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Four years ago, Dorothy Gorder was living under the I-5 bridge in downtown Seattle. Addicted to meth and heroin, she lived in makeshift shelters fashioned out of cardboard boxes and pallets, draping clothing to block out the wind. Her car had been stolen. Gorder left behind a son in Montana, who was living with his grandmother. A daughter to whom she'd given birth while homeless was taken away and adopted by a foster family. Then she got pregnant again, with another son, and resolved to turn...

The persistence of high maternal and infant mortality rates among Black women is now being addressed in a very different way in New Jersey, says Ronsha Dickerson, the doula leader for the Southern New Jersey Perinatal Cooperative’s Healthy Women, Healthy Families program. The program trains Black women to act as resources for other pregnant Black women before, during, and after birth. They are not medical professionals, but they help women get what they need in terms of information,...

After her visit at an adolescent medical clinic in Los Angeles in January, 19-year-old Serena was afraid to go home. Six days before, her boyfriend had beaten her so badly that she had to go to the emergency room. Serena’s name has been changed to protect her safety. “She was so sad and so scared,” said Monica Sifuentes, my colleague and an adolescent medicine pediatrician at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, who treated Serena. With visible sadness, she told me Serena’s story. Serena, who is...

Promise is a 'decarceration' startup that was created by Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins and Diana Frappier to tackle the issue of mass incarceration, and which raised over $3 million from partners as diverse as Jay Z's Roc Nation, First Round Capital and Kapor Capital. There are close to 2.3 million people incarcerated in America overall and approximately 4.5 million on probation or parole. 12 million people cycle through local jails every year, more than 70% of whom are incarcerated pretrial -...

On Wednesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a moratorium on the death penalty, saying he would grant clemency to all 737 people on death row in San Quentin. The closing of the nation’s largest death row (you can see photos of the death chamber at San Quentin being dismantled already) brings us much closer to the end of the death penalty in America. In the past, governors who declared a moratorium on the death penalty may have taken a political risk, but Newsom’s decision very much...

The Children's Bureau has created activity calendars that parents, programs, and community partners can use to participate in National Child Abuse Prevention Month in April. Discover ways to plan and engage with families through events related to the protective factors into Child Abuse Prevention Month activities. Calendars are available in English and Spanish. https://www.childwelfare.gov/t opics/preventing/preventionmon th/spread-the-word/activity-calendars/ Other resources for National...

The 2019 Prevention Resource Guide is designed to help individuals and organizations in every community strengthen families and prevent child abuse and neglect. This year's theme, "Strong and Thriving Families," aligns with the 21st National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect. The Resource Guide focuses on protective factors that build on family strengths to foster healthy child and youth development. It can be used along with the Protective Factors in Practice scenarios and the activity...

By P. Berman, K. Hecht, & A. Hosack Larry didn’t go to the police station after work. After all, he didn’t really have any unpaid parking tickets. He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t have anyone to talk to about it. His father would just laugh and call him a loser. Claire was his one and only friend ever since they had been kids. Now, she seemed to be turning on him. I can’t believe that bitch is pressing charges against me! This whole mess is her stupid kid’s fault! Larry did the only...

The accident that wreaked havoc on our world over ten years ago happened in a matter of seconds. Our eight-year-old child went from your typical rowdy, adventurous, free spirited kid to one on life support followed by months of painful medical procedures and surgeries that aroused exhaustion, fear and disconnection from the group of friends that were unsure how to be around their newly fragile friend Nonetheless, we weathered through. With a combination of wonderful doctors, skilled...

JACKSON, Miss. — “I come from the smallest town in Mississippi, in the buckle of the Bible Belt,” said Gerald Gibson, outreach manager at Open Arms Healthcare Center , the only clinic created to serve gay black men in this state. “Growing up, I didn’t know anybody like me,” he added. “I come from a culture that says you’re going to hell for being homosexual and AIDS is God’s wrath.” President Trump’s plan to end America’s epidemic of H.I.V. , the virus that causes AIDS, within 10 years is...

When an apartment building sells in gentrifying parts of Oakland, California, tenants often brace themselves for the worst. Rent hikes, disruptive renovations and evictions can follow. But when one building recently changed hands, city officials and housing activists celebrated. Kensington Gardens, a 41-unit building in the working-class, immigrant neighborhood of San Antonio, was sold last November. “I was feeling somebody was going to get it and they were going to raise the rent,” said...

AUSTIN, Texas — After a gunman shot and killed 10 people at Santa Fe High School last year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vowed to make the state’s public schools safe for students and teachers. “We need to do more than just pray for the victims and their families,” he said at a news conference following the May 18 shooting. “It’s time in Texas that we take action to step up and make sure this tragedy is never repeated ever again in the history of the state of Texas.” In August, Abbott issued a...