January 2023

By Heather Cox Richardson, Jan. 15, 2023 - Letters from an American - You hear sometimes that, now that we know the sordid details of the lives of some of our leading figures, America has no heroes left. When I was writing a book about the Wounded Knee Massacre, where heroism was pretty thin on the ground, I gave that a lot of thought. And I came to believe that heroism is neither being perfect, nor doing something spectacular. In fact, it’s just the opposite: it’s regular, flawed human...

Associated Press King blasted his era’s version of White “allies,” confessing to being, “gravely disappointed with the white moderate.” King challenged the moral equivalency of his day, which found White political and civic leaders at times castigating both the practitioners of Jim Crow segregation and the civil rights activists who protested against this unjust system. This kind of political handwringing is reflected in parts of today’s political climate, where White moderates hesitate to...

A wonderful interview about Floating has been published today. Trauma therapist Debbie Murad, California and German trauma therapist Gopal Norbert Klein are discussing current therapy approaches and how Floating comes into play. It’s really fun watching it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XEoACJV6p8M I had also already written a blog post recently about Floating, in case you need further information:...

Social and environmental factors contribute to a person’s mental health and well-being. There are many determinants but here is a closer focus on the lack of opportunities for education and traumatic childhood experiences as the main social risk factors of mental health. Education A study by Kondirolli & Sunder (2022) on the role of education as a determinant of mental health showed that, “an extra year of education led to a lower likelihood of reporting any symptoms related to...

Among the key findings: Each of the 20 largest US cities is spending at least hundreds of millions of dollars per year on the criminal legal system, with the vast majority of those resources going to the police. Many cities and counties spend in the billions, with New York City the largest at $7.7 billion in 2022. In total, these cities and their counties are spending $37.9 billion on the Mass Criminalization System in 2022. 16 out of the 20 cities invest more on the Mass Criminalization...

We are pleased to provide a career opportunity at Florida State University , located in Tallahassee, FL. FSU is recruiting a Director for the new Trauma and Resilience Collaborative (TRC) . The Director of TRC will identify, harness, and promote the university’s trailblazing multidisciplinary expertise on trauma and resilience. This is a Faculty I 12-month salaried position. The Director will be responsible for the growth of TRC programs and end users by successfully recruiting partnerships...

Join us for our inaugural Speaker Series event with the Center on Child Wellbeing and Trauma! Tuesday, January 24 th , 2023 from 12-1pm ET Register Here. Event is free and open to the public. Learn about Elaine’s Community Resiliency Model to prevent and heal trauma, supporting our mission to build safe, trusting, engaged, diverse, equitable, inclusive, and healthy communities where children and families thrive. Elaine Miller-Karas is the Co-Founder and Director of Innovation of the Trauma...

Join the Center for Community Resilience and our partners on Wednesday, February 8, as we unveil the 2023 national policy agenda to promote health and well-being across the lifespan. This comprehensive agenda focuses on the building blocks for health and well-being to promote social and economic equity for America's children, families and communities. Register at https://bit.ly/3ZyelGU Read more about the agenda here . Presented in partnership with the Institute for Women's Policy Research...

By Laura Gallant, 1/12/23, https://positiveexperience.org/category/blog/ The 3 rd Annual HOPE Summit – Practicing HOPE will take place online, March 29-30. Register now to get $50 off the regular ticket price, this special ends Sunday, January 15 th . During the two-day Summit , attendees will get to select two of the over 15 workshops offered. All workshops will also be recorded and available to watch after the summit for attendees only. These workshops range from topics like, applying HOPE...

Missteps with Trauma-Informed Schools I am a part of a team of highly committed, innovative, and creative individuals who all believe that we are the right people to create meaningful and positive change. Each of us also believes deeply that YOU are the right person for this job too. There are three environments in which almost all young people exist: 1) the family environment, 2) the community environment, and 3) the school environment. It’s time that we let go of all the narratives that...

Explosive kids often have explosive parents. This “interactional trauma” dance between kids and their parents often involves communication that contains criticism, lecturing, sarcasm, and a lack of nurturance. Over time, this drama leads to out-of-control behaviors like aggression or disrespect as well as unforgiveness and generational trauma. It often goes untreated when providers are only trained in individual therapy with the child and not the entire traumatized family. In this free...

Lemonade for Life helps share the ACEs science with families in a way that builds hope and resilience.