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This article and others in this series were produced as part of a project for the University of Southern California Center for Health Journalism’s National Fellowship, in conjunction with the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. On a Monday in early October, the top administrator at the Bradenton youth lockup issued a terse order to subordinates: “Do not flush.” Three days earlier, on Sept. 30, the Manatee Regional Juvenile Detention Center’s plumbing went haywire. While...

On a single night in January 2017, 553,742 were homeless across the U.S. For the first time in seven years, this number has grown. In the past year, the nation has seen a one-percent increase in the nation’s homeless population. That’s 3,814 more homeless people since January 2016. On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released its 2017 Annual Homeless Assessment Report —the report to Congress that analyzes the results of a nationwide point-in-time estimate,...

That bag of frozen cauliflower sitting inside your freezer likely sprang to life in a vast field north of Salinas, Calif. A crew of men and women here use a machine to drop seedlings into the black soil. Another group follows behind, stooped over, tapping each new plant. It is backbreaking, repetitive work. Ten-hour days start in the cold, dark mornings and end in the searing afternoon heat. More than 90 percent of California’s crop workers were born in Mexico. But in recent years, fewer...

This story was co-published with NPR. On a melancholy Saturday this past February, Shalon Irving’s “village” — the friends and family she had assembled to support her as a single mother — gathered at a funeral home in a prosperous black neighborhood in southwest Atlanta to say goodbye and send her home. The afternoon light was gray but bright, flooding through tall arched windows and pouring past white columns, illuminating the flag that covered her casket. Sprays of callas and roses dotted...

On Monday, in the largest reduction of federal land protections in United States history, President Donald Trump signed proclamations slashing the area of two national monuments in Utah. That same day, with just minutes to spare before midnight on the East Coast, the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition —a first-of-its-kind alliance between the Hopi, Ute Mountain Ute, Ute Indian, Zuni, and Navajo Nation tribes—filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, claiming that the president's...

CAREgivers film will be airing on most public television stations around the US beginning this month in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orlando, Cleveland, Spokane, Boise, Springfield-Holyoke, Youngstown, Idaho Falls, Twin Falls, Fairbanks, ETC. Please check your local public TV stations for future dates and times. Broadcast times will also be posted in advance whenever possible at: http://caregiversfilm.com/screenings/see-the-film/ This documentary addresses secondary trauma (aka...

During my 22 years as a pediatrician in an urban area, I have seen the worst of what America’s children must sometimes endure. Severe medical illness in children is thankfully rare. But severe adversity in homes and communities is all too common and causes toxic stress that has long-term consequences for my patients and future generations. A 6-year-old patient of mine called 911 on the third day that she and her younger siblings couldn’t wake their intoxicated mother. We cared for their...

Three years ago, demonstrators in Burkina Faso set fire to the National Assembly in Ouagadougou. The Burkinabé uprising led to the ouster of the country’s longtime president Blaise Compaoré followed by a short-lived military takeover. Today, Burkina Faso is rebuilding. Diébédo Francis Kéré designed the next National Assembly building to reflect the reality of life in Ouagadougou. The design by the Berlin-based architect (and Burkina Faso native) is open and transparent, a pyramid whose...

Nearly 1.5 million high-school students in the U.S. are physically abused by dating partners every year. More than one-third of 10th-graders (35 percent) have been physically or verbally abused by dating partners, while a similar percentage are perpetrators of such abuse. Youth from low-income backgrounds, those from marginalized racial and ethnic groups, and LGBTQ students are at the greatest risk of experiencing such harm. The consequences are devastating. Data from the Centers for Disease...

"There is no blueprint for rolling out trauma-informed practices; however, Emily's use of a systems approach to educate those of us working to create our own blueprints is exactly what's needed. The way in which Emily conducts her workshops promotes collaboration of ideas no matter your educational background or current title. You leave feeling inspired and empowered to move this revolution forward!" - Dawn Daum, HERE this NOW workshop participant, co-manager of ACES Connection Building...

For many, the concept of family has expanded beyond bloodlines to include friends, neighbors, colleagues, and others in the greater community. With so many lives around the world experiencing traumatic events due to hurricanes, floods, wildfires and other disasters, now is a good time to remember the wise words of Louise Hay: "We are all family, and the planet is our home."

We can never assume our families have access to key services. We won't know if they are experiencing hunger or lack a stable and safe place to live unless we ask them. Preventing ACEs means assessing our families in order to help them gain access to the services that make a community family-friendly. The challenge is that we don't yet have the public health infrastructure to survey our families. We also don't have any state or local government institution committed to building the capacity...