Blog

By Roger Cohen, Photo: Eric Gaillard/Reuters, The New York Times, December 13, 2021 A recent cartoon in the French daily Le Monde featured a bedraggled man arriving at a doctor’s office for a Covid-19 vaccine. “I am here for the fifth shot because of the third wave,” he says. “Or vice versa.” His bewilderment as France suffers its fifth wave of the pandemic , with cases of the Delta variant rising sharply along with Omicron anxiety, captured a mood of exhaustion and simmering anger across...

Empowering Youth to Find their Safe People and Spaces: Youth are often reminded to reach out for support when they feel overwhelmed, afraid, or worried about the stress at home. This continues to be an essential reminder as the holiday's approach and more youth are off from school. However, for youth who have been impacted by a parent's drug or alcohol use, reaching out for help can, itself, become an incredible source of stress. Why? The literature and the stories have shown that the stigma...

How can we center the role of race in our economic policy and in our politics in a way that will drive real change? Kyle Strickland , the deputy director of race and democracy at the Roosevelt Institute , explains how our leaders have fallen under the sway of racial liberalism, which focuses solely on disavowing personal bigotry and overt discrimination. In order to realize true racial and economic justice, he argues we should move beyond racial liberalism and toward a greater understanding...

“There is no way that Delaware would have built the connections and gained the understanding that we have without participating in the National Governors Association (NGA) Addressing ACEs Learning Collaborative ,” says Alonna Berry. Berry, Delaware’s statewide trauma-informed care coordinator, said that the impact (of the Collaborative) was “really immeasurable to the progress being made in Delaware.” The 12-page NGA report , released December 9, captures the essence of a variety of...

“I was floored,” she says. “I felt understood. I felt heard. I felt acknowledged. It was confirmation that I wasn’t crazy. That what I was going through was actually normal.”

By Judy Langford, 12/14/21, positiveexperience.org/category/blog "Having an alternative way of understanding ACES and putting it in the larger picture of positive experiences is essential to the ongoing mission of virtually every professional working with children or families. “ Please introduce yourself and your work to our readers. Over the years, my work has included leadership in organizations that developed innovative programs and policies for young children and their families: the...

Center for Child Counseling’s Lead the Fight Against ACEs to feature an exclusive international book reading and conversation on February 22, 2022. Lead the Fight, Giving Children with Trauma a Voice , will take place Tuesday, February 22, 2022, 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM. The event will feature a virtual, international book reading of “Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows: A Story about ACEs and Hope” and conversation with author Juleus Ghunta, as well as the keynote address given by Benjamin Perks, Head...

This essay is part of a special issue of PREE magazine that seeks to raise awareness of the causes and impacts of ACEs in the Caribbean and elsewhere. PACEs Connections is working closely with PREE to ensure the issue reaches a broad audience. Click here to read the full essay on PREE’s website. PREE is a unique online magazine for contemporary writing from and about the Caribbean. This special issue on ACEs is co-edited by children’s writer Juleus Ghunta and PREE’s editor-in-chief Annie...

By Abené Clayton, Photo: Boris Zharkov/The Guardian, The Guardian, December 9, 2021 A deadly mass shooting at a suburban Michigan high school brought back a familiar American routine: utterances of shock, followed by condolences, blame, and then calls for action that fall on deaf ears. Last week’s school shooting came as young people across the US are reckoning with a historic surge in gun violence. While shootings on school campuses declined significantly during the pandemic – incidents...

By Julia Hotz, Photo: Getty Images, Scientific American, December 13, 2021 When COVID shut down life as usual in the spring of 2020, most physicians in the U.S. focused on the immediate physical dangers from the novel coronavirus. But soon pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris began thinking of COVID’s longer-term emotional damage and those who would be especially vulnerable: children. “The pandemic is a massive stressor,” explains Burke Harris, who is California’s surgeon general. “Then you have...

By Caroline Love, Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo, December 2, 2021 The Harris County District Attorney’s office has partnered with seven universities and the Texas Forensic Nurse Examiners to provide trauma-informed care to survivors of sexual assault at colleges and universities. The DA’s office reallocated $165,829 in forfeiture money to fund the initiative, which will connect survivors of sexual assault with forensic interviewers, instead of assigning the work to police officers who...

By Anne Vasquez, Photo: Allison Shelley/All4Ed, EdSource, December 13, 2021 After 18 months of distance learning, I took a breath before the start of this school year. What would the new normal look like? I feel like I’m still holding my breath, waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop that comes in the form of an end-of-semester report card. As the mother of a newly minted middle school student and a high school junior, I knew this year would test my personal code of ethics about grades:...