If you have been following and enjoying Claire's story, you may be interested in this video our team made to promote the blog. Thank you so much to everyone who has been reading and commenting as we continue sharing Claire's Story. Your support means the world to us!
By K. Hecht P. Berman, A. Hosack I am so lonely. My only friend is in prison. The Carsons don’t even know I am writing him; they wouldn’t like it but….. I don’t know why I am writing him. He has hit me so many times. The Carsons say I am not a punching bag. But...I am so lonely! Claire realizes her bus stop is about to come up. She wipes the tears off her face and slowly gets off the bus. Looking around what is now “her neighborhood” she looks at the beautiful trees and well-cared for...
The vast majority of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants who could be affected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) proposed rule to tighten SNAP work waivers are in deep poverty and live alone, according to a new analysis conducted by Mathematica. The analysis, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, examines a proposed rule from USDA, issued last month, which would make it harder for states to receive federal time-limit waivers for SNAP...
On Monday, at an unexpectedly-packed meeting held at the City of Carson Community Center, the members of LA County’s Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council (JJCC) voted to pass a budget plan that many youth advocates are calling “historic.” The plan lays out how LA County will spend the approximately $28 to $31 million in Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act funds that Los Angeles receives each year from the State of California. Yet, the priorities embraced by this budget plan are...
When the Supreme Court struck down school segregation 65 years ago in Brown v. Board of Education, it overturned the doctrine that separate institutions for black and white people were constitutional so long as they were equally funded. Yet in the White House and in the halls of Congress, the old approach has shown enormous staying power. For decades, federal lawmakers have poured far more money into racially and economically segregated schools than they have invested in trying to integrate...
Derek Clark was recently a keynote speaker at the 34th Annual San Diego International Conference on Child and Family Maltreatment. His story features a traumatic past of child abuse and neglect, to a story about resilience, renewed relationships, and hope. Clark now travels the world to inspire educators and professionals to continue to foster positive and consistent relationships with children and teens who may seem "difficult" or "troubled". He emphasizes the importance of one single...
Our community was fortunate to have Dr. Dayna Long, the Medical Director for the Department of Community Health and Engagement at USCF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, as the Keynote Speaker for Early Childhood Brain Science: Nurturing Strong Mental Health on Monday, April 8th. Dr. Long guided a packed room of attendees through the current science and best practices for addressing adverse childhood experiences and reducing toxic stress to improve the health of all children. The work...
RESILIENCY TEAM TRAINING Cape May & Atlantic County School Districts- Southern NJ Applied Educational Neuroscience, the Brain and Adversity- “Stressed Brains Do Not Learn” Purpose: To provide training for school level teams on the latest research and strategies concerning Educational Neuroscience, the Brain, Stress and Adversity. To create school level “turnkey” teams focusing on the skills and organizational components necessary to create trauma sensitive AND trauma responsive...
I wanted to tell you about our SUMMER ACADEMY - TRAIN THE TRAINER - your opportunity to become a facilitator for Echo's Trauma & Resilience training. In June, we will be holding a 3-day intensive to train future Echo trainers and others who want to become facilitators in our 6-hour Trauma & Resilience training. Covering the basics, such as the Adverse Childhood Experience Study, the triune brain, the impact of trauma on the nervous system, trauma responses and trauma-informed care,...
A book for children who score 5 or more on the ACEs questionnaire .
Recent changes in immigration policy are presenting new and intense challenges to infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their families, and the teachers and programs that work with them. Families and programs are experiencing increased trauma due to the immigration climate. With funding from the Irving Harris Foundation, the BUILD Initiative has organized a series of webinars and blogs in partnership with the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) for providers, state policy leaders, and...
High school is stressful. Spending hours a day sitting hunched over small desks writing papers and taking notes only to go home and spend even longer working can take its toll on anyone. Not only is your body cramped, but you start to lose focus because you’re stressing over deadlines or upcoming tests. Well, Kofi Charu Nat Turner, a professor at UMass Amherst has a practice for you. It’s called “ Dynamic Mindfulness ” and he has been bringing it to the inner city New Jersey schools for...
When sordid revelations surfaced in recent years of how the sale of hundreds of enslaved laborers in 1838 saved Georgetown University from the cliff of financial ruin, the college quickly cobbled together a multipronged response. It held a ceremony to deliver an official apology. It summoned a working group to study how to make penance for the wrongdoing. It began giving descendants of the 272 enslaved people a bump in admissions. The Georgetown working group wrote that “we are convinced...
Evictions are destabilizing events that increase families’ financial stress and strip away the psychological and physical security of having a home. These effects are particularly traumatizing for children, who often suffer emotionally and academically. While these negative consequences are well researched , little evidence exists to estimate the number of children who are evicted during childhood. To help fill this knowledge gap, this study calculates the proportion of children born in...
Greg Grey Cloud stands in the middle of the arena, thumbs in his hip pockets, beside a black-and-white Paint who wanders and roots aimlessly in the dry sand. The space is slightly smaller than a high-school basketball court, walled in particle board with an arched roof of white plastic that seals in the warmth from the overworked radiant heaters on this chilly northern prairie morning. Mud from the pens outside clings to Grey Cloud's boots and to the bottoms of his jeans. He closes his eyes...