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Melissa Merrick PhD and Robert Sege MD, PhD wrote this timely and interesting article for CNN online. We encourage you to check it out! Also, please visit and join our Balancing ACES with HOPE community . Just as prior generations were deeply affected by the Great Depression, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and the Kennedys and the horrors of 9/11, the COVID -19 pandemic may well be the defining moment in the lives of today's children. That's why we owe it to our children to focus...

I have attached a research article, the first chapter in my PhD. This was published last year before the pandemic. Many of the women experienced significant ACE's in their lives. I wanted to post this, to keep them in our thoughts during this pandemic

By Akilah Johnson and Talia Buford, ProPublica, April 3, 2020 The coronavirus entered Milwaukee from a white, affluent suburb. Then it took root in the city’s black community and erupted. As public health officials watched cases rise in March, too many in the community shrugged off warnings. Rumors and conspiracy theories proliferated on social media, pushing the bogus idea that black people are somehow immune to the disease . And much of the initial focus was on international travel, so...

By Ben McVane, The New York Times, April 5, 2020 “Do you think I’ll get through this?” The patient who asked me this was struggling to breathe, but still able to talk. I told him that most people his age did OK, while trying not to convey a false sense of security. He told me that another member of his family was sick with the coronavirus, and we spoke of his hometown in South America. The next day his condition had worsened, and our communication was limited to his writing on paper and...

By Diana Lambert, EdSource, April 3, 2020 With California schools remaining closed longer than initially anticipated in response to the coronavirus pandemic, most districts are planning to start more formal distance learning programs in April, after their spring break. In the meantime, teachers have had to be creative to keep students engaged and learning after campuses shut down in March. Teachers who are tech-savvy and are working at schools that have enough computers or tablets for all...

By Charles M. Blow, The New York Times, April 5, 2020 People like to say that the coronavirus is no respecter of race, class or country, that the disease Covid-19 is mindless and will infect anybody it can. In theory, that is true. But, in practice, in the real world, this virus behaves like others, screeching like a heat-seeking missile toward the most vulnerable in society. And this happens not because it prefers them, but because they are more exposed, more fragile and more ill. What the...

I don't think there will be much progress ending child abuse until it is recognized as just a particularly heinous kind of parenting...one that is passed from generation to generation and one that will take a generation or two to fix. In our communties the quality of parenting varies tremendously and child abuse is at the dark end of the spectrum. Also on that spectrum are a lot of other kinds of parenting that are unsupportive and harmful, but not illegal. Shouldn’t we care about those...

You can have all the limits and rules in the word, but without nurturance or relationship your child will rebel to your face or behind your back. And during the COVID-19 crisis, this risk increases as our stress level skyrockets. As a result , we tend to go strong on lecturing and limits. And our nurturance with our child or teenager can get put on hold or not attended to as needed. In this live interview with Sarah, a single parent mom, I discuss concrete and practical tools to parent with...

COVID-19 has reminded us all of the deep racial inequities and inadequacies in our public systems. Are you organizing Black communities? Looking for some key statistics and tips for ensuring a full count of Black people? Here are some key take-aways and stats from the recent webinar by XYZ focused on ensuring Black communities are counted: The Black population is missed more than any other race/Hispanic population in the U.S. Census Young children are undercounted at a very high rate and the...

Therapist and author Dr. Tian Dayton, who first started writing about ACEs science more than 20 years ago, will address grief and maintaining emotional sobriety during COVID-19. Carey Sipp, Southeast community facilitator for ACEs Connection, will host this community conversation, and Alison Cebula, Northeastern regional community facilitator, will moderate.

Paid leave for parents during COVID-19 emergency

By Susanne Rust, Tony Barboza, Los Angeles Times, April 6, 2020 On Friday morning, Noel Tucker — gloved, masked, and dressed in an apron and hard hat — attacked the refuse stream rolling by her on a fast-moving conveyor belt, pulling out plastic bags and loose plastic films, and tossing them into a metal bin by her side. She’s a sorter at San Francisco’s Recology recycling center. And while most of the city’s residents are hunkered down in their homes, keeping clear of the coronavirus that...