February 2017

One’s kicking himself over an unrequited lifelong crush. One dreams of being a Navy SEAL. Another leads you on a mocking tour of his new home. They’d seem like typical teenage boys — if they weren’t awaiting trial for violent crimes. Juan Gamez, Antonio Hernandez and Jarad Nava are the youthful offenders at the heart of “ They Call Us Monsters ,” a new documentary that follows their lives in a Los Angeles juvenile detention center. They’re held in a special wing of the lockup reserved for...

Last year, a study doubled previous estimates of the transgender population in the United States, putting the figure at 1.4 million, or about 0.6% of the population. A recent Gallup poll shows the percentage of LGBTQ+ adults in the U.S. increased from 3.5% in 2012 to 4.1% in 2016. In 2015, Fusion’s Massive Millennial Poll found half of 1,000 people ages 18-34 saw gender as a nonbinary spectrum. These increased numbers likely result from a general increase in acceptance of LGBTQ+ identities,...

Before Hurricane Katrina I knew a perpetually sad-faced third-grader at Lawrence D. Crocker Elementary School. There was no apparent neglect. His clothes were always clean. He was always perfectly groomed. And even if you gave him a book many years above his grade level, he could handle every word flawlessly. Some may have considered him the ideal student. But he never, ever smiled. His teacher wondered if the school's social worker might investigate why a child so young never expressed...

To help disadvantaged teens and young adults land jobs, an Anchorage mental health provider is staking out ground in the high-tech farming fields of hydroponics and vertical gardening. Inside a warehouse off Arctic Boulevard last month, violet light bathed rows of tall white columns. Leafy greens poked out in vertical rows, marked with handwritten labels for romaine lettuce and parsley. Michael Sobocinski, the chief operating officer of Anchorage Community Mental Health Services, gestured to...

If you are looking for a simple and colorful way to track your mental health, Keira Bailey has a suggestion. On January 8, the 16-year-old began tracking her days using a handmade chart that categorizes the daily state of her mental health by color. Her brother saw Bailey’s tracker and shared it on Twitter, where it took off with more than 7,ooo retweets and 14,000 favorites. The tracker, based off of a Pinterest “ Year in Pixels ” template, features eight different categories: “amazing,...

Carmela Torres was 18 when she became pregnant for the first time. It was 1987 and she and her now-husband, Pablo Hernandez, were two idealistic young Colombians born in the coastal region of Montería who moved to the capital, Bogotá, in search of freedom and a better life. When Torres told her father she was expecting, so angered was he by the thought of his daughter having a child out of wedlock that they didn’t speak to each other for years. Torres remained undaunted. Her pregnancy was...

Army Reserve Maj. Jas Boothe had orders to Iraq — as well as a young son — when she lost everything she owned to Hurricane Katrina. A few months later, she found herself battling cancer, and cancer treatments meant no deployment, which meant no job, which meant no income. When she was discharged after treatment at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, it was to what she describes as an unsympathetic VA system — and also to her aunt’s couch. Boothe was suddenly part of a hidden and often...

On the role of healing in liberation work; and how liberation work, heals.

Christianna Capra, as the co-founder of Spring Reins of Life , a New Jersey nonprofit focused on equine-assisted psychotherapy, she has helped more than 700 combat veterans, nearly 1,000 high-risk youth, and 100 kids grieving or dealing with trauma. Through one of her veterinarians, Capra learned about the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EAGALA) . Founded in 1999, EAGALA is an international nonprofit association for professionals interested in using horses to address mental...

“Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.”- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “beloved community is formed not by the eradication of difference but by its affirmation, by each of us claiming the identities and cultural legacies that shape who we are and how we live in the world.” –bell hooks One of the most notable descriptors of trauma-informed care is shifting the question of what is wrong...

Educating the media is always an important part of maturing the conversation on important issues impacting the community. I thought I'd share in case any one was interested in this webinar designed to inform media about trauma and how the community can help individuals heal. I remember the way communities reference trauma, and the words used, was an engaging topic a few weeks ago. YOU'RE INVITED! Thursday, February 9, 2017 2PM-3PM ET / 11AM-NOON PT Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services...

Good parenting isn’t easy! As you can imagine, it was really hard for me in the beginning. To be honest, I was terrified. I had no idea what good parenting looked like. I just knew I wanted my kids to have a healthier, happier, safer childhood than mine. But I didn’t know how to make that happen. So I did the best I could. I wasn’t abusive to them, but I struggled in the emotional areas. I didn’t know how important it was to be present for them. Giving a child your total and complete...