Blog

Among the challenges low-income families face, access to healthcare is just as much a concern as receiving a quality education. We are working to improve healthcare access for our at-risk students through a new partnership that co-locates a clinic at a learning center. “We do everything we can to make wraparound services available so our students can concentrate on earning their diploma,” explained Shellie Hanes, area superintendent. “Most of our teens do not have access to healthcare, so...

When John’s mother was told by a respected university neurology specialist that her son was severely mentally retarded, she didn’t believe it for a minute. She knew her son was smart. A severe illness when he was a toddler left him silent, but she knew her son was not retarded. This determined mother sought a second opinion and found a doctor who was convinced that he was autistic and began the treatment he needed. John was not eager to try Learn4Life. He wanted to be in a traditional school...

Rudy’s early childhood was ordinary and happy; he enjoyed school, played sports, and had lots of friends. He always had a huge appetite for learning and was nicknamed “Speedy” by his fourth-grade teacher for his desire to finish his schoolwork before his classmates. Early on, Rudy’s home environment was solid and enjoyable. He was raised by two working class parents who taught him the importance of discipline, education, and respect. However, his father was an alcoholic and a drug addict who...

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are known for helping students of color and opportunity youth access an affordable and quality higher education. Realizing that high SAT scores and GPAs aren’t necessarily indicators of student success in college, HBCUs instead focus on developing learners through personalized learning and support. Learn4Life and FLEX High serve at-risk students and share this approach to recover dropouts, and promote college access, readiness and...

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to create anxiety and uneasiness and impact people’s mental health and overall well-being, a Clinton Foundation partner shares her expertise and resilience-building strategies to use during uncertain or challenging times. This blog post was written by Dana Brown, Organizational Liaison, ACEs Connection. Dana is an ACEs Science Statewide Facilitator, and through the organization, Learn4Life, she works within the Trauma-Informed Work Group and Steering...

The coronavirus pandemic has taken a serious toll on the mental health struggles of Americans, particularly young adults. According to a recent survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, out of more than 5,000 respondents who were contacted in late June, 25.5 percent of adults between the ages of 18-24 reported having “seriously considered suicide” due to the pandemic. By comparison, 10.7 percent of all respondents reported having suicidal ideations. “Mental health...

Now we were in a pandemic, and I’m a science journalist who has written about infectious disease and medical research for nearly a decade. I was on fire, cranking out stories , explaining epidemiological concepts in my social networks, trying to help everyone around me make sense of the frightening circumstances of a pandemic and the anxiety surrounding the virus . I knew it wouldn’t last. It never does. But even knowing I would eventually crash, I didn’t appreciate how hard the crash would...

kNOw MORE! , Point Loma Nazarene University's one-of-a-kind creative human trafficking awareness and prevention program for youth and families, is now available for distance learning! In this moment of pandemic, young people are spending significantly more time online, increasing their vulnerabilities to trafficking. Human trafficking education is more important now than ever. kNOw MORE! utilizes the same student-centered multimedia teaching style with dramas that have shifted to film, live...

When Christina Bethell was little, she lived in a low-income housing complex in Los Angeles where her neighbor, a quiet lady the kids called Mrs. Raccoon, always had her door open for the neighborhood kids. Every Saturday she threw a little tea party with candy to celebrate any child with a birthday that week. Bethell fondly remembers the woman’s kindness as source of comfort during her challenging childhood. Dr. Bethell, now a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public...

Karen Clemmer, the Northwest community facilitator with ACEs Connection, was already deeply interested in the CDC/Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study when she and a colleague from the Child Parent Institute were invited to lunch by ACEs Connection founder and publisher Jane Stevens in 2012. But that lunch meeting changed everything. Karen Clemmer “Jane helped us see a bigger world,” says Clemmer. “She came with a much wider lens. She didn’t look only at Sonoma County, she...

By Brett Simpson, San Francisco Chronicle, June 18, 2020 On Wednesday afternoon, over 300 California educators, parents, and students tuned into Facebook Live to hear high school students speak honestly about their own experiences of racism, implicit bias, and trauma at school. The “ Student Support Circle: Institutional Racism and Implicit Bias ,” was co-hosted by the California Department of Education and the National Equity Project, and is the first among several initiatives state...

Learn4Life quickly realized that in order to reach students’ heads, we needed to reach their hearts. So, we designed the Trauma-Resilient Educational Communities (TREC ) Model which is based on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) science and protocols. TREC is an active approach to understanding trauma. We do more than explain the effects of trauma and encourage understanding amongst our teachers, counselors and staff. All our employees are trained and receive credentials in the foundations...