March 2019

Along with books and backpacks, the teens who walk through the hallways of Washington Preparatory High School in South Los Angeles also carry secrets and fear. Some have seen moms or dads arrested or taken away by immigration agents during early morning raids. They've watched as loved ones and friends were gunned down or stabbed to death on the sidewalks in front of where they live. Others dread going home to an adult who hurts instead of heals. Trauma, depression and anxiety weigh heavily...

Governor Gavin Newsom says child poverty in California is a "moral outrage." The state has the highest rate of child poverty in the nation, with one in five kids affected. We'll hear why a state as wealthy as California has so many children living in poverty and how Newsom plans to mitigate the issue. Guests: Autumn Burke, assemblywoman representing California State Assembly District 62; chair, Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation Ted Lempert, president, Children Now Caroline...

Though California has been at odds with the federal government on many fronts, the state is getting a boost from the Trump administration to lay the groundwork for expanding preschool and child care programs. California was one of 45 states to receive a Preschool Development Birth through Five Grant this year for improving access to child care and early learning for infants and children. California received $10.6 million. The grant will not create any new child care slots, but will help in...

Foster parents often have trouble getting prompt help when a traumatized child in their care acts up or struggles to adapt to a new home. Frequently, they face two unsatisfactory choices, said Jenn Rexroad, executive director of the California Alliance of Caregivers, which represents foster-care families in the state: Figure out how to handle the problem on their own, or call 911 if they fear they or the child are unsafe. “There’s no continuity there between no help and kind of going to the...

On Tuesday afternoon, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a new motion that will put most of the power to choose how a large pot of state money gets spent into the hands of the county’s Juvenile Justice Coordinating Counsel (JJCC), a mostly unknown voting body that is crammed with youth experts and advocates. Prior to this shift, the funds were almost entirely controlled by LA County Probation, a situation that the board decided wasn’t working. “I find it unacceptable,” said...

In Los Angeles, police can’t always shoot at moving vehicles. San Francisco banned choke holds. Stockton officers are required to intervene if their colleagues use excessive force. They are among the California police departments that cracked down on deadly force policies following controversies similar to Stephon Clark’s death in Sacramento in March 2018. Two officers shot and killed Clark, a 22-year-old unarmed black man, after chasing him into his grandmother’s backyard and mistaking his...

In foreground, Dr. Donielle Prince (l) and Saundra Davis (r) ____________________________ Saundra Davis, a financial coach and consultant who trains other coaches on building resilience among the working poor, knew she had met her partner in helping people deal with their “money disorders” when she first met Dr. Donielle Prince in Sacramento at a black women’s gathering in 2015. Dr. Prince works with ACEs Connection as its San Francisco Bay Area regional community facilitator. She also...

Join us on May 1 for the 3rd Annual 4CA Policymaker Education Day! Register now: bit.ly/4CA2019Register

Please read and share this 4CA statement on ACEs Screening in California.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Dr. Nadine Burke Harris first noticed the effects of toxic stress more than a decade ago among the many children with behavioral and learning issues she treated in San Francisco’s low-income Bayview-Hunter’s Point neighborhood, the pediatrician and current California Surgeon General this morning told a standing-room only crowd attending University Hospitals’ Arthur and Edwina Burns endowed lecture in diversity. While the most common diagnosis for kids with attention and...

California has made great strides in improving our health care system, and now more than 91 percent of our residents have health insurance. However, coverage does not guarantee health and significant racial inequities persist. For example, in California, Latinos and African Americans have twice the prevalence of type-2 diabetes and are twice as likely to die from the disease. The prevalence of asthma among American Indians and Alaska Natives is three times greater than the state average and...

Press Release March 11, 2019 AUSTIN, Texas — At the annual South by Southwest Conference, Kaiser Permanente today announced a partnership with Community Solutions to help accelerate efforts to end chronic homelessness in 15 communities (scroll down for list) within Kaiser Permanente’s national footprint. As part of the new partnership, Kaiser Permanente will provide $3 million over a three-year period to Community Solutions’ Built for Zero initiative, which uses real-time data to help local...