March 2016

Individualism is a double-edged sword . We in the West deeply appreciate the opportunity to forge our own paths, but this freedom can result in smaller social support networks and poorer emotional health . If only there was a way to periodically step out of our egocentric lives and join forces with a group of like-minded others, ideally to produce something beautiful. Well, as it turns out, there is: choral singing. Newly published research finds evidence that "the well-being benefits...

Editor’s Note: The Daily Iowegian will be running a weekly series each Friday throughout 2016 to highlight the contributions of non-profit groups in Appanoose County. This is part 10 of a 52-part series. The Appanoose County NEST program has been under the guidance of coordinator Meho Clark for about three years and has been growing steadily. The parent education and support group began about five years ago at SEIDA, but has since moved under the control of Clark at the ISU Extension Office...

Nancy Hanks was standing in an elevator, her eyes fixed on her cellphone, when the doors opened onto a familiar face. It was one of her former students, a boy she had expelled from the school she led in one of Chicago’s toughest neighborhoods. She was flooded with fear. What had become of the student’s life? Had her decision helped set him on a path toward failure? She also was flooded with regret. Why had she kicked him out of school? She could have chosen a different path, and a more...

LONG BEFORE the sunrise, Tim Jones started the work of fathering. He cleared the futon of blankets and pillows, trying not to stir the 4-year-old and 9-year-old asleep on his twin bed and trundle in the living room. Jones, a 30-year-old divorced father of two, boiled water to make hot oatmeal, a nutritious and affordable breakfast that at least his baby boy, Tariq, liked. He studied the landscape of the day. Will it rain? What will the boys wear? Did they finish their homework? He realized...

Officer Carlos Conceicao's knocks elicited barks from inside the two-story house. "Who's that dog making all that noise?" he asked as a woman let him inside from the 19 degree cold. Rodney Webb, a clinician from Yale University, followed with a notebook under his arm. Though they come from separate worlds — law enforcement vs. clinical studies — Conceicao and Webb are every bit partners. They interrupted the woman's dinner prep as her young daughter did homework. The woman's husband wasn't...

On the second-to-last day of 2013, when the glow of Christmas had passed and there was nothing to do but settle in for months of unbroken winter, a stranger arrived in Saranac Lake, a 5,400-person mountain town 70 miles shy of the Canadian border. Set amid the patchwork of forest preserves and villages that make up the largest publicly protected area in the Lower 48, Saranac Lake is the self-appointed "Capital of the Adirondacks," a onetime best small town of New York, and the place where...

At a March 8 breakfast meeting in Washington, D.C., the featured speakers—U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota (left) and Judith Sandalow, Executive Director of the DC Children’s Law Center (CLC)—used the vivid image of children growing up with “black mold climbing the walls,” referring to unsafe physical and emotional environments at home and in communities, exacerbated by poverty but not limited to poor households. Heitkamp described how the science now explains what we already...

Like any expecting couple, Brett Pipitone and his wife, Laura, knew that having a child would upend their daily routine. But no research or planning prepared them for their biggest challenge: postpartum depression. “It was an incredibly stressful situation,” Brett said. After giving birth to their daughter in 2014, Laura found herself “wanting to disappear” and completely disengaged from her surroundings. She’d call Brett at work in tears, and he’d rush home to help. He wound up taking much...

In a community center decked with streamers and balloons, Georgia state Rep. Erica Thomas urged a small crowd of teenagers to the center of the room for a rap contest last Friday. “Somebody might get discovered tonight! I may have a record deal for you!” she joked, opening her arms wide in welcome amid the clamor of a communal birthday party for teenagers and young adults who are dealing with homelessness, abuse and neglect, or other troubles. They inched their way to Thomas, then grew more...

When considering early trauma - We MUST find ways to track what happens to people conception to age 4, at a bare minimum, to get the ACE model right. We cannot continue to use archaic thinking such as “What you can’t remember doesn’t matter.”

In an effort to ignite conversation and create awareness about traumatized youth, Illinois State University’s College of Education and Illinois Education Association Affiliates will host a film screening of Paper Tigers, from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, March 30, in Braden Auditorium of the Bone Student Center. The event is free and open to the public, and the film will be followed by an expert panel discussion. Online registration is preferred, but not required. Participants need to register by...

This column was adapted from oral remarks given by the author, Wendy Smith, an associate dean at the University of Southern California’s School of Social Work, during a Congressional roundtable sponsored by the National Foster Youth Institute and the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth in February. Advocates, professionals, legislators, families, caregivers and all those who interact with the child welfare system grapple with the question of when and how resources should be invested at...