action July 2021 New ACE Screening Claims and Training Data Report This month, the ACEs Aware initiative released a new data report – “ ACEs Aware Screening, Training, and Certification Progress: July 2021 Update . ” The report details the number of ACE screenings conducted in California between January 1, 2020, and September 30, 2020, and the number of individuals who completed the “ Becoming ACEs Aware in California ” online training between December 4, 2019, and March 31,...
By Carolyn Jones and Andrew Reed, EdSource, July 29, 2021 For Gov. Gavin Newsom and anyone else promoting college savings accounts for low-income children, Oral Lee Brown has some advice: “It’s not about the money.” Brown, an Oakland real estate agent now in her 70s, has been promoting the same idea since 1987, when she “adopted” a class of first graders from Brookfield Elementary School in East Oakland, promising to pay their college costs if they stayed in school. [ Please click here to...
By Claudia Boyd-Barrett, California Health Report, July 29, 2021 For Lydia, 40, of southeast Los Angeles County, there was nothing safe about staying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Being home meant being stuck with her abusive husband who beat her and tried to control her every move. The abuse predated the pandemic – her three children went to live with a family member in 2018 because of it. But when Lydia’s husband lost his job because of the shutdown, he became angry and bored, and...
By Laruen Michele Jackson, The New Yorker, July 27, 2021 I n 1971, Derrick Bell, a forty-year-old civil-rights attorney, became the first Black professor to gain tenure at Harvard Law School. A soft-spoken and prolific scholar, with glasses and a short fro coming to a widow’s peak, Bell was a Pittsburgh native and Air Force veteran who, before his career in academia, had worked with Thurgood Marshall composing legal strategies against school segregation in the South, at the N.A.A.C.P. Legal...
By Hua Hsu, The New Yorker, August 2, 2021 I n the mid-seventies, Ted Ngoy was working the late shift at a gas station in Orange County when he tasted his first doughnut. Ngoy, then in his thirties, was instantly hooked. He trained to become a manager at Winchell’s Donuts, a popular chain, before purchasing Christy’s Donuts, a struggling shop in La Habra. Ngoy turned Christy’s around, and in the next few years he acquired more stores in the area. He is said to have popularized the pink box...
There can be no doubt that emotional wellness and emotional intelligence go hand in hand. But what does it mean to be emotionally well? Is it something mysterious and unattainable? Or is it something that anyone can achieve? This article will explore these questions and discuss how emotional wellness appears and how the lives of emotionally well people appear. Definitions are a Good Place to Begin The National Center for Emotional Wellness is an organization committed to fostering emotional...
By The Annie E. Casey Foundation, July 20, 2021 Public health strategies in Atlanta and Milwaukee have prevented gun homicides over the past several years, according to a new report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Often referred to as community-based violence interventions, the safety approaches implemented in the two cities involve examining the root causes of conflicts, interrupting situations likely to result in shootings and promoting community-wide healing. The report, Improving...
By Andrea McDaniels, Center for Health Journalism, July 23, 2021 In communities of color across the country, aggressive overpolicing is eroding the health of residents who live in a constant state of fear. Some worry about a possible bad encounter with law enforcement, while others live with the traumatic memories of already having experienced one. This kind of policing environment, often targeted at people who have done nothing illegal, is leading to chronic stress that puts wear and tear...
By Stephen Marche, The New York Times, September 5, 2018 The use of spanking to discipline children has been in decline for 50 years. But yelling? Almost everybody still yells at their kids sometimes, even the parents who know it doesn’t work. Yelling may be the most widespread parental stupidity around today. Households with regular shouting incidents tend to have children with lower self-esteem and higher rates of depression. A 2014 study in The Journal of Child Development demonstrated...