June 2020

By Vanessa Sacks and Rebecca M. Jones, Child Trends, June 17, 2020 With the abrupt closure of schools around the country as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many community-based organizations that provide critical supports to students in the school building have had to stop offering services. Others have quickly transitioned to a new way of serving students and have learned some early and important lessons along the way. Child Trends has been working with youthCONNECT at Suitland High...

From The New York Times, June 18, 2020 WEDNESDAY JUNE 24 With race, equality and empowerment dominating the national conversation, helping kids navigate today’s complex world can be a formidable challenge. How can parents teach why diversity, equity and critical thinking matter? How should privilege be addressed? And how do you use childhood curiosity to develop empathy? Hear the perspective of Amber Coleman-Mortley , director of social engagement for iCivics, a nonprofit focused on...

By The Annie E. Casey Foundation, June 17, 2020 The COVID-19 crisis has disproportionately affected Native Americans. By leveraging its relationships and understanding of tribal culture, the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health is doing its part by providing food, water, personal protective equipment and other essential home health items, as well as COVID-19 testing and contact tracing efforts. The response effort, funded in part by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, is deploying the...

South Carolina and Wisconsin’s optional ACE Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) module and the supplemental ACE questionnaires provided a unique opportunity to examine the relationship among ACEs, extreme childhood poverty and mental and physical health in adulthood, as poverty is not included as an ACE in BRFSS ACE module. This study used the 2014 Wisconsin BRFSS and the 2016 South Carolina BRFSS to (1) assess the prevalence of ACEs and poverty and (2) examine the association...

By Ayanna Pressley, June 19, 2020, WBUR Juneteenth is meant to be a day of joy — a celebration of freedom and emancipation. It marks the day on June 19, 1865 when General Gordon Granger read General Order #3 in Texas, freeing the last remaining enslaved people two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. As we reflect on this day, we are reminded of the profound hurt, anger and uncertainty our enslaved ancestors experienced — a pain that continues to manifest itself today...

By Chloe Yang, Dr. Robert Sege, and Dr. Dina Burstein, 6/19/20, positiveexperience.org/blog The art above is “Fireworks At Oak Bluffs,” scratchboard, by Sonia Lynn Sadler . Only 154 years ago today, the last enslaved people in the United States were told they were free, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger issued the following order in Galveston, Texas: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a...

By Bill Moyers, Moyers on Democracy, June 17, 2020 Join us as Bill Moyers talks with Rev. James Forbes, a passionate advocate of celebrating Friday, June 19 as Juneteenth – the day in 1865 when the last of America’s slaves learned they were free. Because many states had refused to end slavery when President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation two and a half years earlier, it took that long before Union troops landed in Texas with news that the Civil War was over and the...

By Roberta Baker, The Laconia Daily Sun, June 17, 2020 Officer Eric Adams, the Laconia Police Department’s prevention, enforcement and treatment coordinator, walks into situations that are impossible to forget – including drug overdoses, domestic violence and sexual assault. Perhaps his most pivotal role is to connect children to the support they need to weather these disturbing experiences and prevent the trauma from derailing their lives. “We’re not trying to take your kids away,” Adams...

By Antero Garcia and Nicole Mirra, EdSource, June 17, 2020 As school districts and county offices of education make plans for safely reopening schools in the fall and helping students cope with their trauma, it is urgent that they also recognize and make space for teachers to process and heal from their own feelings of loss and grief. Nearly every teacher we have ever worked with puts their emotional needs aside in order to address the emotional needs of their students when tragedy...

By National Museum of African American History & Culture, June 2020 On “Freedom’s Eve,” or the eve of January 1, 1863, the first Watch Night services took place. On that night, enslaved and free African Americans gathered in churches and private homes all across the country awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation had taken effect. At the stroke of midnight, prayers were answered as all enslaved people in Confederate States were declared legally free. Union soldiers, many of whom...

How do we build a resilient workforce that can thrive in the face of adversity? And how do we sort out which resources and supports are most needed when building a staff support plan? These are burning questions for leadership, especially during this time of COVID-19. Join us on Tuesday, June 23rd, 12-1pm PT for our 'A Better Normal' series to discuss building organizational resilience through creating a “Better Normal” in the workplace. Gail Kennedy of ACEs Connection will talk with Pam...

By Jill Cowan, The New York Times, June 18, 2020 In early March, I talked with a pair of researchers at the University of Southern California who had recently published a study — funded by the Tony Hawk Foundation — showing how skateboarding helps build resilience among young skaters, and helps them form communities across backgrounds. “The stereotype is white stoner guys,” Dr. Zoë Corwin , one of the researchers, told me at the time. “The reality in 2020 is the skateboarding community is...