Tagged With "Building Black Confidence"
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Maternal Health in New Jersey: Pursuing Equity Through Systemic Change
About this Event Alarmingly, in the United States mothers are dying at the highest rate in the developed world with the crisis being most severe for Black moms, who are dying at 3 to 4 times the rate of their white counterparts. In New Jersey, Black mothers may be nearly twice as likely as white mothers to die from pregnancy-related complications and Black babies nearly three times as likely as white babies to die before their first birthdays. To address these tragic realities, initiatives...
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Why Atlantic City’s minority neighborhoods are also its most flooded
ANDREW S. LEWIS | NJ Spotlight When Veronica Grant reflects on growing up in the Venice Park section of Atlantic City in the 1970s, regular nuisance flooding isn’t a memory that comes to mind. Yet these days, high tides spill across the neighborhood’s streets and yards so frequently that Grant can’t keep count. Flooding has been a reality in Atlantic City since its founding a century-and-a-half ago, but it has never been as frequent as it is today. Since 1911, the city’s tide station has...
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Students lead US push for fuller Black history education
By Mike Catalni, Miami Herald, April 8,, 2021 Ebele Azikiwe was in the sixth grade last year when February came and it was time to learn about Black history again. She was, by then, familiar with the curriculum: Rosa Parks, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and a discussion on slavery. Just like the year before, she said, and the year before that. Then came George Floyd's death in May, and she wrote to the administration at her school in Cherry Hill, in New Jersey's Philadelphia suburbs, to...
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In the Child Welfare System, Black Families Should Matter
Steve Volk | NextCity.org Reimagining a foster care system that errs on the side of protecting children, but disproportionately investigates and punishes Black families more for economic hardship than harm. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is Part One of a two-part series in the “Our Kids” reporting project. Our Kids is a project of the Broke in Philly reporting collaborative that examines the challenges and opportunities facing Philadelphia’s foster care system. (See also Part Two, “Can Racial Bias Be...
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Sen. Booker, Reps. Adams & Underwood Introduce Black Maternal Health Week Resolution
22 Co-sponsors in the Senate and over 47 in the House join resolution to raise national awareness of the state of Black maternal health in the United States. WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Representatives Alma Adams (NC-12) and Lauren Underwood (IL-14) introduced a resolution recognizing Black Maternal Health Week, “to bring national attention to the maternal health crisis in the United States and the importance of reducing maternal mortality and morbidity among Black...
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Black Maternal Health Week, Apr. 11-17
Black Maternal Health Week takes place each year from April 11-17. Learn more about this year’s goals, which are to: Deepen the national conversation about Black maternal health in the US; Amplify community-driven policy, research, and care solutions; Center the voices of Black Mamas, women, families, and stakeholders; Provide a national platform for Black-led entities and efforts on maternal health, birth and reproductive justice; and Enhance community organizing on Black maternal health.
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Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM)
April is also Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM). Currently, the Division on Women (DOW) supports statewide community-level primary prevention efforts to prevent sexual violence. To advance these efforts, we work with non-traditional partners and consider them as experts in their own lives and community pillars for change . We believe that impactful primary prevention efforts begin with community engagement and providing tools to communities so they can empower themselves. As such, our...
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Many say now is the time to fight racial bias in foster care | By DAVID CRARY AP National Writer
Black children have long suffered from racial disparities in the U.S. foster care system Cheri Williams looks back with regret at the start of her career as a child welfare caseworker in 1998. Systemic racism is a major reason why. “I removed probably about 100 kids from their homes in the 15 months I was an investigator … a lot of them were children of color,” said Williams, who's now a vice president of one of the largest adoption and foster care agencies in the United States. “Decades...
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Keyon’s Case Heads to Washington Supreme Court
BY ELIZABETH AMON | The Imprint Shortly before Christmas of 2019, Cheryl Beaver loaded her 6-year-old grandson Keyon onto the school bus, as she did each weekday morning. Beaver, who had cared for the first-grader since he was a baby, was leaving Seattle to attend a niece’s graduation. In her place, she had arranged for her adult son to pick Keyon up from his after-school program. But when the boy’s uncle arrived later that day, Keyon was gone. In a panic, Beaver and his mom, Salina Simpson,...
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Adela Ames-Lopez unanimously confirmed as Trenton health director
Adela Ames-Lopez, a former director at the state Department of Children and Families, was confirmed Tuesday night as health director in a sweeping 7-0 vote. She had been serving in an interim capacity since being appointed in January to replace Shakira Abdul-Ali, who left for another job. “You’re gonna learn about me,” Amez-Lopez told legislators. “I’m the voice.” Amez-Lopez faced no opposition but a flurry of questions from West Ward councilwoman Robin Vaughn. Vaughn wanted to ensure that...
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YURI KOCHIYAMA
Yuri Kochiyama was a radical Japanese-American liberation activist and a pioneer of the intersectionality movement. Born in California to Japanese immigrants in 1921, Yuri lived what she felt was an “all American childhood”. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor her life would drastically change; Yuri’s father was arrested by the FBI, accused of being a “threat to national security”, was detained for six weeks and died just days after his release. Yuri, her mother and brother were some...
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Tennessee passes bill that withholds funds from schools teaching about systemic racism
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee lawmakers have passed a bill that would withhold funding from schools teaching about systemic racism and white privilege. HB 0580/SB 0623 officially cleared the General Assembly Wednesday, one of several to pass on the day lawmakers adjourned for the year . The bill centers on restricting what concepts on institutional racism can be taught in school, and attracted some of the most impassioned debates. While most of the majority-white GOP caucuses in the House and...
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'Absolutely defeated': Black nurses struggle with mental health support while battling Covid-19
(CNN) Throughout Olivia Thompson's 12-hour shift as a cardiac and Covid-19 nurse in Chandler, Arizona, she closely monitors the oxygen levels of several patients at a time and works with other medical specialists to heal them. For some, no amount of care Thompson gives prevents them from being transferred to the Intensive Care Unit. "There were times where I was dreading going to work because of the unknown," Thompson said. "Am I going to be a good nurse for my patients? Am I going to make a...
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A century later, she still bears witness to a race massacre - Tulsa Massacre May 31 – June 1, 1921
Viola Ford Fletcher is also still waiting for justice. By TONY NORMAN • Pittsburgh Post-Gazette America has been telling Viola Ford Fletcher to wait for justice ever since she was 7 years old. Now a spry 107, Fletcher is running out of patience with America. Delivered by midwife on a farm in Lawton, Okla., on May 10, 1914, Fletcher was born 138 years after the American experiment commenced in 1776. As a Black daughter of Oklahoma, she had no more reason to believe in America’s promises than...
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THE POLYNESIAN PANTHER PARTY
The Polynesian Panthers were a liberation activist group that fought for Polynesian and Māori empowerment in New Zealand. Inspired by the Black Power movement in the United States, along with Māori protests within the country, inner city youth in Auckland were emboldened to stand against capitalism and to fight for visibility. Auckland’s urban areas were filled with Pacific Islander immigrants, and their Kiwi-born children, who were subjected to police brutality, faced harsh discrimination,...
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100 Years later| Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre| Premieres May 30 at 8/7c | The HISTORY Channel
In the 1920s, the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, also known as Black Wall Street, was one of the most prosperous African American communities in the United States. Filled with booming businesses and thriving entrepreneurs, the district served as a mecca of Black ingenuity and promise, until the evening of May 31, 1921, which marked the start of the devastating Tulsa Race Massacre. More than thirty-five city blocks were burned to the ground and hundreds of Black city dwellers were...
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NJ spends $445K a year to lock a kid up. We’ve got a better idea. | Opinion By Charles Loflin | Star Ledger Guest Columnist
New Jersey plans to spend a staggering $445,504 per incarcerated youth in 2022 to house them in facilities that are almost 80% empty. The time is now for New Jersey to close its youth prisons and invest in community-based alternatives. The current system, with its focus wholly on punishment rather than rehabilitation, the current system leaves whole communities — as well as the families of both victims and offenders — with unresolved trauma that continues to reverberate long after the...
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Reclaiming the Narrative of Black Fatherhood
Fathers play a critical role in the healthy development of children and families. This is why it's important to address structural and systemic barriers that prevent Black men from being fully present in their children's lives—so that all families have a chance to thrive. My wife and I have been married since 2019, but we’ve known each other since we were 14-year-olds. We are raising a blended family. She has a daughter who is 9 and a 7-year-old son. I have a son who is 8, and together we...
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Akeera Weathers - The Barbershop Theory
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “barbershop”? Whatever that word is I want you to keep it in the back of your mind as you’re reading this. For me, the first word that comes to mind is healing. I’m sure many of you are reading this thinking “you are so far off from what a barbershop is”, but before you completely write it off let me explain. As someone raised within an urban community, I can tell you 90% of barbershops are owned by African American, Puerto...
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5th Annual Panel on Mental Health in Queer & Trans BIPOC Communities
5th annual panel discussion on mental health in Queer and Transgender, Black, Indigenous, People of Color, or QTBIPOC, communities. We will be discussing the importance of prioritizing wellness and mental health. Our panelists include: Dr. Helen Hsu - Past President of The Asian American Psychological Association Josh Odam-Healing While Black LLC Kylee Jones, ACSW- Indigenous Circle of Wellness Keah Brown - Author, Actress, Journalist & Screenwriter Juan Acosta - Mental Health &...
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Finding Peace in the Midst of Brokenness: Anonymous Blogger
In honor of mental health month I ask myself this question: What is something you need to start saying “yes” to? To most individuals the answer is very simple; minute. Unfortunately for an over thinker and self-doubter like I this is a loaded questions which constitutes a complex answer. My old self wants to run as fast as I can and hide until the question goes away, but the new me is ready to face it head on. So here it goes. I need to start saying yes to MYSELF! Over the past few months,...
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Give NJ youth mental health treatment, not prison time, advocates say | Patrick Lavery | NJ1015
NEWARK — When gymnastics legend Simone Biles suddenly pulled out of Olympic competition last week, citing a need to focus on her mental health, it prompted two concurrent yet divergent conversations. One, was she neglecting her duty to team and country by refusing to push through and compete, and two, is mental health stigma in sports finally going to be broken down. Ashanti Jones, community engagement manager for the Newark-based New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, said someone does...
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Systemic Racism & Health Care: Building Black Confidence in the COVID-19 Vaccine
The Tuskegee syphilis experiment. The secret sale of Henrietta Lacks cancer research cells. Jim Crow laws affecting African Americans' ability to receive medical treatment. For weeks, it’s been hard to hear over the clamor of millions of Americans lining up for COVID-19 vaccines. But not everyone has been enthused — namely, large swaths of minority communities, which comprise the populations disproportionately impacted by the virus, but whose hesitance is largely fueled by the country’s...
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Just 9% of Newark students met state math standards this spring, data show
PATRICK WALL, CHALKBEAT NEWARK | AUGUST 6, 2021 | NJ SPOTLIGHT NEWS Only 11% of students met expectations in reading Newark students suffered extensive learning loss last school year, according to spring 2021 test scores that show for the first time how profoundly the pandemic disrupted students’ academic progress. Just 9% of students in grades 2-8 met state expectations in math based on the results of end-of-year tests taken this spring, according to Newark Public Schools data Chalkbeat...
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The Attachment Trauma Network (ATN) Standing Strong Conference
About this event An event to empower parents and caregivers. VIRTUAL Monday, September 13 to Wednesday, September15, 2021 EASTERN TIME 10am to 4pm with Support options before and after. 3 days of trauma-informed/relationship-focused: Workshops on advocacy. Support sessions Self-care/family-care strategies Topics include How to Build a Community of Support Trauma-Informed IEPs The Mindset of an Advocate What is a Trauma-Informed School? Click here to register now! $75 for event and includes...
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West Point statue honors famed Buffalo Soldiers
Black cavalry unit taught horsemanship to white cadets, suffered racism. By SARAHMASLIN NIR and PRECIOUS FONDREN New York Times WEST POINT, N.Y. – A large crowd watched expectantly as a soldier tugged at a black cloth spread over a monumental statue on the grounds of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on Friday. As it fell away, it revealed a bronze statue of a Black soldier sitting astride a stallion, a tribute to the U.S. Army’s famed Black cavalry — the Buffalo Soldiers — who for...
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Cesarean deliveries decline in N.J., but childbirth complications rise for Black, Hispanic mothers
By Elizabeth Llorente | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com Cesarean deliveries declined slightly in New Jersey, but Black and Hispanic mothers again experienced more childbirth complications than white women, continuing a long pattern in the state, according to a newly released report. Black women for years have had a maternal mortality rate seven times higher than white women in the state. The New Jersey Report Card of Hospital Maternity Care, released Monday by the state Health Department and...
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2021 Culture Conference
Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology School of Social Work Graduate School of Education Center of Alcohol & Substance Use Studies CLICK HERE REGISTER NOW Registration fees: Professionals: $99 Students: $ 15 If you're a student, please email a scan of your student ID to ce@gsapp.rutgers.edu to receive the discount code. Special rates for GSAPP/School of Social Work/Graduate School of Education alumni and supervisors! Special Group Rates! email ce@gsapp.rutgers.edu for...
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WHO honors exploited heroine - Henrietta Lacks
Cells taken from Henrietta Lacks without her consent have saved countless lives. By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press GENEVA – The chief of the World Health Organization on Wednesday honored the late Henrietta Lacks, an American woman whose cancer cells were taken without her knowledge during the 1950s and ended up providing the foundation for vast scientific breakthroughs, including research about the coronavirus. The recognition from WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus came more...
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Report: An estimated 175,000 U.S. children have lost a parent or grandparent due to COVID-19
BY STACY RICKARD DALLAS UPDATED 1:00 PM CT OCT. 26, 2021 PUBLISHED 4:32 PM CT OCT. 25, 2021 DALLAS — COVID-19 has impacted the family dynamic for children across the world whose caregivers died from the virus. A recent study from the journal Pediatrics estimates from April 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021, more than 140,000 children in the U.S. experienced the death of a parent or grandparent caregiver. That number is now estimated to have risen to 175,000 , according to study authors. The...
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TRUST CONVERSATION – KATHLEEN NOONAN
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans have faced increased stress over the cost, availability and quality of health care, and distrust in our health system has heightened. This webinar will provide a deep dive into the impact that COVID-19 has had on the health care system, particularly in marginalized communities, and solutions to build and rebuild trust. Kathleen Noonan is the Chief Executive Officer of the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers, a nonprofit healthcare...
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Decolonization Starts Inside of You
Decolonization starts inside of you. It is a lot about finding compassion and kindness, and less about anger and fear. We should remember that it begins with an internal process of healing and reconciliation. Once we find that peace, then we will be able to move forward and unify as peoples. We must remember that we are all related. At Standing Rock, we saw a new vision of what it means to be human. The fire and the water were our tools for healing. It was not just a protest; it was an...
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Spring Registration Now Open for These Courses for Educators!
Cowart Trauma Informed Partnership is pleased to announce three upcoming courses for educators! This school year has introduced us to a whole new understanding of what "tired" means. Even before, studies showed that a significant portion of the population have experienced trauma, or harmful or life-threatening events which have impacted their everyday functioning or well-being. Research shows that individuals living in poverty or with a disability are even more at risk for having experienced...
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A BLACK HISTORY MONTH CONVERSATION: WHAT IS CRITICAL RACE THEORY?
THURSDAY FEB. 17, 2022 6:30PM - 7:45PM Community Building Coalition invites you to a virtual discussion on Critical Race Theory by Dr. Delores Jones Brown, the founding director of the John Jay College on Race, Crime and Justice and co-editor of African Americans in Criminal Justice: An Encyclopedia. REGISTER HERE
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Highlights from the 2021 Building a Culture of Health in New Jersey Conference
Afternoon Keynote Speaker — Dave Ellis: “What’s Strong With You? A Conversation About Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) versus (ACEs)" Dave Ellis, executive director of the NJ Office of Resilience, gave an enthralling talk about community and what it takes to build it meaningfully, inviting audience members to get to know each other better. "I know a whole bunch of folks who don't agree with the world according to data, and the biggest conversation that I like having with them is, 'Help...
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Tensions and Solidarity Across BIPOC Groups
TONIGHT, February 24th, @ 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm ET Con traducción en vivo y en español (lea más abajo) Conversations about race in US history often focus on the central (and critically important) Black-White narrative. Yet children growing up in our multicultural democracy are increasingly interacting with others across many different racial and ethnic lines. It is past time that we pay much more attention to how different BIPOC groups relate to each other. What are the roots of existing...
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Black Heroes and Inventors
Meet African War Hero Who Sank A German Ship With Bomb Made From Milk-Can But Was Refused Highest Decoration During World War II, Job Maseko , a South African war hero, sunk an enemy ship with an improvised bomb hidden in a milk container. Maseko, a member of the South African Native Military Corps (NMC), was awarded the Military Medal for his “meritorious and courageous” action, which he described as demonstrating “ingenuity, resolve, and full disregard for personal safety.” The Military...
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‘Diaries of A Black Girl in Foster Care’ Podcast Launches
A new podcast series beginning Wednesday, Feb. 23 will explore the unique issues of Black girls who experience foster care in America. Diaries of A Black Girl in Foster Care (which uses @BlkGrlDiariesFC on social media platforms) will begin with three episodes that address cultural issues, racial disparities and stereotypes that organizers argue have contributed to poor outcomes for Black girls in America’s various foster care systems. “Everybody can get something out of this, not just Black...
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Shopping while Black: Bridgewater mall incident amplifies talk of racism in retail spaces.
By Vashti Harris | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com and Matthew Stanmyre | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com For Tionni Kennedy, Bridgewater Commons mall is a place she frequently visits to hang out with friends, browse through stores, and gab over meals in the food court. It’s also where Kennedy, who is Black, said she often encounters racism. The 17-year-old from Piscataway feels the glare of store workers when she walks into shops and notices how they always seem to follow her as she looks at...
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Black Heroes and Inventors [libertywritersglobal.com]
Click here for cover photo credit Remembering The Historic Black Miami Community Destroyed To Build A Whites-Only School At least 200 Black towns and communities had been formed across the United States by 1888. According to a Washington Post article, several of these towns were modeled after Black communities founded during the American Revolution and during the antebellum period, which lasted from the late 1700s until 1860. Some settlements vanished completely as time passed. Others were...
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Building the Movement workshop series
If you haven't already been joining our Building the Movement workshop series, I wanted to personally invite you to join the next free, virtual workshop that aims to provide stakeholders, advocates and practitioners the tools to integrate trauma-informed, resilience-focused and healing-centered approaches and principles into their daily operations. Please join us on Friday, March 4, 2022, from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. ET (10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. PT) as we focus on populations with high prevalence of...
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Black all-female WWII unit to be honored with Congressional Gold Medal.
World War II veteran Maj. Fannie Griffin McClendon, photographed last year, was in the 6888th postal battalion. BOSTON – The House voted Monday to award the only all female, Black unit to serve in Europe during World War II with the Congressional Gold Medal. The 422-0 vote follows a long-running campaign to recognize the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion. The Senate passed the legislation last year. The unit, known in short as the Six Triple Eight, was tasked with sorting and routing...
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Systemically Neglected How Racism Structures Public Systems to Produce Child Neglect
In recent years, more than a quarter of a million children each year have been removed from their families and placed in foster care because of alleged neglect and these children are disproportionately Black or Indigenous. Too often, circumstances stemming from poverty are construed as neglect, but underlying both poverty and neglect is historic and present-day racism. This report outlines the history of how child protective services developed to over-surveil families of color, examines how...
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Educational and social deficits worsen among NJ students
Eric Scott | NJ1015 After two years of remote learning and hybrid classes, New Jersey's K-12 students continue to struggle and are in danger of falling even farther behind. Even with in-person learning since the start of the current school year, the struggles are evidence in every grade level. The non-profit education advocacy group JerseyCAN recently completed the first comprehensive look at so-called 'learning loss,' and the results should alarm every parent. On average, New Jersey...
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International Transgender Day of Visibility
Each year on March 31, the Human Rights Campaign honors International Transgender Day of Visibility, a time to celebrate transgender and non-binary people around the globe and acknowledge the courage it takes to live openly and authentically. HRC & other advocates also mark the day by raising awareness around discrimination and violence that trans people face. HRC estimates that there are more than 2 million transgender people across the United States. We are parents, siblings and kids.
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The Carceral Logic of Child Welfare - An interview with Dorothy Roberts, the author of Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families—and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World.
Lyra Walsh Fuchs | DissentMagazine.org Over 630,000 children, who are disproportionately Black and Indigenous, were “served by the foster care system” in 2020, according to the federal Department of Health and Human Services. That number doesn’t account for the many families placed under informal supervisory plans, or who received surprise knocks on their doors from caseworkers, often accompanied by police. Dorothy Roberts and a growing number of activists across the country have another...