Blog

By Marsha Mercer , Image: Star Max via The Associated Press , PEW, July 12, 2022 With online and retail sports betting now legal in more than 30 states, the portrait of a new problem gambler is emerging: the high school student. Although the legal age for gambling ranges from 18 to 21 depending on the state, between 60% and 80% of high school students report having gambled for money in the past year, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling. The group says the pandemic and easy...

By Alison Graham, Image: Heather Rousseau, The Roanoke Times , The Publication, July 10, 2022 Julia Jones spiraled when social services took her four children away. Her husband had just left her, both of her parents were dead and she felt like she had no one to ask for help. The social workers told her to take parenting classes and go to therapy, and she did. But to her, it seemed like the harder she tried to get her kids back, the farther away they got. So instead, she kept doing what she...

Iya Affo & Heal Historical Trauma Presents New!! 48-HOUR HISTORICAL TRAUMA SPECIALIST CERTIFICATION in collaboration with THE INTERNATIONAL HISTORICAL TRAUMA ASSOCIATION We are the only entity offering a comprehensive, 48-hour Historical Trauma Specialist Certification Program. The Program is broken into 6 levels and is built on a foundation of BIPOC cultures and neurobiology. It is taught from a multicultural perspective, injecting traditions and ideology from various cultures from...

Thursday, July 28th, 2022 at 10:30 am - 12:00 pm PST, ValorUS is hosting a web conference on Financial Security and Violence Prevention. This web conference is designed for staff who have basic knowledge of sexual violence and intimate partner violence and are interested in learning about the connections between interpersonal violence and financial security. This training will support an exploration of participants' relationship with money, how this shows up in life and work, and ways to...

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,...