March 2018

Speaking in New Hampshire on Monday, President Donald Trump laid out his long-awaited plan for addressing addiction and overdose deaths in the United States. Among the proposed policies: sentencing drug dealers in some cases to the death penalty. While this punitive strategy has dominated the headlines , Trump also spoke on Monday about a wide mixture of policies meant to tackle the overdose epidemic from every angle. Some of these ideas have research to support their implementation; others...

When I thought about locking up with a crew in 1996, I wanted to see a full initiation first, not parts I stumbled upon over the years. My friend Cliff and I arrived at a park not close from my home in Jamaica, Queens. Leaves danced with the wind around our feet, wafting an eerie feeling in my 14-year-old black body. The grounds of the initiation beckoned: a high-rise chain link fence, enclosing two basketball courts. Through the daylighted chain, I watched scowls and punches and stomps...

When Roger Severino tells his story, discrimination is at its heart. "I did experience discrimination as a child. And that leaves a lasting impression," he tells me. Severino directs the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. When I meet with him at his office in the shadow of the Capitol, he talks about his childhood as the son of Colombian immigrants growing up in Los Angeles. [For more on this story by ALISON KODJAK, go to...

When I saw the sign for the Emmett Till Museum, I knew I had to take the next exit. As a Ph.D. student in American history studying the civil-rights movement, it felt almost like an obligation. My only hesitation was that my 7-year-old son was in the car too. Was he ready to learn about one of the most notorious lynchings in the nation’s history? Could I bear to watch his eyes lose some of their glow? The road that led from the highway to the one-street town of Glendora, Mississippi, was...

How can we create a happier world? That question is on many people’s minds today, as we celebrate the sixth annual International Day of Happiness . This event grew out of a United Nations resolution affirming happiness as a fundamental human goal—and suggesting that we should approach economic growth in a way that promotes well-being for everyone. Social systems and institutions have a role to play in our happiness, and that’s evident in this year’s World Happiness Report . Researchers...

In today's current political and cultural climate, it's crucial that everyday Americans are engaging in important conversations about race, bias, discrimination, and privilege. For people of color, these conversations are nothing new; they are a requirement in communities where experiences of racism, bias, and bigotry are a part of everyday life. But for many white people who have never been burdened by a system built specifically to keep us down, these conversations can seem confusing,...

When I was eight years old, a parent from the YMCA reported concerns about my swim coach to law enforcement. This parent’s suspicions were correct ― I was being sexually abused by a predatory coach. My perpetrator had rendered my family dependent on him after he moved into my childhood home under the guise of helping my newly divorced mother. He found numerous ways to isolate me, taking me to travel meets alone, providing nearly all of my transportation to swim practice and babysitting when...

Thousands of children and their families across central Africa have struggled through cycles of violent conflict and economic poverty, which often create the hidden scars of severe trauma and fear. A safe and thriving central Africa is possible. Dave Lockridge, ACE Overcomers executive director, was there engaging and educating people about the science of adverse childhood experiences, and trauma-informed and resilience-building practices based on ACEs science. ACE Overcomers has provided...

We Better Be Out There Marching to End the Trauma By Andrea Blanch and Mariana Chilton We claim to be a social movement of people committed to eliminating the causes and addressing the consequences of violence and trauma. If we are serious, we need to be out there marching on Saturday. To date our movement has largely focused on ACEs – ten common forms of childhood adversity that increase risk for a host of health and social problems. Other forms of “toxic stress” such as poverty and racism...

Tonight 6pm ET on www.PeoplesInternetRadio.com with Cissy White who will start off discussing her participation and experience with ACE study, Adverse Childhood Experiences http://www.acesconnection.com/blog/introducing-myself-cissy-white-parent-with-aces-who-s-parenting-with-aces-and-who-s-this-group-s-new-group-manager-1 and the connection to our Disaster Capitalist system with endless illegitimate "wars",, THEN Debra Sweet of The World Can't Wait organization on yesterday's demo in Times...

There is a consistent pattern in the conferences sponsored by the Potts Family Foundation , such as its Raising Resilient Oklahomans! summit March 7 in Edmond. First, they update the cutting-edge scientific research on early education and on cognitive concerns, like the effects of adverse childhood experiences ( ACEs ). Then, national and local experts pioneer new ways of articulating these challenges in ways that advance a constructive search for solutions. The summit used new research and...

In the course of the next year, state health employees will be trained to better understand trauma and how it can shape the lives of Delawareans they interact with every day. The training is specifically targeted to help people who experienced a traumatic event during their childhood. Experts also refer to this as "toxic stress," in which a child frequently experiences hardship, such as divorce, witnessing violence and living with an adult with mental illness or suffering from addiction.