July 2018

The Finger Lakes (NY) Resiliency Network (FLRN) is a Trauma-Informed year long Learning Community that provides education, training, consultation, resources and support to providers who are committed to and invested in becoming trauma-informed. The FLRN was designed to foster organizational growth and development; challenging current practices and utilizing support and shared experiences with other schools and organizations committed to becoming trauma-informed. This network will provide the...

Gazing from one size of the room to the next, one could see educators, parents, social workers, and other individuals of all sectors. There was a certain tangible livelihood, an excitement, a hunger for information. Individuals were approaching one another with wide eyes, eager to connect. After speaking with Teri Barila of CRI and Rick Griffin of Jubilee Leadership Academy, organizers of this past 2018 Beyond Paper Tigers Conference, I hear how amazed they were at the vibrancy of the...

Crunching numbers to help predict human behavior is common practice in insurance, banking, and public policy. We are always looking for the perfect algorithm to help improve decision-making. But when those decisions involve the fate of families, and the potential removal of kids from their parents, data-driven predictions become the subject of intense debate. That was on vivid display last Tuesday at a panel in New York City on the use of so-called predictive analytics for investigating...

Like so much else in Canada, the debate over guns typically happens more quietly than it does in the United States. But on rare occasions, a tragic moment will come along and propel the issue to the top of the public agenda. When that happens, the country abandons the decibel range of polite discourse and begins to argue—loudly—about gun control. That’s what happened this week after a lone gunman, Faisal Hussein, allegedly opened fire in Toronto’s Danforth neighborhood Sunday night, killing...

CHICAGO — I was on my way home from dropping my kids off at preschool when a police officer called to ask if I was aware there was an outstanding warrant for my arrest. “No, no,” I told him. “I didn’t know that.” I needed to call my husband, but my fingers were shaking. I don’t remember if I was crying when he answered, only that he was saying he couldn’t understand me, that I needed to calm down, to tell him what had happened. [For more on this story by Kim Brooks, go to...

LAWRENCE, Mass. ― Rachael Pomerleau, 40, had taken opioids before, having had procedures like wisdom teeth removal and gallbladder surgery. But during the tumultuous two years that her children, now ages 7 and 8, were born, opioids took over her life, she told HuffPost. She was put on bed rest as a result of complications with the pregnancy of her daughter. A few months after her daughter’s birth, she became pregnant with her son. This time, her back and abdominal pain grew so severe that...

For the past three weeks, students across India's capital have been attending a radical new course: happiness. The Delhi government introduced "happiness classes" in an effort to shift the country's academic focus from student achievement to emotional well-being. In a country that uses standardized testing to determine student success, offers a limited number of seats in top universities and sets high expectations, educators have been seeing mental health consequences. Delhi's Education...

Sara Thomas Monopoli was pregnant with her first child when her doctors learned that she was going to die. It started with a cough and a pain in her back. Then a chest X-ray showed that her left lung had collapsed, and her chest was filled with fluid. A sample of the fluid was drawn off with a long needle and sent for testing. Instead of an infection, as everyone had expected, it was lung cancer, and it had already spread to the lining of her chest. Her pregnancy was thirty-nine weeks along,...

Leah Esguerra is a licensed family and marriage therapist, but instead of heading to an office every day to soothe couples’ marital tensions, she reports to the San Francisco Public Library. There she roams the stacks, looking for patrons who might need her help. Some of these patrons are homeless and are looking for a safe place to stay for the day. Others are actively looking for resources, such as showers and food, or just a place to warm up for a while. No matter their need, Esguerra...

Etinosa Yvonne Osayimwen's goal is to get inside her subjects' heads. The self-trained, 28-year-old documentary photographer does just that by using a double-exposure technique. She takes portraits of Nigerian survivors of violence and terrorism — then superimposes it with an image of something that reminds them of how their lives have changed. In one photo, for example, a construction plan is layered over the profile of a building engineer whose community was attacked by Boko Haram. Another...

Last summer, I spent three days in an intensive training to become an instructor in Youth Mental Health First Aid. Mental Health First Aid for youth and adolescents in emotional distress is a course that originated in Australia. The goal is to train 1,000,000 Mental Health First Aiders to gain the skills to provide comfort and care until professional help arrives, much like First Aid/CPR training. Here is a link to explore: https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/ The story I want to share is...

To key to surviving trauma and letting go of the past is changing your perspective about your situation. You have to learn to dream new dreams