Tagged With "Diaries of A Black Girl in Foster Care"
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Jane Fonda | Actress and Activist
From a polite and wholesome Hollywood starlet with billowing blonde locks to a fierce and outspoken activist with a choppy shag haircut, the early days of Jane Fonda’s political awakening proved to be a transformation no one saw coming. Beginning in the 1960s, the Academy Award-winning actress’ journey to social consciousness carries on to this day. Still speaking out for causes close to her heart such as the Black Lives Matter movement and the environmental crisis , Fonda rebels against the...
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Juliette Hampton
Healthy racial identity development among older white youth is a bit more complex. Often, white students must come to understand that society attaches meaning to their whiteness and that they have a choice about how to be white in a multicultural society. The American Civil Rights Movement was a movement of the people. Black and white, male and female, Jew and Christian, rich and poor -- ordinary people who came together across differences to advance this nation's core value of equality and...
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Trauma Informed Care
Trauma Informed Care Newsletter | Issue 4, February 2021 Do you remember your first job as a helper? Mine goes back more than 25 years when I was hired as a Treatment Foster Care therapist for Community Impact Programs in Racine, Wisconsin. Transforming Systems of Care: What's Going On in Racine County, Wisconsin By Tim Grove, Senior Consultant Do you remember your first job as a helper? Mine goes back more than 25 years when I was hired as a Treatment Foster Care therapist for Community...
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Paper Tigers Documentary
More than two decades ago, two respected researchers, clinical physician Dr. Vincent Felitti and CDC epidemiologist Robert Anda, published the game-changing Adverse Childhood Experiences Study . It revealed a troubling but irrefutable phenomenon: the more traumatic experiences the respondents had as children (such as physical and emotional abuse and neglect), the more likely they were to develop health problems later in life—problems such as cancer, heart disease, and high blood pressure. To...
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Jane Addams
A progressive social reformer and activist, Jane Addams was on the frontline of the settlement house movement in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries. She later became internationally respected for the peace activism that ultimately won her a Nobel Peace Prize in 1931, the first American woman to receive this honor. Born on September 6, 1860 in the small farming town of Cedarville, Illinois, Addams was the eighth of John Huy and Sarah Weber Addams’ nine children. Only five of the Addams...
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Melanie Funchess |Implicit Bias - How it Effects Us and How We Push Through
This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Everyone makes assumptions about people they don’t know. Melanie will teach us to recognize these assumptions and work toward a common understanding. Ms. Melanie Funchess is currently employed by the Mental Health Association where she serves as the Director of Community Engagement. She is also involved in several community based coalitions and organizations such as the African American Leadership...
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Love Them First: Lessons from Lucy Laney Elementary
An amazing must watch documentary. With unprecedented access over the course of a year this feature-length documentary, Love Them First — Lessons from Lucy Laney Elementary, follows the determination of a charismatic north Minneapolis elementary school principal, Mauri Melander Friestleben, as she sets out to undo history. Not only does the state have the largest achievement gap between black and white children in the United States, Friestleben faced another seemingly impossible obstacle,...
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‘Whole Generations Of Fathers’ Lost As COVID-19 Kills Young Latino Men In NJ BY KAREN YI | Gothamist
After having a light cough for three days last spring, Miguel Mestiza Valderrabano called his partner Ana Maria Lorenzo to say that, when she got home from work, he planned to go to the hospital. He would never make it, and the mental image of his 32-year-old lifeless body on their living room floor still haunts her. “I couldn’t believe that had happened in minutes,” Lorenzo said. She had just arrived home from her cleaning job—her first assignment in weeks after she’d lost work during the...
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Racial disparities in Covid-19 case rates among young people were prevalent early in the pandemic, CDC study says By Deidre McPhillips, CNN
(CNN)Early in the pandemic, young people from all racial and ethnic minority groups had higher Covid-19 case rates than non-Hispanic White people under the age of 25, according to a study published Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between January and April, case rates compared to young White people were about 1.5 times higher among young Asian people, about 2.5 times higher among young Black people and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders, nearly 4 times higher...
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Betty Friedan | Gloria Steinem | Bell Hooks
Betty Friedan The American writer and activist penned The Feminine Mystique in 1963, which is often credited for sparking the second wave of feminism that began in the '60s and '70s. Friedan spent her life working to establish women's equality, helping to establish the National Women's Political Caucus as well as organizing the Women's Strike For Equality in 1970 , which popularized the feminist movement throughout America. Gloria Steinem Aptly referred to as the "Mother of Feminism," Gloria...
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Kathleen Neal Cleaver | Winona LaDuke | Naomi Klein
Kathleen Neal Cleaver In the '60s, Kathleen Neal Cleaver was a prominent member of the Black Panther Party, in which she created the position of communications secretary. In 1998, she said , "I think it is important to place the women who fought oppression as Black Panthers within the longer tradition of freedom fighters like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Ida Wells-Barnett, who took on an entirely oppressive world and insisted that their race, their gender, and their humanity be respected...
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Re: Anna Arnold Hedgeman
Lovely words. Just a FYI: Cheyney is the oldest black historical college.
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Anna Arnold Hedgeman
Through her work with various local and national organizations, Anna Arnold Hedgeman always fought for equal opportunity and respect, particularly for African American women. Throughout her long life, Hedgeman advocated for civil rights, education, social justice, poverty relief, and women. Anna Arnold Hedgeman was born on July 5, 1899 to Mary Ellen Parker and William James Arnold II in Marshalltown, Iowa. From an early age, her father emphasized education and a strong work ethic, and she...
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UNITY - Native American youth
UNITY’s Mission is to foster the spiritual, mental, physical, and social development of American Indian and Alaska Native youth, and to help build a strong, unified, and self-reliant Native America through greater youth involvement. UNITY Defined: UNITY is a national network organization promoting personal development, citizenship, and leadership among Native American youth. UNITY has a long (40+ years) and impressive track record of empowering and serving American Indian and Alaska Native...
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Dr. Nadine Burke Harris: Adverse Childhood Experiences and Toxic Stress: A Public Health Crisis
Nadine Burke Harris, MD, MPH CEO, Center for Youth Wellness 2015 Child Health, Education, and Care Summit
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Clara Barton
Clara Barton An educator and humanitarian, Clarissa “Clara” Harlowe Barton helped distribute needed supplies to the Union Army during the Civil War and later founded the disaster relief organization, the American Red Cross. Born on December 25, 1821 in Oxford, Massachusetts, Barton was the youngest of Stephen and Sarah Barton’s five children. Her father was a prosperous farmer. As a teenager, Barton helped care for her seriously ill brother David—her first experience as a nurse. Barton’s...
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Breonna Taylor - One Year Later - No Accountability
Before Breonna Taylor's name became synonymous with police violence against Black Americans, she was an emergency medical technician in Louisville, Ky. The 26-year-old Black woman's friends and family say she was beloved, and relished the opportunity to brighten someone else's day. Exactly one year ago, Louisville police gunned her down in her home. Now, her name is a ubiquitous rallying cry at protests calling for police reforms, and many social justice advocates point to her story as an...
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Renee Richards | Juliette Gordon Low | Angie Xtravaganza |
Renee Richards Long before Caitlyn Jenner came out, pro-tennis player Renee Richards shook up the sports world when she came out as a transgender woman. She made even greater waves later, when she returned to tennis and sued the United States Tennis Association, the Women's Tennis Association, and the United States Open Committee for her right to compete as a woman. Although she was one of the first to take on that battle (and win!), Richards doesn't consider herself a pioneer. She told GQ...
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Simone de Beauvoir | Marlene Dietrich | Bell Hooks
Simone de Beauvoir An outspoken political activist, writer and social theorist, in 1949 de Beauvoir wrote The Second Sex , an ahead-of-its-time book credited with paving the way for modern feminism. In the influential (and at the time, extremely controversial) book, de Beauvoir critiques the patriarchy and social constructs faced by women. The Second Sex was banned by The Vatican and even deemed "pornography" by some —a fearless start to the fight for feminism. Marlene Dietrich While her...
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The Path Forward
A discussion on racial equity in housing and an inclusive economy One in three households — nearly 100 million people across the U.S. — struggle with housing costs that jeopardize their financial security, according to the Aspen Institute. As one of the biggest determinants of financial and physical health, housing can influence a person’s access to education, health care and job opportunities, and has the ability to transform entire communities and strengthen the economy. And yet, while the...
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Stop Asian Hate
Dr. XinQi Dong, director of the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research , and lead researcher of the Rutgers Asian Resource Center for Minority Aging Research and The PINE Study issued the following statement in response to anti-Asian racism and violence against Asians across the country. “As researchers who focus on Asian health, we are dedicated to understanding and addressing issues that impact Asian communities. Perhaps none have had a greater impact over the...
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ANTI-LYNCHING BILLS
Congress has a chance to make an overdue statement It’s been 129 years since three Black men — Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell and Henry Stewart — were brutally murdered by a white mob. The three were the well-regarded owners of a thriving grocery store in a section of Memphis, Tenn., known as the Curve. The journalist Ida B. Wells, at risk to her own life and at the price of her ability to remain in Memphis, chronicled the killings that white newspapers covered over. She noted in her biography...
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Adelina Otero-Warren
Adelina Otero-Warren, the first Hispanic woman to run for U.S. Congress and the first female superintendent of public schools in Santa Fe, was a leader in New Mexico’s woman’s suffrage movement. She emphasized the necessity of Spanish in the suffrage fight to reach Hispanic women and spearheaded the lobbying effort to ratify the 19th amendment in New Mexico. She strove to improve education for all New Mexicans, working especially to advance bicultural education and to preserve cultural...
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Find Solutions for Racial Health Gaps
A painful but pioneering infant mortality study is a challenge we “can’t walk away from,” as Minnesota DFL Rep. Kelly Morrison, who’s also a physician, aptly put it during a recent legislative briefing. Black babies in the U.S. have long been at much higher risk of dying than white newborns. But a study from a team that included two University of Minnesota researchers yielded a stunning finding: The hospital death rate for Black infants drops by a third when a Black doctor cared for them...
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Show+Tell New Jersey: Innovations in Health and Early Childhood
Please join The Nicholson Foundation for Show+Tell New Jersey: Innovations in Health and Early Childhood Tuesday, April 20 1 PM - 2:30 PM EDT REGISTER The Nicholson Foundation is pleased to be partnering with Promise Venture Studio to bring you Show+Tell New Jersey: Innovations in Health and Early Childhood , a virtual event that will highlight 12 outstanding programs working to improve the health and well-being of children and families across New Jersey . In just 90 minutes, you’ll hear...
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Let’s Talk About Racial Microaggressions In The Workplace
Some corporations have come out in support of Black Lives Matter, and they give great detail their support of diversity. However, if we are to address racism in the workplace, we need to discuss racial microaggressions — something that businesses rarely address. Microaggressions are defined as “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative slights and insults to...
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Lack of affordable housing squeezing many low-income NJ families
A new national report estimates a shortage of about 7 million affordable and available rental homes for Americans living at or below the poverty level. Such a gap, as explained by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, also exists in New Jersey, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the problem. "I think what we've seen is, this crisis actually makes worse some of those conditions that were in place pre-COVID," Arnold Cohen, senior policy advisor for the Housing and Community...
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Janet Mock
New York Times bestselling author Janet Mock continues to make history as a writer, director, and advocate. In 2018, Mock became the first transgender woman of color to write and direct an episode of television. Most recently, she signed a three-year multimillion-dollar contract with Netflix, making her the first openly transgender woman of color to sign a deal with a major content company. Mock hopes that her creations will continue to “empower people and equip them to tell their own...
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Maternal Health in New Jersey: Pursuing Equity Through Systemic Change
You are invited to attend: NJ Spotlight News Virtual Roundtable: Maternal Health in New Jersey: Pursuing Equity Through Systemic Change Thursday, April 1, 2021 from 4:00 PM - 5:15 PM Online via teleconferencing This will be an online event only. Please register to have a teleconferencing link emailed to you Thursday, 4/1, at 3pm with a repeat send at 4pm. Alarmingly, in the United States mothers are dying at the highest rate in the developed world with the crisis being most severe for Black...
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Kimberly Teehee
Over 200 years ago, the United States signed a treaty with the Cherokee Nation, granting them representation in Congress. However, this position was never filled until Kimberly Teehee entered the scene. In 2019, Teehee became the first Cherokee Nation delegate in the House of Representatives. As a lawyer, activist, and former advisor to President Obama, Teehee has quickly become a monumental figure in history. Kimberly Teehee was born on March 2, 1966 in Chicago, Illinois. Due to a federal...
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Recy Taylor
Although it was very dangerous for African Americans to speak out against white people during the Jim Crow era, Recy Taylor refused to remain silent about sexual violence. She bravely testified against the group of white men that kidnapped and raped her. Decades later, her story has been told in both a book and a documentary film. Recy Taylor was born as Recy Corbitt on December 31, 1919. She grew up in Abbeville, Alabama to a sharecropping family. When she was 17 years old, her mother died...
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Malala Yousafzai
At age eleven, Malala Yousafzai was already advocating for the rights of women and girls. As an outspoken proponent for girls’ right to education, Yousafzai was often in danger because of her beliefs. However, even after being shot by the Taliban, she continued her activism and founded the Malala Fund with her father. By age seventeen, Yousafzai became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her work. Malala Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997 in Mingora, Pakistan. Mingora...
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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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It’s called ‘the pandemic wall’ and it mostly affects children, psychologists say
JEN URSILLO | NJ1015 It's been over a year since the COVID-19 pandemic began and kids are hitting a breaking point that many developmental psychologists have coined "the pandemic wall." The pandemic wall refers to cognitive overload, said Jaime Arlia, vice president of Children and Family Services at CarePlus NJ. Kids have hit the point where their bodies and brains just can't take it anymore. They're exhausted and worn out. They're taking the brunt of this because their capacities were...
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Remodeling Healthcare for Children with New Jersey Family Care: Understanding How the Integrated Care for Kids Model is Changing Care for Kids in Monmouth and Ocean Counties
ATTN Monmouth and Ocean Counties Earn CME/MOC Part 2 credit! Join us Thursday, April 15th at 12 PM EST NJ InCK is a multi-sector collaborative child-centered local service delivery model aimed at reducing out-of-home placement as well as health care expenditures for children covered by Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). It operates through prevention, early identification, and treatment of priority health concerns like behavioral health challenges, physical health...
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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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Washington Lawmakers Look To Keep Families Together As Part Of Foster Care Reform
By Allegra Abramo | INVW.com Poverty, disability, homelessness wouldn’t qualify as sole reason to take kids away With tears in her eyes, Karen Osborne recalled the day in 2014 when police showed up to take away her 6-week-old daughter. Osborne hadn’t been accused of abuse nor neglect. Instead, social workers were concerned about Osborne’s “mental capacity.” They had already removed seven of Osborne’s previous children and made plans to remove her new baby before she was even born. Social...
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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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The Newark Trust for Education Safe and Supportive Learning Environments (SSLE) Summit: May 10-13th
The Newark Trust for Education is proud to present the third annual Safe and Supportive Learning Environments (SSLE) Summit: Covid-19 & Beyond! This year’s summit will focus on working together with students and families to create safe and supportive learning environments post pandemic. Over the course of four days (May 10th – 13th) participants will hear keynote remarks delivered by experts including Karen L. Mapp, Ed.D. , Senior Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education;...
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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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Law and Disability Conference 5/5 @ 9:30AM EST
The Law and Disability Conference is held each year at the New Jersey Law Center and is cosponsored with the Community Health Law Project . This year, we will be pivoting to an online format due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The topics for the 2021 Law and Disability Conference will include: supportive housing, special needs trusts, Medicaid eligibility and transition from children’s to adult system of care. The 2021 Conference will be held Wednesday, May 5, 2021 from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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Marking National Mental Health Awareness Month, Governor Murphy Signs Legislation to Cover Expenses for Adolescent Mental Health Screenings
TRENTON – In advance of National Mental Health Awareness Month in May, Governor Phil Murphy today signed A3548 into law, which will require private insurers, the State Health Benefit Plan, and School Employees' Health Benefits Program to put into place policies and procedures to ensure coverage of expenses in mental health screening of a major depressive disorder for adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18. “The effects and uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic has put the mental health of...
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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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THE BENEFITS OF BEING VACCINATED
In recognizing Nurses Week, and School Nurse Day, as an urban community school nurse, I am strongly encouraging you in urban communities to become vaccinated. This COVID-19 pandemic has claimed the lives of so many of our loved ones especially in under-served under-privileged communities. Many are hesitant and resistant in becoming vaccinated with reasons as diverse as the neighborhoods. Awareness and access is critical in turning the tide in this pandemic. Research and science supports...