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This article was initially published in RACmonitor and appears with the publisher’s permission The country’s smallest hospitals continue to be in peril, as are the patients who rely on them. This issue continues to be the reality for rural health with major challenges for the patients and providers in those regions. 7.4% of babies born in the US are birthed at hospitals handling 10 to 500 births a year, or “low-volume” hospitals. In the context of our industry’s fiscal focus, that number...

By Josh Stearns and Teresa Gorman, Photo: Wichita Beacon, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, November 16, 2021 First the good news: Philanthropy is starting to respond to the demise of local journalism with the urgency it deserves. In the past few years, major national efforts, such as the American Journalism Project , Report for America , and NewsMatch have generated well over $200 million in philanthropic giving to news organizations across the United States. NewsMatch’s annual gift-matching...

By Megan Conn, Photo: St. Anne Institute, The Imprint, November 15, 2021 A cross New York state, the footprint of group homes for children in foster care has steadily shrunk or disappeared altogether. Back in 2013, the St. Anne Institute, a tidy three-story brick building in Albany, was home to as many as 88 teenage girls, but by last summer, the agency had cut its capacity to just 35. Last year, OLV Human Services closed two 8-bed group homes near Buffalo and downsized another. And Graham...

By Naomi Ishisaka, Photo: Alan Berner, The Seattle Times, November 15, 2021 Over the past few months, conventional wisdom has emerged asserting that the U.S. is experiencing a labor shortage. A headline in Fortune on Friday read , “Where are all the workers, and when are they coming back?” Countless articles have lamented the “great resignation” facing the U.S. workforce and theorized over the causes. Some attribute it to expanded pandemic unemployment benefits, but research does not bear...

By Meena Harris, Photo: iStock, November 15, 2021 Over the last year-and-a-half, as the coronavirus pandemic triggered school closures, haphazard virtual learning setups, and confusing safety guidelines, parents of school-age children have been driven to the brink — juggling their jobs with a full-time commitment to ensuring their kids are getting a safe, quality education. For parents of color, including myself, that health crisis has been compounded by a racial justice crisis. While we...

By Melissa Montalvo, Photo: Mike Blake: REUTERS, Cal Matters, November 12, 2021 Siete de cada 10 californianos dicen que la brecha entre ricos y pobres es cada vez mayor, según un estudio estatal lanzado el martes. La encuesta, realizada el mes pasado por el grupo de expertos no partidista, Instituto de Políticas Públicas de California , encuestó a 2,292 californianos adultos sobre sus opiniones sobre las perspectivas económicas del estado, la seguridad financiera, la seguridad laboral,...

By Ashley Gebb, Photo: Jason Halley/CSU Chico, Chico State Today, November 9, 2021 What will it take to shape the next generation of social workers, individuals poised to support communities who have experienced unimaginable disaster and trauma? Perhaps there is no university better suited to address this challenge than Chico State—or at least, that’s the premise of a new course in the School of Social Work. This summer, three professionals and educators came together to teach “Contemporary...

By Sarah Betancourt, Photo: Sarah Betancourt/GBH News, GBH News, November 16, 2021 After a high-speed car chase landed Joel in jail awaiting trial on an extensive list of charges — including carrying a loaded firearm without a license — the 22-year-old is working toward a new life. He was facing a minimum of ten years in prison when his lawyer presented him with an opportunity: plead guilty to the charges and join the Emerging Adult Court of Hope. It will take Joel about two years to...

By Tish Harrison Warren, Illustration: Matija Medved, The New York Times, November 14, 2021 I don’t remember the first time I was taught that the Civil War was not fought because of slavery. I am a white Texan, so this idea was simply in the ether, as were myths about “good slave owners” and the “Lost Cause.” I knew that America had a racist history, but when I was a child, the details of what that meant were blurry and vague. This experience is common. There is objective truth to our...

By Burgundi Allison and David Brotherton, Photo: Amy Osborne/AFP/Getty Images, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, November 17, 2021 The Covid-19 pandemic is a brutal reminder of how interconnected our world is and how reliant we are on each other to keep our communities healthy and safe. Much the same can be said about another public health crisis — gun violence. We are heartbroken by the increase in gun violence during the pandemic, which in 2020 rose to its highest level in decades, according...

By Tyler Kingkade and Mike Hixenbaugh, Illustration: Eleni Kalorkoti/NBC News, NBC News, November 16, 2021 At a September school board meeting in Southlake, Texas, a parent named Tara Eddins strode to the lectern during the public comment period and demanded to know why the Carroll Independent School District was paying counselors “at $90K a pop” to give students lessons on suicide prevention. “At Carroll ISD, you are actually advertising suicide,” Eddins said , arguing that many parents in...

Predict Align Prevent (PAP) is a non-profit organization dedicated to stopping child maltreatment before it happens. While there is no single solution to end child maltreatment, our approach shifts the conversation upstream to develop a combination of policies, strategies, and resources that aim to prevent child abuse before it happens. The current system is reactionary, only providing outreach and resources after a child enters the system and far too often, missing the cases that end in a...