Blog

ACEs, Adversity's Impact How emotional trauma drives nearly everything we do Adverse childhood events linked to worse patent-reported SLE outcomes A global survey sheds new light on how bad events affect young people Childhood adversity tied to sleep problems decades later Childhood adversity linked to early puberty, premature brain development and mental illness Video: ACEs and toxic stress: Rewriting the story for the next gene How childhood trauma impacts our families, our work, our...

By P. Berman, K. Hecht & A. Hosack I have a job. I really have a job. It is not one of my dreams. It is real. I start today! Claire is starting work today. Unlike her literally “dream job,” her real job is not in the same office as Shelly. However, it is in a beautiful building that also has a small coffee shop inside so that she can eat out to lunch sometimes on special occasions. She has practiced going there on the bus twice and knows where to stand for the bus, the schedule that it...

“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in” -Desmond Tutu. This quote captures the essence of why resilience matters. To Community Resilience Initiative, Resilience is not about “lifting yourself up by your bootstraps” or “bouncing back” from serious harm or injury. To us, Resilience is about self-discovery and self-awareness based on what the ACE Study, neurobiology, and epigenetics tell us...

Intent on finding a safe place to spend the day, the elderly woman trudged into the public library, burdened with several bags of precious possessions. She was immediately greeted by the sight of a library worker thrusting out a hand and snapping, “No, you can’t bring those things in here.” “She said she felt like she was being struck,” explains Caroline Sharkey. A licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) on the faculty of the University of Georgia’s School of Social Work in Athens, Sharkey...

A few weeks ago I was at a big kickoff event for a new county-wide project to address what our communities feel are the biggest concerns we face. It definitely had its moments and I was all eyes and ears ready to absorb new info and be inspired by the power of coming together for a purpose. One of the last things that I heard that morning was to show the promise of next steps – the speaker said that basically in order to do anything meaningful – you, of course, need a building which – good...

“How has Mrs. Smith handled change in the past?” This was how we predicted how well a new resident would cope with nursing home admission in 1983, when I started my career in aging services. For the most part, this simplistic rule of thumb seemed to work, but I look back now and see that question as but an opening to a deeper conversation, one that might help any organization understand how to best adjust its own practices and environment to support an Elder new to its services or community.

By Jamie Bussel, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, June 13, 2019. This Sunday, families around the country will celebrate Father’s Day and pay tribute to the special caregivers in their lives. It’s a time when I find myself feeling especially grateful for all the positive ways my own father has influenced my life and the crucial role my husband plays in raising our daughters. I also think about the many dads I have been lucky enough to meet throughout my life. These are the special dads who...

by David Washburn, EdSource, June 11, 2019. Butte County’s Oroville City Elementary School District, which has a suspension rate that is three times the statewide average, is under state investigation for its discipline policies and practices. The investigation, by the California Bureau of Children’s Justice , is focused on the district’s record of suspending and expelling students and its alternatives to those punishments, according to a district statement . The statement also said the...

By Landon Funk, Tennessean., June 12, 2019. You can’t go to therapy without first going to yoga – that’s my belief anyway. We store all of our thoughts, emotions and traumas in our bodies, predominantly in our shoulders and hips, which is why those areas are so tight all of the time. When we practice yoga, we access those uncomfortable traumas through movement and mindfulness. And in trauma-informed yoga, we sit with that discomfort and those painful memories, taking the time to process each...

By Dan Levin, The New York Times, June 12, 2019. Inside an elementary school classroom decorated with colorful floor mats, art supplies and building blocks, a little boy named Riley talked quietly with a teacher about how he had watched his mother take “knockout pills” and had seen his father shoot up “a thousand times.” Riley, who is 9 years old, described how he had often been left alone to care for his baby brother while his parents were somewhere else getting high. Beginning when he was...

By Maya Brennan, Emily Peiffer, and Kimberly Burrowes, How Housing Matters, June 12, 2019. Zoning rules dictate more than just how we can use and build on land. They also shape our communities and our lives. Land use laws determine where we can find housing, schools, and parks—and who has access to them. Policymakers initially created zoning codes to protect public health —for example, to stop residents from getting sick from living too close to factories. But from the start, zoning has...

The Gender Phluid Collective will connect you to resources you need. 1:1 sessions, support groups, medical referrals and other services in your local area. Click HERE for the website.