September 2021

We have been hard at work producing Part II of the Trauma Talks series. It is shaping up beautifully and we'll soon have an announcement for it. Stay tuned! In the meantime, we are excited to let you know about the Collective Trauma Summit 2021 hosted by our friend and partner Thomas Hübl. The online event will bring together more than 100,000 participants to explore the role of Collective Trauma in our world. No longer can we as a society pretend that we are separate. Humanity is finally...

You walk into your living room after getting out of bed in the morning feeling apprehensive and afraid, but there is nothing to be afraid of that you can observe. An overwhelming sense that something terrible is about to happen permeates your thoughts, and you do not feel at all safe. You have just experienced an emotional flashback. This article will examine the definition of emotional flashbacks, their causes, and some grounding techniques to help you when they attack. What are Emotional...

This article was initially published 9/2/21 in RACmonitor, and appears with explicit permission Significant data already proves increased disease morbidity and mortality for populations who reside in specific ZIP codes. The “ZIP Code Effect” has been associated with variations in neighborhood life expectancy by as much as 33 years ; r esearch has also shown ACEs as major factors to drive health outcomes in these neighborhoods. Research out of Yale University took a new direction, exploring...

By Elaine Batchlor, The Atlantic, September 1, 2021 Months of cajoling and pressure haven’t worked. Neither has bringing home the COVID-19 vaccine and offering to administer it myself. I got my own vaccine as soon as I could—as did my husband and sons—with little to no side effects. Yet my mother, a 93-year-old Black woman, still won’t get vaccinated. Her excuses vary. One day she’ll insist, “I don’t know what’s in it,” even though I’ve explained it to her in detail. Another day: “I already...

By Elizabeth Yuko, Real Simple, August 31, 2021 Although most people have experienced trauma at some point in their lives, they may not use that term to describe what they've been through. That's because when we think of "trauma," our mind frequently makes the leap to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—specifically, soldiers and veterans who have seen wartime combat. While our view of trauma has expanded somewhat to include people who have lived through violent crimes, natural disasters,...

By Bob Moses, The Imprint, August 24, 2021 A s a nation, we stand with bated breath — waiting for public schools to reopen and for “a return to normal” while ignoring that for many, normal is not only not good enough, it was also never really good. Historical inequities and disparities in our public schools, as across all our public systems, operate along a constitutional fault line — an embedded caste system — that we need to find our way across. It is a fault line that is not only about...

By Sara Kassabian, The Oaklandside, August 27, 2021 Every night, Guadalupe Muñoz lays awake listening to her 7-year-old daughter Carla breathe. If she hears a whistling in Carla’s chest, she knows an asthma attack is imminent. Muñoz, who works in housekeeping at a local hotel, lives in a two-bedroom apartment with her two daughters in Oakland’s Seminary neighborhood. In an interview conducted in Spanish, Muñoz said she is certain it is her home that is causing her youngest daughter to suffer...

California’s cities and counties are starting to outline plans and allocate the $16 billion in relief funding they are getting through the American Rescue Plan Act. Community members and community-based organizations should have a seat at the table and advocate for funding to support their greatest needs. Our next webinar will be totally in Spanish and is intended for CBO partners who serve Latinx communities and Spanish-speaking community members. The webinar will be held on September 2nd...

2021 September HOPE Newsletter As the summer comes to an end, we reflect back on the month of August and look forward to what is ahead for the fall. In August, we all met in-person for the first time to talk about the future of HOPE and the direction of our expanding growth. HOPE also had the amazing opportunity to present at the Transforming Our Tomorrow: 2021 Prevent Child Abuse America Virtual Conference (PCAA), where the HOPE team held two presentations . We have also gained support for...

By Celia Jiménez, Monterey County Weekly, August 31, 2021 Everything from how to use a tool to installing drywall has been part of the curriculum for students in the construction academy at Rancho Cielo in Salinas. The nonprofit provides a high school diploma program and vocational training for real-life job skills to young adults ages 16 to 24, in lieu of a traditional academic program. The construction academy has evolved over the years with the building of transitional housing, a solar...

By Sebastian Sandoval-Olascoga, Atheendar S. Venkataramani, and Mariana C. Arcaya, JAMA Network Open, August 30, 2021 Key Points Question Is lifting a state-level eviction moratorium associated with the risk of individuals in that state being diagnosed with COVID-19? Findings In this cohort study of 509 694 individuals living in the United States, a difference-in-differences survival analysis found that residents in states that lifted eviction moratoria had an increased risk of receiving a...

By Lila Thulin, Smithsonian Magazine, August 26, 2021 At one point last year, high schooler Rasha Alqahtani had finals coming up and 35 Zoom calls booked. To manage her busy schedule, she had duplicate calendars—one on Google Calendar, the other printed and placed behind her laptop, so that even a power outage wouldn’t derail her. The now-18-year-old from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, had laser-like focus on an extracurricular passion project: Creating a video-game tool to help diagnose teenagers...