March 2022

Our Skin: A First Conversation About Race (socialjusticebooks.org)

Dana Brown (PACEs Connection Staff) · 3/25/223:52 PM

Our Skin: A First Conversation About Race is the book we’ve been waiting for! The team (Megan Madison, Jessica Ralli, and Isabel Roxas) did an incredible thing: they explained race and racism to young children. Not only did they do it in a few pages of a board book, but they also provided guidance to the adults who will read it to children. As soon as you open the book, the reader is greeted with colorful representations of the authors and illustrator, as well as a note on the purpose and...

Kids as Young as 8 Are Using Social Media More Than Ever, Study Finds [nytimes.com]

Rafael Maravilla(PACEs Connection Staff) · 3/25/226:33 AM

By Melinda Wenner Moyer, Photo: Dmitry Kostyukov/The New York Times, The New York Times, March 24, 2022 Kids and teens in America are spending more time than ever using screens and social media, with the number of hours spent online having risen sharply during the pandemic, according to results from a survey released Wednesday. The survey , published by the nonprofit research organization Common Sense Media, found that overall screen use among teens and tweens increased by 17 percent from...

Traumatic Events and Behavior

Danielle Schappert · 3/23/226:49 AM

Early childhood trauma or adverse events in the absence of natural supports or a nurturing caregiver may interrupt and negatively impact brain development and affect behavior and long-term emotional and mental health. Early experiences in life that are positive and negative shape the architecture of the brain. When a an infant or young child is exposed to chronic stress or traumatic events, the brain's emotional center, the amygdala, reacts. In a state of constant fight, flight or freeze,...

Old Man Whose Memory Resets Every 15 Minutes Greets Kids Every Day After School (popcrush.com)

Dana Brown (PACEs Connection Staff) · 3/19/223:55 PM

Our faith in humanity has been restored! An older gentleman named Gene, who has dementia, sits outside his home nearly every day and waits for the school bus to drop off the neighborhood kids so he can say hello to them. A woman shared a clip of Gene via TikTok , explaining that every day Gene "makes his way outside, not even knowing why," but that something "every day tells him to go outside and wait." She also shared that "Mr. Gene's memory resets" about every 15 minutes, but he somehow...

Use of Foster Care Went Down During the First Pandemic Year. Did Maltreatment? [imprintnews.org]

Natalie Audage · 3/19/221:54 PM

By Michael Fitzgerald, Illustration: Christine Ongjoco, The Imprint, March 17, 2022 In a wood- and marble-paneled Washington, D.C., hearing room last month, President Joe Biden’s nominee for a top child welfare post delivered a stunning number to United States senators: Despite all the devastation families experienced following the emergence of COVID-19, there were roughly 1,000 fewer children in the Oregon foster care system when compared with two years prior. Rebecca Jones Gaston cited “a...

Interview with Audrey Smolkin from the New Center on Child Wellbeing and Trauma [positiveexperience.org/category/blog]

Laura Gallant · 3/18/227:43 AM

By Audrey Smolkin, 3/17/22, https://positiveexperience.org/category/blog/ Below is an interview with Audrey Smolkin, the Executive Director of the new Center on Child Wellbeing and Trauma. The HOPE Team worked with Audrey and her team to incorporate the HOPE framework into their new website. Learn more about this new center and how HOPE contributes to their amazing work in the Massachusetts community! Please introduce yourself and your work to our readers. I am the Executive Director of the...

Press 3 for a pep talk from kindergartners. A new hotline gives you options for joy (npr.org)

Dana Brown (PACEs Connection Staff) · 3/7/222:13 PM

Amid a crush of heavy news from around the world, who couldn't use some sage advice right now? Call a new hotline, and you'll get just that — encouraging words from a resilient group of kindergartners. Kids' voices will prompt you with a menu of options: If you're feeling mad, frustrated or nervous, press 1. If you need words of encouragement and life advice, press 2. If you need a pep talk from kindergartners, press 3. If you need to hear kids laughing with delight, press 4. For...

Connie and Steve Ballmer Pledge $425 Million for Children’s Mental Health [philanthropy.com]

Carey Sipp · 3/3/226:48 AM

By Maria Di Mento, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, March 1, 2022 The technology billionaires Steve and Connie Ballmer pledged more than $425 million to the University of Oregon to create an institute where the university’s researchers and experts in children’s behavioral and mental health will work with Oregon’s public school systems, families, nonprofits, and state agencies to tamp down the surge in mental-health issues children and youths in the state are facing after two years of the...

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