Tagged With "full-time jobs"
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A Criminal Justice Revolution
Newly elected Philadelphia DA, Larry Krasner, is on a mission to tear down the City's "bigoted and patently unfair systems of mass incarceration," writes Shaun King in his article for TheIntercept.com, titled: " Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner Promised a Criminal Justice Revolution. He's Exceeding Expectations ." Quoting some of the highlights of King's article: So far, having been in office less than three months, he has exceeded expectations. In his first week on the job, he fired 31...
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A Prosecutor's Vision for a Better Justice System (dailygood.org)
I am a prosecutor. I believe in law and order. I am the adopted son of a police officer, a Marine and a hairdresser. I believe in accountability and that we should all be safe in our communities. I love my job and the people that do it. I just think that it's our responsibility to do it better. The staggering inefficiency is what drove me to criminal justice work. The unfairness of it all made me want to be a defender. The power dynamic that I came to understand made me become a prosecutor.
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A Vision of Healing, and Hope for Formerly Incarcerated Women (nationswell.com)
Topeka K. Sam sits on a plush purple sofa in the living room of an immaculate row house in the Bronx, ordaining all of the ladies in the room. Sam, a founder of Hope House , a residence for previously incarcerated women, points to her cofounder, Vanee Sykes. “She’s a Lady of Hope,” Sam says, then swivels and points at another woman who has just entered the room. “That’s another Lady of Hope.” And, apparently, so too is this reporter. “The Ladies of Hope is you, and it’s all of us,” she adds.
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California's 'ban the box' law to help ex-felons find jobs after release (vcstar.com)
Starting Jan. 1, people with felony convictions across California will have a chance to do that. That’s when new “ban the box” legislation goes into effect, expanding an older state law that covered only public agencies to every business with five or more employees. At issue is that one little box on an employment application — the one that requires the applicant to check “yes” if she or he has a criminal history. Knowing they are likely to be screened out, job-seekers who would have to...
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Child Law Penalizes Moms for Abusive Partners [capitalandmain.com]
By Angelika Albaladejo, Capital & Main, October 16, 2019 Ingrid Archie thought she was doing everything right to protect her children. She got a restraining order against her abusive partner and moved into a domestic violence shelter with her kids. Then Archie got arrested for child endangerment. It had been only a month since she’d left the relationship and she was struggling to get back on her feet. She was stressed out and trying to run errands with her two youngest daughters. One of...
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Children of Incarcerated Parents
As a middle aged, naive and wide eyed kid with a new mission, that of addressing the many behavioral issues we faced in our Alaska Native Community, I focused on what I referred to as restoring responsible fatherhood to families. As the son of an absent father, I believed that the simple act of re engaging fathers with their children could have immediate results. Well, as I discovered, nothing is easy, especially in the field of corrections. I did start a fatherhood initiative for Alaska...
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Clark instructors help Larch inmates earn GEDs (columbian.com)
YACOLT — Posted on the walls in the Larch Corrections Center’s education building are photos of inmates, beaming in blue caps and gowns. These are men who have earned their General Educational Development certificates, or GEDs. These are the men who came first. In a nearby classroom, other men in beige and burgundy uniforms huddle over textbooks and worksheets. These are the men who hope to come next. Clark College’s GED program at Larch Corrections Center is a cornerstone of the educational...
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CRI is hiring an Associate Director!
Community Resilience Initiative is seeking an innovative and passionate individual to join our organization as an Associate Director (AD). The AD reports to the Executive Director and to the Board of Directors. Job Overview The role of the Associate Director is to sustain the resilience-based, trauma-responsive capacity building work at the local, regional, state and national stage for which CRI is recognized. Success in this position will be evidenced by recognition of its exceptional...
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Cycle of Risk: The Intersection of Poverty, Violence, and Trauma (issuelab.org)
We make the case that the conditions that foster violence and the conditions that perpetuate poverty are interconnected and reinforce each other; we further show the traumatic effects of violence -- and how trauma drives both poverty and violence. We then examine how violence has been used to enforce systems of racial oppression and how communities of color are disparately impacted by violence today. The conditions that perpetuate poverty and the conditions that foster violence often...
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Editorial: Inmates Risking Their Lives to Fight California's Wildfires Deserve a Chance at Full-Time Jobs [latimes.com]
By The Times Editorial Board, Los Angeles Times, November 1, 2019 As California continues to burn, the state’s firefighters have spent day after day in the searing heat and ferocious wind, hiking toward the flames, cutting fire lines and protecting homes. It’s grueling, heroic work that saves lives and prevents more devastation. And sometimes, it’s done by prison inmates. Among the thousands of federal, state and local firefighters on the fire lines, there are also more than 2,500 prisoners...
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Mindfulness & Resilience Training for Law Enforcement
https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/police-officers-learn-meditation-to-tackle-job-tension-1349636163854?v=railb& Lt. Richard Goerling the person teaching is incredible. I met him while I was training Trauma Response for the Justice System and Trauma-Informed Victim Interviewing for the Justice System in Cambridge, Mass. I have attended 2 immersion weekends in the mountains of Bend, Oregon with the LT. It changed my career, helped me get healthier, and I can honestly say saved a...
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New Resource! Secondary Traumatic Stress in Child Welfare Practice: Trauma-Informed Guidelines for Organizations
The Chadwick Center for Children & Families at Rady Children's Hospital San Diego has just released a set of trauma-informed guidelines with concrete strategies for approaching secondary traumatic stress (STS). While these guidelines were created for intended use within child welfare systems, they may be easily adapted into other child-and family-serving organizations. These guidelines were created as part of the Chadwick Trauma-Informed Systems Dissemination and Implementation Project...
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Offender reentry program fits national initiative (ocregister.com)
The importance of reentry services for offenders has gained public prominence. The Department of Justice and Attorney General Loretta Lynch recently underscored this by announcing National Reentry Week April 24-30. During this week, the Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. attorney’s offices and others will coordinate and promote various reentry events, such as job fairs, mentorship programs and other community activities like the ones we organize frequently from this center. The Santa Ana BI Day...
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Once a convict himself, he now fights to help former inmates get work (ocregister.com)
In Garden Grove in October, Jason Gomez, 34, was asked to talk about himself. He had been recently released from jail after being convicted of robbery. Gomez sat in a county office meeting with a big shot from the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency. At stake was the future of the program that had helped Gomez get a job after jail. It’s called LEAP (Linking to Employment Activities Pre-release), which was established with a $500,000 grant to the Orange County Sheriff’s...
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Presentation to Philadelphia Defenders Association
On October 17th I gave a presentation to 70 + attorneys from the Defenders Association. Several members of this group assisted me by sending me great information about ACEs and the criminal justice system for which I am grateful. The 3...
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President Obama issued an executive order "banning the box" for federal government employees. (upworthy.com)
Earlier today, President Obama issued an executive order "banning the box" for federal government employees. What does this mean? Well, you know how on job applications, there's sometimes a little box that asks whether or not you've been convicted of a crime ? With the wave of a pen, Obama just ordered that box to be removed from applications for jobs within the federal government, saying, "We can't dismiss people out of hand simply because of a mistake they made in the past." The...
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Priest Responds To Gang Members' 'Lethal Absence Of Hope' With Jobs, And Love [npr.org]
TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. My guest, Father Greg Boyle, has worked with former gang members in LA for over 30 years. He's the founder of Homeboy Industries, which was created to help former gang members and people transitioning out of prison create stable lives and stay out of gangs. Instead of Father Greg trying to convince business owners to hire young people who are at risk, he created jobs for them through Homeboy Industries. Homeboy is a series of businesses...
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Proposition 47 Grant Program Request for Proposals - California only
Grant Period: June 16, 2017 to August 15, 2020 Eligible Applicants : Public Agencies in Partnership with the Communities they Serve Released: November 18, 2016 Notice of Intent to Apply Due: January 20, 2017 Proposal Due Date: February 21, 2017 Public agencies – defined as city, county, or tribal government entities – must be the lead applicants for this funding, but they are required to share at least 50 percent of awarded funding with a nonprofit partner. There are many ways for you to...
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Reducing Harm for People in the Corrections System [Trauma Informed Oregon]
When I entered Framingham State Prison for the first time at age 19, I was placed in a cold, dark holding cell with 9 other women. Most of us were in bad shape, experiencing withdrawal symptoms, bruised from domestic violence, and simply scared to death of what we would experience after entering our designated cellblocks. After almost an entire day of being crammed in that cell, I was finally moved and asked to remove my clothes in front of an intimidating, angry-looking woman and then to...
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Residents praise correctional re-entry program, as Gov. Bullock pays a visit [ktvq.com]
"The program focuses on treating people and educating them about trauma in their lives, and how that trauma has contributed to their addictive or criminal behavior.
Women must apply for the program, through their probation officer, and register a high score on the “adverse childhood experience” scale. Program officials said most women on the program scored at least eight out of 10 on the scale, making them a very high risk for behavioral and mental-health problems."
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Rise Up Helps Former Inmates Make Transition to New Life (eastcountymagazine.org)
A small nonprofit in Santee is making its mark as a proven transition agent, giving newly-released longtime prisoners a chance for a new life while providing skilled workers for local businesses. At Rise Up Industries ( www.riseupindustries.org ) change doesn’t come quickly and the numbers of those enrolled or completing the program may not initially impress. But for the four graduates of the 18- month program, it’s been a godsend. In addition to extensive classroom and on-the-job training...
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Serving Your Community: Pivoting a Social Enterprise to Meet Community Needs (aspeninstitute.org)
How can you tackle recidivism and serve your community at the same time? Civil Society Fellow Matthew Fieldman and the team at EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute is leading the way. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, EDWINS is ensuring their work bettering the futures of previously incarcerated individuals would not end due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but instead pivoted their model to meet the needs of their community. We spoke with Matt about the EDWINS model, what it took to pivot, and...
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Some 350 Florida Leaders Expected to Attend Think Tank with Dr. Vincent Felitti, Co-Principal Investigator of the ACE Study; Expert on ACEs Science
Leaders from across the Sunshine State will take part in a “Think Tank” in Naples, FL, on Monday, August 6, to help create a more trauma-informed Florida. The estimated 350 attendees will include policy makers and community teams made up of school superintendents, law enforcement officers, judges, hospital administrators, mayors, PTA presidents, child welfare experts, mental health and substance abuse treatment providers, philanthropists, university researchers, state agency heads, and...
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Staying Connected: Moms Who Pump in Prison (nextcity.org)
An innovative lactation program encourages incarcerated new moms to maintain their breast milk supply, reinforcing maternal bonds and providing health benefits to their newborns. Jackson is one of six mothers at Riverside who are currently participating in the lactation program, one of the first of its kind inside an American jail. Women who give birth just before or during their time here are given access to breastfeeding education and the facilities of the lactation room, plus additional...
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Ending Recidivism, Brick by Brick (nationswell.com)
In the last few months, the Trade Institute of Pittsburgh , which offers masonry training to help Western Pennsylvania’s formerly incarcerated back into the workforce, made its first foray into entrepreneurship. Through its #OvCourse (previously called the #TIPizza Initiative), two top-performing graduates from the standard 10-week brick-laying courses, are chartering an oven construction business from scratch. “It’s pretty much the fastest track from a jail cell to a job in 70 days,” says...
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First job fair in a jail connects inmates and employers (workforce.org)
On Wednesday, March 1, 2017, the first job fair in a San Diego County jail was held for participants of East Mesa Reentry Facility ’s (EMRF) culinary training program and Reentry Works San Diego job center . Fifty-six inmates who are within a year of release attended the job fair, holding portfolios containing their résumés and pointers from the San Diego Second Chance Program , the operator of the job center that organized the job fair along with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department .
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How Clearing Criminal Records Puts People to Work [CityLab.com]
If you live in Kentucky and want to work on a farm, run an HVAC company, or interpret for the deaf community, you’d better not have a criminal record. Those professions and more than 100 others have licensing restrictions in the state based on a person’s prior convictions, making it hard for even those with minor offenses in their history to get a job. It’s not just Kentucky—every state in the U.S. has some form of employment restriction based on criminal records. There are nearly 70 million...
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How Going to Jail Changed My Life Path, Part 2 [JJIE.org]
Three years have passed since I first went to jail. I often think back to the bumpy, almost dangerous, ride over the bridge to Rikers Island. My classmates and I would hold onto our belongings and the handles of the van as we swerved to avoid potholes and bumps in the road, crossing from freedom to a caged environment. After the first few trips, I found myself focusing less on the obstacles of the road and more on the emotions bumping around in my head: the usual nerves to face a corrections...
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'I'm looking for a fresh start,' say ex-cons attending job, resource fair in Anaheim (ocregister.com)
Austin Barry stood outside of the Honda Center on Tuesday looking for a little redemption and a job. Just eight days out of prison for a robbery conviction, the 24-year-old Mission Viejo resident was among 200 former offenders who attended the Orange County Re-entry Resource Fair, which connected felons with employment opportunities, legal advice and drug-treatment programs. “I’m looking for a fresh start, which is kind of hard for any person with a record,” said Barry, who served a 2...
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Illness, incarcerated: As residents with mental illnesses cycle from the streets to cells, county officials struggle to create a new system (santamariasun.com)
The county’s current plan of action for decriminalizing mental illness is the Stepping Up Initiative, which aims to reduce the number of mentally ill inmates nationwide. The initiative brings together leaders in mental health, law enforcement, and criminal justice to help provide nonviolent mentally ill offenders with treatment, not jail time. The Sun spoke with mental health experts and county representatives who are vying to improve law enforcement’s approach to mentally ill offenders. At...
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Inmates to Sow Jail-grown Plants at County Parks (timesofsandiego.com)
A job training program at the East Mesa Detention and Re‐entry Facility is taking root at county parks. Trees and plants that were cultivated and grown at the jail’s greenhouse will be planted by inmates at five parks all over the county this month. The job training program started in July 2014 to help inmates develop skills and work habits needed to secure honest employment after their release, according to a San Diego County Sheriff’s Department news release. An instructor from...
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Job center at women’s reentry facility opens (workforce.org)
Opened in October, the center, managed by grant sub-recipient Second Chance, started enrolling participants, with the goal of offering trauma-informed reentry services to 400 women pre-release and to 100 of those 400 post-release. Enrollment of voluntary participants is based on three criteria. The individual must: be a resident of the facility be within 180 days of release have not been convicted of a sexual offense other than prostitution Though the goals are similar for both men and women...
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Kelly Orians: Getting Out and Staying Out (dailygood.org)
Kelly Orians is a staff attorney at The First 72 Plus , a New Orleans nonprofit founded by six formerly incarcerated people to help other formerly incarcerated men and women navigate the first 72 hours of their release. She is also the co-founder of Rising Foundations , a partner nonprofit that provides pathways to self-sufficiency for formerly incarcerated people, with an aim to stop the cycle of incarceration in low-income communities through small business development and home ownership.
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Life After ‘17to Life [nytimes.com]
STOCKTON, Calif. — In California, known for decades as one of the nation’s most avid jailers, the trajectory of law and order is shifting. Through litigation, legislation and a series of ballot initiatives, the state’s prison population has dropped 25 percent over the past decade. The photographer Joseph Rodriguez has been documenting crime and punishment in California for years and recently focused his gaze on the migration home, in Stockton — a barren outpost in California’s Central...
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Taking the Cops Out of Mental Health-Related 911 Rescues [khn.org]
By LJ Dawson, Kaiser Health News, October 11, 2019 Every day that Janet van der Laak drives between car dealerships in her sales job, she keeps size 12 shoes, some clothes and a packed lunch — a PB&J sandwich, fruit and a granola bar — beside her in case she sees her 27-year-old son on the streets. “’Jito, come home,” she always tells him, using a Spanish endearment. There he can have a bed and food, but her son, Matt Vinnola, rarely returns home. If he does, it is temporary. The streets...
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The law said an ex-felon couldn’t be a nurse. So this single mom got the law changed. (washingtonpost.com)
When Lisa Creason was a 19-year-old single mom, she robbed a Subway shop. Or, at least, she tried to. One evening in 1993, she walked in without a plan, without an ultimatum, and demanded money from the cash register. When she was denied, she took off. That spontaneous decision, which she said she made out of desperation to provide for her baby girl, would cost her for the next two decades. But it never defined her. On Thursday, Creason, now a 43-year-old mother of three and a nursing school...
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These Black Lives Matters protesters planned a march. The police threw them a cookout instead.
Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post just posted an inspiring story with a message of hope for communities struggling with tension between police and community members: Activist A.J. Bohannon had organized more than 1,000 Black Lives Matters protesters to march the streets of Wichita on Sunday. But then, days before, he received a call from the new police chief with a different idea. Instead of having an event that drew a hard line between protester and police, why not bring them all...
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Toxic Stress: Issue Brief on Family Separation and Child Detention [immigrationinitiative.harvard.edu]
By Jack P. Shonkoff, Immigration Initiative at Harvard, October 2019 Background The separation of children from their parents and their prolonged detention for an indefinite period of time raise profound concerns that transcend partisan politics and demand immediate resolution. Forcibly separating children from their parents is like setting a house on fire. Preventing rapid reunification is like blocking the first responders from doing their job. And subjecting children to prolonged...
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Yoga Behind Bars has offered yoga classes to prisoners for a while. Now it’s teaching inmates at the women’s prison near Gig Harbor how to lead classes themselves. (seattletimes.com)
“The people who know best what tools are needed to serve incarcerated people are those who are incarcerated themselves,” says Program Director Jess Frank. “Not only will it give them incredible tools while they’re incarcerated, it’s also a way for them to have … a part-time job” upon release. But teaching yoga in prisons requires special skills, and “trauma-informed” teaching is a central philosophy of the program. The curriculum for the day I attended included sessions on the impact of...
Ask the Community
Trauma-Informed Services for Formerly Incarcerated Populations
Hi everyone, I am in the process of synthesizing resources and best practices for trauma-informed services for formerly incarcerated populations. I am specifically interested in community-based mental health and substance abuse treatment services, housing related assistance, job-training assistance, and case management and civil legal services. Do any of you have good examples or models of trauma-informed care for these types of services, specifically for formerly...
Reply
Re: Trauma-Informed Services for Formerly Incarcerated Populations
Hi Stephanie - in Lancaster County, PA, we have been working over the past several years to "build the foundation for a trauma-informed criminal justice system". We started by providing the following trainings for criminal justice professionals, using nationally developed curricula: 1) trained entire staff of our county prison and entire staff of our county adult probation & parole department using SAMHSA's "How Being Trauma-Informed Improves Criminal Justice System Responses" (400 CO's...
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Re: Putting Their Prison Pasts Behind Them (nationswell.com)
While awaiting 'Job Offer Approval', I received an unexpected visit from a 'few folks-one of whom was the State Program director for VISTA [domestic 'Peace Corps']--who informed me that in spite of 'my incarceration', I'd passed an FBI/NCIC Record Check (I'd been 'Adjudicated' a 'Youthful Offender', supposedly 'No Criminal Record') and he'd flown up to to the prison from N.Y. City to let me know that I could 'serve my country' as a VISTA Volunteer-with the agency the other two 'visitors'...
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Re: VA Supreme Court Reviews Order Restoring Voting Rights to 206,000 Ex-Felons (nonprofitquarterly.org)
What a great conversation to start having to help empower people and give them a path towards connecting with their community. Connectedness helps people heal! When there is a reason to pay attention, because we can participate, we become empowered. Good job, Virginia!
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ACEs Connection launches Cooperative of Communities
The ACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities launches today. We want to continue to contribute to the ACEs movement for as long as it takes to create a worldwide healing-centered culture based on ACEs science. We want that to take hold in this world in the same way electricity has — we only notice it if it isn’t there.
First, a clarification: Nothing on ACEsConnection.com changes! Membership remains free! Everything our current 300+ communities use stays free, and remains free for new ones.
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HEALING TRAUMA: HARPUR ALUM, INTERNS WORK TO STOP THE PIPELINE BETWEEN PRISON AND SCHOOL (binghamton.edu)
By Jennifer Micale, August 12, 2020, Binghamton.edu. Education should lead to opportunity: a proud walk down the aisle during graduation, followed by a job, college or specialized training, and then a rewarding career. But for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, school can too often present a narrowing set of options. Problems at home or in their neighborhood can spark behavioral issues in the classroom, and a punitive response by the school can lead to long-term suspension or...
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Mental Health Needs of Law Enforcement: Being Proactive in a Reactive Career
How Do You Help Police Officers Address Trauma? Officer mental health is an often overlooked component of safety and wellness. Good mental health is just as essential as good physical health for law enforcement to be effective in keeping our country and our communities safe from crime and violence. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), between 7 to 19 percent of police officers have symptoms of PTSD and 1 in 4 police officers have thoughts of suicide at some point in...