February 2022

By John Fensterwald, Photo: Jefferson Union High School District, EdSource, February 23, 2022 N ext month, 122 teachers and other employees in the Jefferson Union High School District in Daly City will learn if they won a drawing that will allow them to move into a new housing project with below-market rents that their district is building. Nicole Ann Polo hopes to be one of them. A math teacher at her alma mater, Westmoor High, Polo has been living with her parents, which makes her better...

By Gillian Flaccus, Photo: Nathan Howard/Associated Press, The Press Democrat, February 21, 2022 The young mother had behaved erratically for months, hitchhiking and wandering naked through two Native American reservations and a small town clustered along Northern California’s rugged Lost Coast. But things escalated when Emmilee Risling was charged with arson for igniting a fire in a cemetery. Her family hoped the case would force her into mental health and addiction services. Instead, she...

By Michael Tubbs, Photo: Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle 2021, San Francisco Chronicle, February 23, 2022 California is a state of contradictions. We are the richest state in the country, but we have the highest poverty rate. We’re home to some of the most successful companies in the world, with more billionaires living here than all but two countries , but we have more homeless residents than anywhere in America. It doesn’t have to be this way. California’s poverty problem is a policy choice,...

Public Health Advocates is re cruiting members for the 12-member Equity Advisory Group of California COVID Justice: Recovery, Response & Repair. We invite you to be a member and to share this invitation with people in your networks. It is especially critical that we hear from people of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ and other groups impacted by the pandemic and health inequity, so that their perspectives can inform our work. Southern California residents are strongly encouraged...

By Grace Gedye, Photo: Martin do Nascimento/Cal Matters, Cal Matters, February 8, 2022 Un proyecto de ley que está en camino al gobernador Gavin Newsom requeriría que los grandes empleadores en California ofrezcan a los trabajadores hasta 80 horas de licencia por enfermedad pagada relacionada con COVID. Pero hay una trampa: el proyecto de ley, que la Legislatura aprobó el lunes, no se aplica a los pequeños empleadores con 25 trabajadores o menos. Esa exención, que también incluyó la ley de...

February is a special month – it’s Choose Love Awareness Month! It’s time to celebrate love and focus on our ability to choose love in our lives! For 28 days the Choose Love Movement shares daily action tips on ways you can bring more ‘Nurturing Healing Love’ to yourself and others all month long and beyond. We also share how you can live a Choose Love lifestyle by incorporating the Choose Love Formula into your daily life: Courage + Gratitude + Forgiveness + Compassion-in-Action = Choosing...

Last week my mom texted me that a police officer had just stopped by her office and asked her to call the coroner's office. "It's about Kevin," she said. My heart sank. We'd been trying and trying the past three-and-a-half years to get Kevin the treatment he desperately needed. He had symptoms of so many illnesses: schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, borderline personality disorder, bipolar. He'd been in and out of jail, homelessness, and sober livings since relapsing on methamphetamine...

FEBRUARY 8-10, 2022 Join us for some or all of this inclusive 3-day online event featuring conversations, meditations, and panel discussions with 40+ experts in healthcare and mindfulness. All summit content will be available to view through February 20. Welcome to the Healing Healthcare Global Mindfulness Summit Our healthcare industry has been delivered to the edges of its capacity by this global pandemic. The successive waves of grief, PTSD, and burnout caused by COVID have yet to be...

This is the third of three stunning illustrations showing how PACEs (positive and adverse childhood experiences) affected the family of Cendie Stanford, graphic artist and founder of the nonprofit ACEs Matter. This one looks at her positive childhood experiences. The day before her 16th birthday, Cendie Stanford’s older brother was shot and killed by a young man who, just two years earlier, had been her boyfriend. “I was heartbroken that two people I loved were out of my life forever,” says...

Welcome to Virtual Healing Circles! At UC Davis Health we are working to realize Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of the Beloved Community . We invite you to join us in a session of compassionate listening and intentional sharing to foster understanding, love, and unity. Join us Wednesday, February 23, 2022 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Please register here: bit.ly/healingcircle2-23

The Hanna Institute Summit is an immersive, multi-day, fully virtual conference focused on learning and sharing new and proven approaches to trauma-informed care. In 2022, the Summit will focus on community violence and will offer a profound opportunity for deep learning, evolution and healing within our collective communities. We invite you to hear from leaders and activists in the field, and lean in to meaningful - at times, uncomfortable - learning to unearth legacies and practices that...

By John Fensterwald, Photo: Green Team/Riverside STEM High School, EdSource, February 8, 2022 F resno Unified is among the school districts encouraging students to become civically engaged and in the process earn a seal affixed to their high school diploma that recognizes their involvement. The State Seal of Civic Engagement recognizes not only that students understand the democratic process but also apply their knowledge to address issues or problems they care deeply about in school or the...