August 2022

Systemic racism has long been attributed to standardized tests across education levels, academic programs, and professional licensure. The ASWB’s report on exam passage rates revealed large racial and ethnic disparities. How will social work ensure its professional path is not laden with the same disparities and obstacles faced by populations served by the profession itself?

In this episode of Transforming Trauma, our host Emily is joined by Dr. Jena Vasquez, LCSW-S, NARM Therapist, SEP, Yoga Therapist and Instructor, professor and researcher. Dr. Vasquez recently completed her doctoral dissertation, Meaning Making: Understanding Professional Quality of Life for NARM Trained Trauma Therapists , one of the first research studies on how professional training in trauma impacts quality of life for trauma therapists. Dr. Vasquez specifically chose NARM to research,...

By Henry Gass, Photo: Henry Gass/The Christian Science Monitor, The Christian Science Monitor, August 11, 2022 Lupe Mendez was a self-described hobby poet when he first met Tony Diaz. Today, Mr. Mendez is the poet laureate of Texas, and he looks back at receiving Mr. Diaz’s business card that day as one of the first turning points in his career. The name Tony Diaz didn’t mean much to him, nor did the organization, Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say. What jumped out to him was...

By Brian Lopez, Photo: Rachel Zein/The Texas Tribune, The74, August 11, 2022 For the past year, Texas educators have struggled with a new law targeting how history and race are taught in the state’s public schools. Some administrators thought it meant they needed to teach an opposing view of the Holocaust. For other school officials, the pressure of adhering to new restrictions about how to teach social studies was too much and for some it was the last straw: They quit . In one district, a...

By Alexandra Zisser and Mona Shah, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, July 28, 2022 Can your family withstand a difficult diagnosis, a missed paycheck, or a significant rent increase? For many families and communities, those financial shocks are impossible to weather and gravely impact health and wellbeing. A survey conducted this year found that two-third of Americans have put off care they or a family member need because of cost. This is the result of the racial wealth gap , which refers to...

By Louis Jacobson, Illustration: Politfact, Kaiser Health News, August 11, 2022 As Senate Democrats raced to pass what could be their final piece of major legislation before the midterm elections, critics went to the airwaves to blast the proposal as hurting older Americans who rely on Medicare. Here’s the narration of one ad , sponsored by a group called the American Prosperity Alliance: “Higher gas prices, higher grocery bills, everything today is costing too much. Now, Congress is...

Creating lasting change is no small task. Still, it’s frustrating when most organizations fail to create the sort of lasting change that is the hallmark of effective social justice and DEI work—and the reason why is complex. If we were to boil it down to the simplest answer possible, it would be that organizations hyper-fixate on the technical while leaving the cultural unaddressed. What does that mean, exactly? Let’s use a relevant example to unravel this phenomenon. One of my clients works...

By Anna Heard, Photo: Unsplash, National Governors Association, August 10, 2022 Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are potentially traumatic events that can affect a person’s health, well-being and success into adulthood. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these dynamics by disrupting the lives of families. Over 140,000 children have lost a primary or secondary caregiver and, as a result of school disruptions, many children have become more socially isolated. These factors can...

By Victoria St. Martin, Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images, Inside Climate News, August 6, 2022 For years, researchers have known that air pollution can worsen such respiratory conditions as asthma in children. But a recently released study has shed new light on how exposure to airborne pollutants can also affect the developing brains of the very young. Researchers have found that toddlers exposed to particulate matter score lower on IQ tests—losing as many as 2.63 points on those exams for...

By Betty M Rosales, Photo: Ashley A Smith, EdSource, August 11, 2002 A s community college students return to their campuses, many will find one new resource to count on: a hub where they can seek support in meeting their basic needs. Known as basic needs centers, the resources offered differ from campus to campus, but most tend to help students who are experiencing housing and food insecurity. Others also offer other support like paying for auto insurance, finding low-cost medical care,...

By Rachel Siegel, Photo: Michael A McCoy/The Washington Post, The Washington Post, August 9, 2022 The White House hasn’t done enough to fight rent inflation, says a coalition of tenant unions, community organizations and legal groups calling on the Biden administration to launch an all-out government intervention. A set of proposals, shared with The Washington Post, calls on the Biden administration to declare a state of emergency on housing and explore ways to regulate rents. The proposals...

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