June 2022

What is it about trauma that can have such a seductive pull? Can our bodies actually become addicted to trauma and its effect on us?

“ Music can heal the wounds which medicine cannot touch.” - Debasish Mridha The Impact of Trauma Upon Our Lives - Healing Childhood Trauma in Adulthood - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx1k_oEZ4oc&t=15s 1] How Artists Can Turn Childhood Pain into Creativity - https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_artists_can_turn_childhood_pain_into_creativity Some performers are able to transform childhood trauma into intense creativity, suggests a new study. Whether their success was in...

We’re filmmakers whose home city of Newark, New Jersey has great potential but suffers from the devastating effects of intergenerational poverty. With a poverty rate near 30 percent, this means that over 80,000 Newarkers are suffering. Therefore, inner city schools, unlike their higher socioeconomic counterparts, are faced with difficult challenges that necessitate providing young people with the tools to counteract the environment of poverty in order for kids to attain maturity and...

COVID and Hybrids and Change, oh my! It’s no news that learning how to navigate in our current world is challenging. It can be mind-numbing at times. And our workplaces are no exception. We no longer have “silver bullets” that are used to help lead and navigate our way through this chaos. There is no direct cause and effect correlations between action and results – if we do this, then that will occur. The VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complexity and ambiguous) world doesn’t allow it. But we...

Hi. I train a modified version of “The Road to Recovery: Supporting Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Who Have Experienced Trauma ,” developed by the Hogg Foundation and the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN). And while there is a story behind their development, I have drafted two documents; one of which, is the attached. “For a child/youth with ID, DD, disability, or/and ASD who has experienced trauma. Some available information and tools for Mental...

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Data Report A new report on ACEs was just released! The Adverse Childhood Experiences Data Report: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), 2013-2019: An Overview of Adverse Childhood Experiences in California, details the statewide prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in California collected from 2013-2019 through the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS); describes ACEs-related demographic disparities; and describes...

By Allison Stephens, 6/17/22, https://positiveexperience.org/category/blog/ Fathers are an important part of family life and contribute significantly to child development. This Father’s Day, the HOPE National Resource Center is celebrating the impact that fathers can have on access to positive childhood experiences, even though fathers often go unrecognized. The National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse’s #Dadication campaign lets us hear directly from fathers about their relationships...

From Hurdle, Image: Screenshot, Hurdle, June 2022 The Second Annual Black Mental Health Roundtable was a success! We are grateful for our collaborating partners, the Kennedy-Satcher Center for Mental Health Equity, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and the American Psychological Association (APA) for helping to make the Second Annual Black Mental Health Roundtable a success. Mental healthcare providers and leaders from across the country attended the event virtually and...

By Libby Stanford, Photo: John Tully/Education Week, Education Week, June 13, 2022 Nonprofit organizations that have spent decades offering social-emotional learning and equity-based support to schools are facing a new challenge: defending their existence. This year, education terms like SEL and equity have become embroiled in the controversy surrounding “critical race theory,” an academic framework that argues racism is a social construct that has been embedded into legal systems and...

By Sally Weale, Photo: Blend Images/Rex/Shutterstock, The Guardian, June 14, 2022 Children who learn to play well with their peers by the age of three are likely to enjoy better mental health later in childhood, according to research from the University of Cambridge . The study is said to be the first to establish a connection between “peer play ability” before children go to school and improved mental health at the age of seven. Researchers say it is the quality – rather than quantity – of...

By Aaron Hutcherson, Photo: Lynsey Weatherspoon/The Washington Post, The Washington Post, June 8, 2022 After I exit the highway heading to my hotel, the first business I notice is a lunch spot called Plantation Buffet. The sign slaps me in the face with irony, as I’ve traveled here to meet with Nicole A. Taylor, the author of the recently released “ Watermelon and Red Birds ,” the first major cookbook honoring the Juneteenth holiday . The restaurant served as a harsh reminder of Black pain,...