October 2017

Walla Walla Public Schools is teaming up with a local nonprofit to ensure every employee in the district better understands childhood trauma and how it affects students. The all-employee training slated to take place over a two-year time span is a first such effort for the district and for Teri Barila, co-founder and head of Community Resilience Initiative. The organization strives to reduce childhood trauma and help build resilience through educational, health and other community systems.

After stepping down from her position as principal at Science Hill High School in May, Melanie Riden-Bacon set out to transform what was once known as the Alternative Center into what is now Topper Academy. Riden-Bacon, now the Topper Academy director, said in July that it was time for a “culture shift.” Part of that shift involved instituting trauma care training and rewarding good behavior and academic achievement, rather than using the center as a “punitive” place for students struggling...

Carey talks with Katie Albright , director of Safe and Sound (formerly San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center). Throughout her career, Katie has been pioneering in the fields of law, education and social services, both domestically and internationally. Pioneering is a legacy in her family as her mother, Madeleine Albright was the first woman in US history to serve as secretary of state. Katie and Carey discuss the value of a big vision that is grounded in real data and strategic ...

It is safe to say that few people on the planet know more than Sebern Fisher about neurofeedback for developmental trauma. We were thrilled she joined us live last week for the Parenting with ACEs Community chat series . Fisher is the author of Neurofeedback in the Treatment of Developmental Trauma: Calming the fear-driven Brain . Fisher uses neurofeedback in clinical practice (where she specializes in attachment issues) as well as with her own brain. She trains and consults in the...

Melanie Barrier went into the Florida foster care system as a newborn. She lived in 20 foster homes before she was adopted at age 10. Stability existed in only one realm: music. As a child traveling from family to family, Barrier took along her beloved songs of the 1970s. As an adult, Barrier, 55, is using music to change the lives of foster and adopted children. Her organization, Music That Reclaims , serves kids here and across the country, taking them to concerts and musical theater...

In 2013, Trisha Prabhu read a news story that broke her heart — a 12-year-old girl had taken her life after experiencing cyberbullying. Prabhu was only 13 at the time and couldn't understand someone younger than her taking her own life. However, instead of processing her shock and moving on, she decided to do something about it. "I started thinking about what I could do to stop this from ever happening again," writes Prabhu in an email. [For more on this story, go to...

When I started graduate school, I did not realize that I was a student with mental illness. I knew that I suffered near-daily migraines and sought out disability services. What I did not understand was that my migraines were a physical manifestation of a mental illness, and that the way I felt my entire life was called "anxiety" because the experiences I had as a kid were called "trauma." Graduate school severely exacerbated my anxiety. Whether you are a student or a professor, keep in mind...

We are swimming against the tide of taboo. All we brave and battling souls deciding it is time to stop abuse from happening to the children. I’m watching so, so many hearty hearts step up to microphones, web sites, and audiences filled with curious faces, open faces, even welcoming faces. I remember a day in 1998 – I had been invited by someone in Boston to lead a workshop for survivors. I had a most simple agenda – form a circle, say our names, tell each other why we’re here, look at a...

A decade ago, researchers reported that more than half of Detroit residents live in a food desert -- an area where access to fresh and affordable healthy foods is limited because grocery stores are too far away. Efforts since then to bring more grocery stores -- and food security -- to predominantly Black neighborhoods haven't worked. But that's looking to change. Malik Yakini is executive director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network , a coalition of people and groups that...

When I was 11 years old, I went to the doctor for a check-up and my whole world stopped. In that one moment, the family I had spent six months becoming a part of decided against adoption. I was removed from my biological mother at just six months, and this was the closest I had ever been to joining a family. One week before a judge made me somebody’s daughter, my almost-parents decided that they did not want “a kid with a baby.” “You’re pregnant!” “What were you thinking?” “There are...

Education, money, and power provide access to good health. However, access to those systems is limited for people of color by the historic and systemic injustices that benefit white people. This is one manifestation of White Privilege. The data show that factors like your race, income, and ZIP Code have a bigger impact on your health than your behavior, your medical care, or your genetic code . These social determinants of health are also social determinants of economic and social class...

The idea behind public education is simple: A community pays into a system that aims to create a bright future for the next generation. Years pass, and those kids grow up. They pay into the same system, yielding the same dividends. Repeat. But things aren’t always that simple. As this week’s episode explains, the policies that shape public education can be subject to influences – ideological and financial. We begin with a profile of President Donald Trump’s Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos.