October 2020

Against the backdrop of the stresses and strains of the pandemic, the racial reckoning, the fires, a diverse group of advocates presented, questioned, speculated about where trauma-informed policy at the state and federal levels is headed going into 2021.

“So I want to get this straight...in our family, when something gets tough, we just give it away?” That’s what Jill Stamm’s daughter, who was six years old at the time, asked her parents after they concluded they would have to find another home for their rambunctious puppy who was destroying furniture and eating everything in sight. Stamm was stunned. That was not a value she embraced at all...

Please join us on 10/15 along with special guest Bryan Clement, MEd from Dovetail Learning as we discuss educator well-being. Educators are being asked to learn and grow professionally and personally during this unique time. During this week's session you will explore your own self-awareness regarding your 'protective patterns' and learn practical skills for resilience to remain 'centered' while navigating telehealth support and teaching at a distance. As a trauma informed, healing centered...

Building Movement Project’s latest report, On the Frontlines: Nonprofits Led by People of Color Confront COVID-19 and Structural Racism , shines a spotlight on how 2020’s social upheavals are affecting people of color-led (POC) nonprofit organizations and their communities, programs, leadership, and financial sustainability. BMP surveyed 433 nonprofit leaders of color and conducted 41 in-depth interviews over the past few months to understand the impact of leading during times of crisis and...

By Yula Rocha, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall 2020 Migrants and asylum seekers arriving in the United States today face a long and treacherous process. They must navigate not only the current administration’s policies but also the barrier of language. “We talk about Trump’s wall, but honestly there are already word walls and paper walls in place, so the idea of a wall is redundant,” says Ariel Koren, the founder of Respond Crisis Translation . Respond was created in October 2019 by...

I received this text message in the early morning hours during one of my many sleepless nights grappling with how to safely reopen school. Nelba, the mom who asked this question, is from Sandy Hook. The story behind the message is that she is a parent who has already had an unthinkable loss at school. Nelba reached out to me asking how she can make a safe decision to send her surviving son to school in the midst of a pandemic. We don’t have answers for communities like Nelba’s that were...

The Attachment & Trauma Network (ATN) is excited to announce the line-up for its upcoming 2021 Creating Trauma Sensitive Schools Conference, to be held virtually February 15 thru 18, 2021. On Monday, February 15, Dr. Tina Payne Bryson kicks off the conference with her presentation: Teaching During A Pandemic . On Tuesday, Dr. Ingrid Cockhren will speak about The State of the Black Child , an important and timely presentation that will look at racial trauma and the impact on child...

In the past few posts, we have examined the different types of shame and the malignant effects it can have on our brains. In this piece, we are going to explore the different ways that we can overcome shame to become who we were always meant to be before shame drove us into our self-imposed cages. Shame is Only Toxic When It Runs Your Life As we discussed in a previous post, shame is a fundamental emotion that is necessary for us to understand our relationships with others. Without shame, we...

By Nicole Fisher, Forbes, October 7, 2020 Poverty, neglect, housing instability, violence, food insecurity and separation from parents all affect childhood development – and thus, lifelong health. Although children are born ready to learn and grow, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are traumatic events that occur in youth resulting in toxic stress. And that toxic stress from ACEs can literally change how the brain develops and affect how the body responds to stress as one ages.

By Judith Graham, Kaiser Health News, October 7, 2020 Older adults are especially vulnerable physically during the coronavirus pandemic. But they’re also notably resilient psychologically, calling upon a lifetime of experience and perspective to help them through difficult times. New research calls attention to this little-remarked-upon resilience as well as significant challenges for older adults as the pandemic stretches on. It shows that many seniors have changed behaviors — reaching out...

By Kelly Bauer, Block Club Chicago, October 6, 2020 The city is giving $8 million in grants to 32 community-based organizations to expand mental health care in parts of Chicago where it’s needed most. Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Dr. Allison Arwady, head of the Chicago Department of Public Health, announced the annual grants during a Tuesday news conference, saying the 32 centers getting the funding will work with city clinics to expand care to uninsured people and create more trauma-informed...

By Isaac Bailey, Center for Health Journalism, October 5, 2020 I’m only now coming to grips with what it has meant to my soul – and my body – to have been born Black in the Deep South in the shadow of Jim Crow and raise my kids during the era of Donald Trump. I’m one of the fortunate ones because I’ve survived to tell my own story and lived long enough to see science begin to answer questions that have long lingered in my brain. In this excerpt from “Why We Didn’t Riot: A Black Man in...