May 2018

Policy doesn’t have to be written with a capital letter. When networks participating in Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities (MARC) aimed to move the needle on policy—a course of action codified by an agency, business or governmental body—they focused on both “big P” state and federal legislative changes and “small p” movements in local schools, neighborhood organizations and police departments. In a MARC webinar last fall, leaders from the Illinois and Albany networks described their...

When you hug another human being you connect with her deeply, your focus is on yourself and the other person. You need to be totally present to do it effectively.  When you mindfully hug another person you are conveying to him/her that you are there totally. 

Photo by vgabusi/Getty Images WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF ‘RESISTANCE GENEALOGY,’ WHERE EVERYTHING IS RELATIVE. If all Americans were to trace their family history back just a few generations, the overwhelming majority would discover that they’re the products of immigration. And that would be a good thing, says the journalist and amateur genealogist Jennifer Mendelsohn. “Every American story, except for the slaves brought here forcibly and Native Americans, goes back to a boat,” Mendelsohn tells...

In April, President Trump signed an executive order requiring many Americans who get public benefits to join the workforce if they want to continue receiving assistance. The order, Reducing Poverty in America by Promoting Opportunity and Economic Mobility, was immediately decried by advocates for low-income people as an ineffective effort to reduce government aid. The most-cited reason has been that most people getting social safety net supports such as Medicaid, SNAP (formerly known as food...

HUMACAO, P.R. — A social worker, Lisel Vargas, recently visited Don Gregorio at his storm-damaged home in the steep hillsides of Humacao, a city on Puerto Rico’s eastern coast near where Category 4 Hurricane Maria first made landfall last September. Gregorio, a 62-year-old former carpenter who lives alone, looked haggard. He said he had stopped taking his medication for depression more than a week earlier and hadn’t slept in four days. He was feeling anxious and nervous, he said, rubbing his...

CARRBORO, N.C. — The halls at UNC Horizons day care are quiet at 5 p.m. Amanda Williammee pauses at the toddler classroom window to watch 2-year-old daughter Taycee. “I like to peek in on her and see what she’s doing before she sees me,” Williammee nearly whispers. “I love watching her, it’s too funny.” [For more on this story by Sarah Jane Tribble, go to https://khn.org/news/for-the-babies-of-the-opioid-crisis-the-best-care-may-be-moms-recovery/ ]

It has long been claimed by Yogis and Buddhists that meditation and ancient breath-focused practices, such as pranayama, strengthen our ability to focus on tasks. A new study by researchers at Trinity College Dublin explains for the first time the neurophysiological link between breathing and attention. Breath-focused meditation and yogic breathing practices have numerous known cognitive benefits, including increased ability to focus, decreased mind wandering, improved arousal levels, more...

Since 2007, health-care prices in the United States have increased by 21.6 percent —more than the general rate of inflation in the economy (17.3 percent). While few dispute that these increases are a problem, the debate over the cause and solution to rising costs rages on. Democrats have doubled down on expanding public insurance; Republicans sought to roll back the Affordable Care Act 's Medicaid expansion and generally envision a smaller role for public insurance programs like Medicaid and...

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen defended the administration's "zero tolerance" policy that calls for separating families who cross the border illegally, saying the undocumented immigrants shouldn't get special treatment. "That's no different than what we do every day in every part of the United States — when an adult of a family commits a crime," she told NPR. "If you as a parent break into a house, you will be incarcerated by police and thereby separated from your family."...

It's no secret that adolescents—and adults who have never emotionally matured beyond an adolescent stage—feel a strong need to conform. In most cases, this isn't particularly problematic. But what happens when one of their peers decides to act with pointless cruelty? Do others follow? Disturbing new research from Eastern Europe suggest they often do—and this tendency is greatly amplified when the victim is a member of a maligned minority group. "Our results suggest that fragile social norms...

Just listened to ACEs Connection & 4CAKids Webinar on state legislation addressing legislation. With Governor Hogan's signing of HB 1582 (a State Health Director for Children within Child Welfare) on May 8, 2018, Maryland became the eighth state to pass ACE-Informed legislation in 2018 according to the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL)! Many thanks to the lead sponsor of the bill Delegate CT Wilson, the Chairs and Members of the Appropriations and Finance Committee, Members...

For the first time in more than two decades, suicide is killing more teenagers than homicide. Teen suicide is on the rise. Time Magazine reports that anxiety and depression is skyrocketing with an estimated 30% of girls and 20% of boys (about 6.3 million teens) have reported anxiety disorders and three million teens ages 12 to 17 having had at least one major depressive episode. The question we need to be asking is not just “Why?” but “what is the answer to changing the tide that is...