Blog

By Deke Farrow, The Modesto Bee, November 28, 2020 Preston Lee and Melissa Mullings, both juniors at Gregori High School, had similar experiences when the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to begin distance learning. Logging into school to study from home just wasn’t working for them. Easily distracted and lacking the structure of a traditional school day, they pretty much gave up on learning and saw their grades plummet, they said in phone interviews last week. Early on, Melissa realized...

By Nathan McCall, The New York Times, November 23, 2020 Decades ago, when I was a teenager growing up in Portsmouth, Va., my buddies and I constantly railed against the evils of “the system.” We viewed the system as a vast, amorphous establishment that worked to preserve White privilege and control Black folks’ lives. It was the 1970s, and as proof that our hatred of the White mainstream was justified, we had to look no further than our homes. We saw that our parents were beaten down,...

By Zoe Beery, The New York Times, November 27, 2020 Lately, Sam Jacobs has been having a lot of conversations with his family’s lawyers. He’s trying to gain access to more of his $30 million trust fund. At 25, he’s hit the age when many heirs can blow their money on harebrained businesses or a stable of sports cars. He doesn’t want to do that, but by wealth management standards, his plan is just as bad. He wants to give it all away. “I want to build a world where someone like me, a young...

By Megan Conn, The Imprint, November 25, 2020 As students across the country struggle to keep up with their schoolwork while sheltering from the coronavirus, tens of thousands of foster youth will now have access to one-on-one support from a free tutoring program being rolled out nationwide. A few months ago, leaders at the online tutoring platform Learn to Be reached out to offer their help to iFoster, which connects foster youth to resources. The two quickly set up a pilot program to match...

By Erika Christakis, The Atlantic, December 1, 2020 T he litany of tragedies and inconveniences visited upon Americans by COVID-19 is long, but one of the more pronounced sources of misery for parents has been pandemic schooling. The logistical gymnastics necessary to balance work and school when all the crucial resources—time, physical space, internet bandwidth, emotional reserves—are limited have pushed many to the point of despair. Pandemic school is clearly not working well, especially...

By Virgie Hoban, November 19, 2020, Berkeley News. It was a racist policy enacted over 80 years ago, but its aftermath dribbles on — all the way to the babies born today, new research shows. Using historical maps and modern birth data, UC Berkeley researchers have found that babies born in California neighborhoods historically redlined — denied federal investments based on the discriminatory lending practices of the 1930s — are now more likely to have poorer health outcomes. The study was...

Join us on December 8th for this discussion on Transforming Correctional Design for Justice Reform! Work in corrections or youth justice? Engaged in the social justice movement? Are you a designer or architect? This is one talk you can't afford to miss! Christine Cowart, of Cowart Trauma Informed Partnership will join Janet Roche, faculty member and Alumni Council member of Boston Architectural College (BAC), in alive-broadcast event, to discuss the implications of trauma-informed principles...

The Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice ( CTIPP ) is inviting individuals and organizations to express their support for a set of executive actions for the Biden-Harris Administration to take “to address trauma and build resilience throughout the country.” Most of these actions could be taken early in the Administration and would not require congressional action with the exception of some recommendations that could be included in a new stimulus package. The recommendations are...

Let me first be clear and state that this is not a comparison to Covid. Now that we have that out of the way let’s continue. I wrote a blog post the other day, and in it, I mentioned that when I was four years old, my mother cut off my right index finger. I have written about this experience in both my book and website a few times over the years. I think about the impact that carrying the scars of our abuse has on us as survivors of childhood trauma, and I can’t help be feel a deep sense of...

Do you know that feeling of relief and excitement when things finally seem to turn around? For most people, the year 2020 has been tough. No exception for me either. A number of my speaking engagements were cancelled and conferences moved online. Unfortunately, I wasn't really prepared for the online rush and I'm still slow to that game. As you can imagine, frustration built and then some depression set in and the next thing you know I've watched too much Judge Judy. And then the email...

First, the bad news: You can’t MAKE a person with complex PTSD change.. You can’t make them heal. You can’t make them learn about the adult effects of abuse and neglect in childhood, and you can’t even make them admit there’s a problem. But the good news is there are things you can do to help a loved one accomplish all these things themselves -- without being controlling or judgmental (those tend to produce resistance in people with CPTSD, which you’ve probably noticed!). I’m going to give...

This Thanksgiving, the band Próxima Parada , who we interviewed on August 14th, 2020 about their trauma-informed and therapy/healing-inspired music on A Better Normal (watch the recording here: https://youtu.be/OLv4F3JQUJM ), launched a heartwarming music video with lyrics to accompany their song Kind Reminder. This turned out to be just the kind reminder I needed to get into the holiday spirit. Given that we work in the field of childhood trauma and adverse childhood experiences, we often...