January 2020

As the Southern California community facilitator for ACEs Connection and independent consultant, Lara brings her deep understanding of the importance of schools as community drivers for change. Lara is an experienced educator and consultant who speaks nationally on implementing trauma-informed practices in schools and building holistic, trauma-responsive systems.

By Emily Underwood, Science, January 29, 2020 On 1 January, California became the first U.S. state to screen for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)—early life hardships such as abuse, neglect, and poverty, which can have devastating health consequences in later life. The project is not just a public health initiative, but a vast experiment. State officials aim to cut the health impacts of early life adversity by as much as half within a generation. But critics say the health benefits of...

By Jim Shelton, The 180 Podcast, January 29, 2020 Mention innovation in America, and what comes to mind? Silicon Valley? NASA? Tech firms? Not for Jim Shelton. He thinks: education. In fact, he wonders: Why, as we learn more about the science of learning and development, shouldn’t education – like, say, the military – have a full research and development infrastructure? That thinking has driven Shelton – in the private sector, nonprofits and government – on a singular path: Innovating our...

By NationSwell Team, NationSwell, January 29, 2020 At age 5, Claudia emigrated with her family from Chile to the United States, but the experience was hardly the American Dream. She lost her sister to a drug overdose and experienced PTSD from living with domestic violence. But instead of these experiences breaking her, they broke her open and helped her create a better life. She knew she was not the only one living with trauma in her Newark, New Jersey school. So after college, she returned...

By Megan Ruge, Education Week, January 29, 2020 In 2014, New York City launched a $52 million effort to launch 45 "community schools," part of a nationwide movement to transform schools into neighborhood hubs offering a range of social and health services to students and their families. That investment, which eventually grew to more than 200 schools, is starting to be paying off, according to an independent evaluation of the schools released this week by the RAND Corporation. The evaluation...

On Tuesday, January 27, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) allowed the Trump administration to enforce the "public charge" rule, denying certain immigrants to gain permanent resident if they're likely to need government assistance to basic needs like food, shelter, and health care. The SCOTUS 5-4 decision on the public charge rule, previously overturned by lower courts, broadens the definition of public charge to an immigrant who receives one or more public benefits for more than 12...

An onslaught of violence begs the question: What makes us safe? Should we run and hide, should we become heavily armed, should we only speak with people who look like us? It would be easy to frame recent hate crimes in Monsey , Pittsburgh , and San Diego solely as anti-Semitic. It is that and more. Hateful attacks against Jews indicate a “rot in democracy” and call for systemic reform, according to History Professor Dr. Deborah Lipstadt. I began thinking about safety over 25 years ago when a...

This is a good story about mental health. Let’s say a bunch of social workers, nurses, trauma specialists, philanthropists, non-profit professionals, writers, EMTs, and data crunchers walk into a bar. Knock knock, no joke, this actually happened in December 2019. Mental health professionals begin to schmooze over spinach mushroom rolls, cheese and hummus platters, and ginger brew. Sounds good right. There’s so many reasons to luv Philly. The event was sponsored by the Scattergood Foundation...

(retrieved from https://www.utsa.edu/today/2019/10/story/mind-matters.html) Before 12-year-old Rihanna Briseño started taking classes at Good Samaritan Community Services, she was quick to dislike people and get angry. The Rhodes Middle School sixth-grader didn’t know why, but sometimes her brain told her the right thing was to beat another kid up. “I would say those things that I’m not going to say now,” Rihanna told the...

I was doing some writing and research and found this study I thought should be shared here: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5949a1.htm#tab2

More press coverage on our veterans work in jail: https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2019/12/09/veterans-jail-workshop-anti-violence/

Some press coverage of our Incarcerated Veterans PTSD/ACEs work: thenewstribune.com/news/local/crime/article129943994.html#