July 2017

Economics are the most common barometer for measuring inequality in America. A 2016 Brookings Institution report handed Boston the dubious distinction of having the highest income inequality in the country, with the top 5 percent of earners making an average of $266,224, compared to just $14,942 for the bottom 20 percent. That inequality is even more pronounced along racial lines and net worth. Staggeringly so. A white family in Greater Boston has a net worth of $247,500, according to a...

Children and families caught in the state’s beleaguered child welfare system have significant good news to celebrate this week as the state, with millions of extra dollars just appropriated by legislators, launches a major restructuring of the system. Lawmakers this year passed a half-dozen new laws and millions in funding to reform child welfare programs, support foster parents better, lower social worker caseloads, and help foster youth get drivers licenses and access to lawyers, among...

Tuesday, July 11 is a Policymaker Education Day at the Capitol in Sacramento, CA. Sponsored by the California Campaign to Counter Childhood Adversity (4CA), representatives from more than 100 organizations will attend 80 meetings with legislators and/or their staffs, to share research information about adverse childhood experiences science (ACEs), and discuss how legislators can help support increasing trauma-informed practice throughout California.

This post from Michael Skinner made want to share a recent post on my blog: I stood at the podium and said, “My stake in being here is rooted in being a woman who survived the childhood sexual abuse of incest. We in MERGE for Equality believe boys are born naturally loving, life affirming and sustained by connection. Had my father been raised to be his natural authentic self I’m certain I would have had a completely different father, a loving protective father and therefore a completely...

The civil war in Syria has led to a significant increase in the number of Syrians battling mental disorders. These include anxiety disorders, depression, post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD), and developmental problems. Humanitarian medical providers in Syria have had to scale up mental health care on an ad-hoc basis to cope with the large number of patients; but many Syrians have not and will not receive adequate or timely care. It is clear that Syria is facing a major mental health...

When I brought my baby daughter home from the hospital, I was completely unprepared for the year ahead. On the surface, it looked like I was sorted. I'd washed all her teeny tiny clothes and had them waiting in the nursery, which I had painted a pretty lemon yellow. I'd bought a stack of nappies, wipes and barrier cream. What I wasn't prepared for was the enormous change this sweet small thing would bring to my life, nor did I have any idea of how to handle that change. Heather Irvine is a...

No one knows how to talk about climate change right now. I don’t have an idea about where to begin, and I write about it professionally. On the one hand, the natural consequences of climate change seem increasingly severe and devastating. Just in the past two years, I’ve written about how global warming will probably cause more mega-droughts in Arizona and New Mexico; how dangerously sweltering summer days are three times likelier to occur today than they were in 1900 ; and how even slightly...

Hi Everyone: Join in the chat with Dr. Gold here: http://www.acesconnection.com/g/Parenting-with-ACEs/chat-event/an-ace-informed-pediatrician Cheers, Jane

Seth’s natural impulse was to shy away from showing affection to his girlfriend. That made perfect sense to me since he grew up with a father who rarely showed affection to anyone in the family. Seth’s grandfather was an alcoholic who punished his children harshly. Seth understood his father received very little love and tenderness and probably never received any physical comfort like a hug or pat on the back. The lack of intimacy between father and son extended back through the generations.

After leaving foster care, Jessica Francis had to grow up alone, often looking to Google for guidance. “I had to figure out a lot of things on my own,” Francis said in an interview on the Foster Movement Podcast , produced by the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO). In the podcast’s pilot episode, Francis shared her personal experience of navigating the foster care system starting at age of 12 before later pursuing higher education and career. Without any other options, young adults...

Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor is missing a key area as she doles out an extra HK$5 billion a year in education spending . The main beneficiaries will be students of self-financed degree programmes in private universities, as each would receive a HK$30,000 subsidy, while local students attending universities on the mainland would get a ­ HK$5,000 subsidy.Contract teachers would benefit as well, as most would become tenured staff. [For more of this story, written by Victor Fung, go to ...