April 2018

“Sue the bastards.” That was the slogan adopted by the National Neighbors advocacy campaign for fair housing in 1970, two years after Congress passed the Fair Housing Act. At long last, black home buyers and renters were able to seek and find justice in the courts, in part because it was possible to demonstrate racially discriminatory practices among landlords and real-estate companies. President Donald Trump made his public debut in 1973 as just such a landlord, sued by the Department of...

ABSTRACT | Children’s development of cognitive, affective, and behavioral capacities is best promoted when the contexts that surround them are strong and healthy. Children are embedded in families, who are, in turn, embedded in communities. Policies or programs that strengthen families and communities by addressing the social determinants of health also promote children’s healthy development, and ultimately national prosperity. We provide examples of housing, education, and income policies...

The Issue In the first three years of life, children achieve remarkable advances in social and emotional development (SED) that establish a foundation for later competencies. Yet even in the first three years, these achievements can be threatened by exposure to elevated stresses of many kinds. Family poverty, marital conflict, parental emotional problems, experiences of trauma, neglect, or abuse and other adversities cause some infants and toddlers to experience anxious fearfulness,...

On Monday nights , a small group of parents gathers on the campus of the University of California-Davis. Each would give anything not to be there. What binds this group together is among every mother and father’s deepest fears. They are the parents and caregivers of sex-trafficked kids and teens. They’ve come together to try to make sense of what’s going on in their family, and what they need to do to set things right and keep their kids safe in the face of new, confusing behaviors and...

Newly elected Philadelphia DA, Larry Krasner, is on a mission to tear down the City's "bigoted and patently unfair systems of mass incarceration," writes Shaun King in his article for TheIntercept.com, titled: " Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner Promised a Criminal Justice Revolution. He's Exceeding Expectations ." Quoting some of the highlights of King's article: So far, having been in office less than three months, he has exceeded expectations. In his first week on the job, he fired 31...

For many poor families in America, eviction is a real and ongoing threat. Sociologist Matthew Desmond estimates that approximately 2.3 million evictions were filed in the U.S. in 2016 — a rate of four every minute. "Eviction isn't just a condition of poverty; it's a cause of poverty," Desmond says. "Eviction is a direct cause of homelessness, but it also is a cause of residential instability, school instability [and] community instability." STAVING OFF EVICTION Living From Rent To Rent:...

This is Part Two of my Female Adversity: The Female Body and Brain on Toxic Stress series. (CRUCIAL NOTE HERE BEFORE YOU READ: Boys’ immune systems become dysregulated in response to #toxicstress too, and that leads to disease and changes to the brain that we also need to talk about more openly AND compassionately. Today I’m focusing on girls’ unique immune response to #toxicstress.) So, exactly what happens in a girl’s body, in response to #toxicstress, that leads girls to be more likely to...

This blog is about WHY Adverse Childhood Experiences are a #METOO ISSUE. I want to talk about how and why toxic childhood stress – also as #ACEs — is a #metoo issue of the greatest magnitude. For girls and for the adult women they become. One thing readers know about the work I do and the books I write, including Childhood Disrupted , The Autoimmune Epidemic , and The Last Best Cure , is that I focus on the intersection of neuroscience, immunology and emotion – while shining a spotlight on...

One thing readers know about the work I do and the books I write, including Childhood Disrupted , The Autoimmune Epidemic , and The Last Best Cure , is that I focus on the intersection of neuroscience, immunology and emotion – while shining a spotlight on WOMEN’s experiences. Connecting these dots is always an underlying theme in my work. Women, girls, toxic stress, the female brain and immune system, autoimmune disease and chronic physical and mental illness — if you care about any of...

Help us prevent child abuse by ending spanking and promoting positive parenting! This FREE and LIVE annual event begins April 16th culminating on April 30, International SpankOut Day, which began in 1998 to bring worldwide attention to the need to end physical punishment of children. The NoSpankChallenge supports parents and educators like you wherever you are on your journey toward creating a more peaceful and equitable world for children. FREE ONLINE Event April 16-30 LOCAL PORTLAND Event...

The Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) plans to award up to 75 grants to rural communities as part of a new Rural Communities Opioid Response (Planning) (RCORP) initiative in FY 18. Successful awardees will receive up to $200,000 for one-year to develop plans to implement opioid use disorder prevention, treatment, and recovery interventions designed to reduce opioid overdoses among rural populations. The initiative will focus...

Highlights of Nada Yorke’s presentation on ACES and Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Nada Yorke, LCSW and trainer from Yorke Consulting, asked participants to think about the terminology they use to describe their clients. How we refer to our clients can frequently impact the way we approach our work. Next, we looked at the impact of ACES on both the perpetrators of IPV, and those that have survived IPV. Attendees were asked to estimate the impact of ACES on the people they serve. Overall,...