February 2018

In November 1865—barely six months after Appomattox, and three weeks before the official ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment—the New York Tribune’s front page bore a provocative headline: “South Carolina Re-establishing Slavery.” The story laid out the new system being put into place in most of the former Confederacy—“Black Codes,” criminal laws targeting black citizens, coupling a long list of minor offenses with a schedule of prohibitive fines. If a black defendant could not pay the...

Hispanic women with prediabetes and overweight or obesity who were assigned to an intensive lifestyle intervention for 1 year experienced a greater reduction in body weight if their mental health remained stable or improved vs. similar women whose mental health worsened during the same time, study data show. “We found that all participants lost weight in the first 6 months, regardless of changes in their mental health measures ,” Matthew O’Brien, MD, MSc, assistant professor of medicine and...

The fresh fruit, frozen vegetables and salad Karen Seabolt eats help her “do more of what I need to do to live a better life,” she says. The 66-year-old from Tulsa, Oklahoma, has diabetes and is paralyzed on her right side from a stroke. As a diabetic, Karen needs to eat the fresh fruits and vegetables her doctors recommend, and the $15 dollars per month she gets from SNAP—the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program—help her do that. “It really comes in handy towards the end of the month.

Public health experts often talk about the “ "social determinants of health" : community traits such as housing quality, access to nutritious and fresh food, water and air quality, education quality and employment opportunities. These factors are thought to be among the most powerful influences on a person’s health. Local communities in every state across the U.S. face similar poor economic realities: 52.3 million Americans live in economically distressed ZIP codes. This means that about 17...

Council for a Strong America is a national, bipartisan nonprofit that unites five organizations comprised of law enforcement leaders, retired admirals and generals, business executives, pastors, and prominent coaches and athletes who promote solutions that ensure our next generation of Americans will be citizen-ready. Council for a Strong America has a 20-year track record of strengthening families, communities, the economy, and our national security. One if of the programs, ReadyNation is...

"Love and compassion are necessities. Without them humanity cannot survive" - Dalai Lama When we started this fellowship...but let's be honest, they quickly become like family...we were asked about our "why". "Why" do you have a passion for helping other's understand trauma? I would be lying if I knew what it was right away. "Because it's my job?" "Because it's a new experience?" Nothing felt right. I started thinking about my family and my own journey, and the last two years of slowly...

There came a moment in high school when I had all but lost hope of getting into college, and I turned to three friends: one close, one new, and an acquaintance—an eclectic triangle of support. But our relationships change as we age. These days, when stress hits, I’m more likely to pour my heart out one-on-one, to my partner or closest friend. For many of us, becoming an adult involves a narrowing and deepening of our supportive relationships, as partying with the gang gives way to coffee...

SHERIDAN – Sheridan School was this year’s host for the countywide school board meeting on Jan. 24. Trustees and administrators from all four Madison County Schools were present, as well as Madison County Superintendent of Schools Pam Birkeland, Madison County commissioners Ron Nye and Dan Allhands, Sen. Jeff Welborn (R-Dillon), and Rep. Ray Shaw (R-Sheridan). Attendees were treated to a sit-down dinner prepared by the Sheridan life skills class and received tip-top service from Sheridan’s...

When Chicago physician Audrey Stillerman first read the 1998 Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study, she felt gut-punched. “I had been taking care of patients for over twenty years. I always had a sense that people’s experiences and relationships were really important in terms of their overall health,” said Stillerman, associate director of medical affairs for the University of Illinois Office of Community Engagement and Neighborhood Health Initiative. For years, she’d felt like an...

Marlborough – One in five students today may struggle with mental illness as reported in the December 2017/January 2018 issue of Educational Leadership. Furthermore, The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMOI) estimates that 20 percent of youths aged 13-18 live with a mental health condition. On average, there are 121 suicides every day in the United States, of all ages as reported by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. According to NAMOI, 50 percent of all mental illness...

Ten-year-old Ja’Vonie Morris sat in her school principal’s office on a recent day — not for the misbehavior that got her in so much trouble back in 3rd grade, but to show off her accomplishments under a schoolwide strategy that used positive reinforcement to help her turn things around. Before Mission Elementary, a school in Antioch about 35 miles northeast of Oakland, put the rigorous system in place, Ja’Vonie explained, “I would yell. I would kick stuff. I would walk out of the classroom...

Parents do not uproot their children to make a long and dangerous journey to an uncertain future in the U.S. unless the circumstances in their home country are so threatening that the risks of migration pale in comparison to more certain risks at home. They leave their homes, other family members, schools, churches and familiar communities because they feel they must. In December 2017, the Trump Administration proposed a new policy of separating immigrant children from parents entering the...