Three Change in Mind partners (The Family Partnership, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, and Children & Families First in Delaware) were just recognized in an article about TFP’s Executive Functioning Across Generations. Reflection Sciences is the developer of the Minnesota Executive Function Scale, the best tool out there for measuring EF in kids. Here’s the link: ...
Trauma-Informed Measurement Made Effective and Easy Thanks to new federal funding, Head Start programs have the opportunity to develop and improve trauma-informed approaches to support children, families and staff impacted by adverse experiences. The Office of Head Start Guidance on Implementing Trauma-Informed Approach resource, included in the funding announcement , states exposure to trauma is more prevalent than commonly believed and results in lasting effects on the physical and mental...
By Roberto R. Aspholm and John M. Hagedorn, Chicago Sun*Times, April 30, 2020 Why hasn’t violence in Chicago decreased since we have all been ordered to stay at home? Why are the poorest African American neighborhoods that have been plagued by violence now the hardest hit by the coronavirus? We think these problems have common roots and common solutions. Gov. J. B. Pritzker issued a statewide shelter-in-place order five weeks ago in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Since that time,...
By Margie Mason and Robin McDowell, Associated Press News, May 2, 2020 Nicole Hingle wasn’t surprised when the call came. Frustrations had been building inside juvenile detention centers nationwide as the number of coronavirus cases continued to climb. Now, her 17-year-old son Jace, was on the phone telling her around 40 kids had rioted at his facility in Louisiana — the same state where more than a dozen youths escaped during two breakouts at another site this month. Hingle said her son...
By Adriana Gallardo, ProPublica, May 2, 2020 They’ve gotten to know New York City in a way many have not, through the low-wage work of cleaning its skyscrapers, serving its restaurants and crisscrossing its streets on bicycles, through long subway rides very early in the morning and very late at night. The saying goes: You’re not a true New Yorker unless you’ve lived here for a decade. They’ve done their time and felt a deep sense of belonging in this city of immigrants. But, in the...
By Corinne Purtill, The New York Times, April 30, 2020 “Days are now divided by coffee hours and alcohol hours,” the comedy writer Emily Murnane tweeted on March 31, nearly two weeks after states and cities around the United States began to issue stay-at-home orders. “There is no other law.” Zoom happy hours served as a break from isolation and a consolation prize for canceled plans. Alcohol sales nationwide were up 55 percent the week ending March 21 compared with the year before, according...
By Frances Stead Sellers, The Washington Post, May 5, 2020 For the Chavez family and many others in California’s fertile San Joaquin Valley, bottled water is the toilet paper of their coronavirus pandemic — an everyday necessity that vanished from supermarket shelves. In the Navajo Nation, where about a third of the population lacks indoor plumbing, volunteers are creating public hand-washing stations by repurposing detergent bottles as makeshift faucets. And Jessica Endicott, who lives in...
I can ask Ted. He won’t think I am being self-centered. He knows I am trying to be humble. Larry couldn’t keep this nightmare to himself any longer. He finally got the opportunity to talk to Ted later in the morning; he told him everything he could remember. Just telling Ted about the dream made him break into a sweat. Ted saw the look on Larry’s face and the moisture emanating from his skin. He looked at Larry speculatively; might Larry have PTSD? Ted had been living with PTSD for years,...
They seem so different from ferns. I like the feel of the fuzz on their vines. Larry has been trying to make the tomatoes grow for the past two weeks. They didn’t have the same deep green as the ferns. Their lives were not as delicate. Still, there was a different type of peace he was gaining from working with them. The monk in charge of the garden had not been able to get the tomatoes to grow. They would look flower but then get sickly looking and the flowers would fall off. Larry had...
All photos courtesy of Antioch Middle School staff Antioch Middle School seventh-grader Alyssia Garcia was accustomed to scanning the cafeteria during lunch for kids who might need her assistance. “I’d look for kids who looked sad, kids who were sitting alone, kids who looked angry,” says Garcia, a peer advocate at her school. Alyssia Garcia When she’d spot students sitting alone or looking sad, she’d approach them and ease into conversation. “If it’s a sad person, I’ll try to cheer them up...
From Human Impact Parters: A COVID-19 Public Health Response & Recovery Policy Platform Decades of underinvestment in our public infrastructure and neoliberal policies that gutted protections for working people, our healthcare, and our wider safety net are vividly exposing their consequences. People of color — most harshly Black, Latinx, and Native people — are disproportionately experiencing the consequences of these conditions. In this context, directly impacted communities are naming...
Bay Area Early Childhood Funders have released a new brief, “The Power of Play for Addressing Trauma in Early Years,” available in both English and Spanish . The brief provides families, teachers and caregivers an easy-to-read, one-page online brief about the importance of play for addressing trauma in young children and tips for helping children cope. Additional materials on the importance of play are available here .
By Eric Wicklund, mHealthIntelligence, May 4, 2020 Federal officials have awarded $20 million to four healthcare providers and two organizations to improve telehealth outreach during the COVID-19 pandemic - including efforts to expand multi-state licensure. The April 30 announcement came from the Health and Human Services Department, which issued the awards through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The money comes out of the CARES Act, which was signed into law in...
By Guest Author, 5/5/20, positiveexperience.org/blog Today’s post is based on an interview with Corey Best, a member of the HOPE National Advisory Board and the Birth Parent National Network (BPNN) | CTF Alliance , which “promotes and champions birth parents as leaders and strategic partners in prevention and child welfare systems reform.” Can you introduce yourself and your work? My name is Corey Best, and I’m a family engagement consultant and speaker by title. I stand for justice in the...
The spread of COVID-19 has created a myriad of challenges for communities around the globe. The science of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), trauma, toxic stress as well as healing and resilience, can provide helpful tools for supporting communities through this time of crisis. Please join us on Wednesday, May 13th from 3-4pm ET for the first Learning Circle of the Investing in Community Resilience web series. Connect with others from around the country who are integrating ACEs and...