July 2022

How do we, as a country, learn about mass shootings and gun violence? The news media. How do we learn about the best approaches to prevent mass shootings and gun violence? The answer should be “the news media”, but it’s not. Yet.

Can collective care heal communities, especially communities struggling with systemic racism and historical trauma? Join PACEs Connection CEO Ingrid Cockhren and guest Candice Valenzuela on PACEs Connection’s podcast “History. Culture. Trauma.” as they address that question. They’ll discuss collective care, especially how communities struggle with system racism and historical trauma as they strive to heal. The podcast airs on July 14 at 1 p.m. PT/ 4 p.m. ET on the VoiceAmerica Talk Radio...

June was quite a month for learning, connecting, reflecting, and inspiration around issues of transforming the education system. I started the month off by attending the 2022 National Community Schools and Family Engagement Conference here in my hometown of Los Angeles. Over 3,000 attendees from across the country gathered to learn from each other and share their expertise around developing authentic community-driven Community Schools. (If you want to dive deeper into what community schools...

By Phoebe Weston, Image: Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images , The Guardian, July 11, 2022 Taking into account all the benefits nature provides to humans and redefining what it means to have a “good quality of life” is key to living sustainably on Earth, a four-year assessment by 82 leading scientists has found. A market-based focus on short-term profits and economic growth means the wider benefits of nature have been ignored, which has led to bad decisions that have reduced people’s wellbeing...

By M a c k e n z i e R y a n , Image: Rick Bowmer/AP , The Guardian, July 11, 2022 “I was horrified.” Utah State Representative Angela Romero had long known that if the supreme court ruled to overturn Roe v Wade , her state’s trigger law would come into effect and elective abortions would quickly be banned. But, even armed with that knowledge she still couldn’t believe that scenario had become reality. The district Romero represents sits on the west side of Salt Lake City, an area that...

By Jo Napolitano, Image: UnidosUS , The74, July 11, 2022 After a decade of gains in academics and a marked boost in high school graduation rates and college attendance, Latino students suffered significant setbacks during the pandemic as many attended underfunded schools and had limited internet access at home, a new report shows. Some of these children also struggled with a language barrier — as did their parents — making the switch to remote learning even tougher, according to UnidosUS,...

By Nancy Marie Spears, Image: Nick Oxford for The Imprint , The Imprint, July 9, 2022 Amid a thunderous beating of red animal-skin drums and powerful song, survivors of Indian boarding schools met in southern Oklahoma this morning with the nation’s ranking official in charge of strengthening tribal self-determination in Indian Country and upholding the government’s treaty obligations to tribes. Hundreds of former students and their descendants had come to give testimony about the legacy of...

By Nathalie Jimenez, BBC, July 9, 2022 Katrinka Cox lives the American Dream: a green trimmed lawn, poolside lake view, and $1.3m villa she calls home. She is the only black homeowner in her gated Florida community. And despite her financial success, she says her attempts to buy another property are being blocked due to her skin colour. Black Americans are almost twice as likely to be denied a mortgage than their white counterparts, figures show. And only 44% of black Americans own homes,...

By Alisha Haridasani Gupta, Photo: Logan Lynette for The New York Times , The New York Times, July 7, 2022 For Cynthia Philips, it was the sound of bees, willows, crickets and the hum of a metallic Tibetan bowl that helped her overcome some of her anxieties. Over Memorial Day weekend, Ms. Philips, a 64-year-old entrepreneur, drove out to a Black-owned ranch in Crawfordville, Ga. where she joined dozens of other women for a camping trip. Tents were set up under large, majestic trees and...

By Eleanor Morgan, Illustration: Janice Chang/The Observer , The Guardian, July 10, 2022 B elieve in yourself. Be empowered. Show up. Love your body. Stand tall. How many times have you seen statements like these on social media? Or used to advertise products? All point towards confidence: a particular c-word that the modern woman cannot get away from. Being self-confident is the command of our time. At some point in the past decade, women’s media seemed to shift from celebrity mockery and...

By Lori Aratani, Image: the University of Arizona, The Washington Post, July 8, 2022 A growing number of cities are searching for strategies to offset the effects of higher temperatures on their communities. In the D.C. region, eight of the 10 hottest summers on record have occurred since 2010, according to The Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang. Ladd Keith is an assistant professor of planning and sustainable-built environments at the University of Arizona’s College of Architecture,...

Join the RYSE Center and PACEs Connection on July 12. 2022 from 10 am-1 pm PT / 12 pm-3 pm CT / 1 pm-4 pm ET to examine how conventional social science research often produces and replicates unjust and harmful narratives about Black, Indigenous, Youth of Color (BIPOC) capacities, priorities, dreams, and needs. At the same time, research upholds and enables white, middle-class norms and values as the standard of achievement, success, and health. From the website: “RYSE works to reimagine,...