Blog

Michael Douglas and Glenn Close star in the 1987 film, Fatal Attraction. The underlying stereotype of the scorned woman seen in popular media is very much alive in the U.S. family court system. By Amy Polacko, Ms., October 3, 2023 “You play fair with me, I’ll play fair with you.” This is what Alex Forrest, famously played by Glenn Close, tells Dan Gallagher in the 1980s thriller Fatal Attraction. But most viewers come to think she’s anything but fair—going off the deep end after Dan has an...

Viola Fletcher, 109, inside Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Library on Aug. 24. (Gioncarlo Valentine for The Washington Post) By Wesley Lowery, The Washington Post, October 4, 2023 Her mother’s scream awoke the 7-year-old girl just moments after she’d drifted off to sleep. “Vi! Get up, child. If we don’t leave right now, we could end up dead.” What Viola Fletcher witnessed that night in 1921 has haunted her for a century. Her entire childhood had been set ablaze. Families fled Tulsa’s...

By Jennifer and Michael, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), September 20, 2023 A sister and brother share how their child rights activism led them to help their hometown become the first UNICEF Child Friendly City in the U.S. Jennifer, 20, a rising junior at Stanford University, and her brother, Michael, a 17-year-old senior at a Houston high school, are just like any other siblings in many ways. They are best friends, and even though Michael is three years younger, he's always...

By Issy Ronald, Photo: tomazl/E+/Getty Images, CNN Health, October 3, 2023 Parents, teachers, coaches and other adults shouting at, denigrating or verbally threatening children can be as damaging to their development as sexual or physical abuse , a new study finds. The study, published in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect, reviewed 166 earlier studies to produce a detailed analysis of the existing literature on the topic. The authors called for childhood verbal abuse to be ascribed its...

By Laura Gallant, 10/5/23, https://positiveexperience.org/blog/ The HOPE National Resource Center has launched the HOPE-Informed Organizational Certification program. By becoming certified as a HOPE-Informed organization, you will be publicly recognized as an organization that is actively committed to practicing the HOPE framework and promoting equitable access to positive childhood experiences (PCEs) for the children, families, and communities you serve. The program provides the structure,...

Back to School with PACEs Connection: Creating Positive Childhood Environmental Experiences in the Classroom Every aspect of someone’s environment will impact how they live, learn, play, and grow. Those under the age of 18 in traditional learning models will spend the majority of their time in a school setting, where the environment itself lays the foundation for their development. Creating positive childhood experiences in schools and the classroom has a profound impact on students'...

The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf

Hillary Clinton writes for the Atlantic Monthly this week: The Weaponization of Loneliness https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/08/hillary-clinton-essay-loneliness-epidemic/674921/?paymeter=hard-gate-email-test-1&referral=FB_PAID An excerpt: The rate of young adults who report suffering from loneliness went up every single year from 1976 to 2019. From 2003 to 2020, the average time that young people spent in person with friends declined by nearly 70 percent. Then the pandemic...

When Anne Sherry and I started recording our podcast interviews in May of 2021, launching Season 1 on September 17th, 2021, we didn't know what would people would think about how often we laughed about trauma. Kids almost burning down the whole house trying to make cinnamon toast while home alone after school? Insanely scary and yet, hilarious...why would parents set this situation up for their children?? When did this seem like a good idea? Kids coming up with elaborate schemes to watch...

Youth Voices Rising writer Jacqueline Robles. Courtesy of Robles. By Jacqueline Robles, The Imprint, September 26, 2023 The overrepresentation of Native American youth in foster care is a concerning and multifaceted issue prevalent in both the United States and Canada. This unsettling situation has disrupted many Native youth’s lives, resulting in a loss of family connections, cultural identity, and a sense of belonging. The root causes of this disproportionality can be traced back to...

By Janie Har, Photo: AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press, October 2, 2023 An alternative mental health court program designed to fast-track people with untreated schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders into housing and medical care — potentially without their consent — kicked off in seven California counties, including San Francisco, on Monday. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom created the new civil court process, called “CARE Court,” as part of a massive push to address the...

From Sierra Sun Times, Photo: Victoria Regen/Pixabay, Sierra Sun Times, October 2, 2023 To build a future worthy of our children’s highest aspirations, we must ensure they have the resources and support they need to thrive. This Child Health Day, we recommit to helping our children live healthy lives so they can reach their highest potential. Our most fundamental obligation to our children is to keep them safe. The devastating truth is that firearms are the leading cause of death for...