July 2021

By Heather C. Forkey and James H. Duffee, American Academy of Pediatrics, July 26, 2021 The COVID-19 pandemic and our nation’s racial reckoning have given new visibility to trauma and its impact on children. Even before the pandemic, it was understood that the most fundamental threats to health have their roots in adversities experienced by children without sufficient buffering of a caregiver. Behavior, development, relationships and physical health can be affected for a lifetime due to the...

By Anh Do, Los Angeles Times, July 26, 2021 In the basement of Reign Salon in Antioch, a brick wall is a reminder of a dark past. More than a century ago, Chinese people built tunnels under the city because they were forbidden by law from going outside after sundown. Then, white residents burned Chinatown to the ground. Today, few traces of the old Chinatown remain — some tunnel entrances such as the one in Reign, wood pilings in the San Joaquin River that were the foundations of houses. [...

By Jade Martinez-Pogue, Noozhawk, July 22, 2021 Santa Barbara County is one of two agencies in California to receive a nearly $2.5 million Pathway Home Grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to implement a re-entry program, providing 250 justice-involved individuals the services that will help them secure employment opportunities before their release from the jail system. The Santa Barbara County Workforce Development Board , the Sheriff’s Department , Allan Hancock College and Santa...

By Jaclyn Cosgrove, Los Angeles Times, July 14, 2021 America’s largest child welfare system will soon test whether race, ethnicity or neighborhood can influence social workers’ decisions to remove children from their homes. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to support a pilot project that tests “blind removal,” first tried in Nassau County, N.Y. Social workers typically have access to an array of information, including a family’s race, when making the difficult...

ACEs Aware in Action July 2021 New ACE Screening Claims and Training Data Report This month, the ACEs Aware initiative released a new data report – “ ACEs Aware Screening, Training, and Certification Progress: July 2021 Update . ” The report details the number of ACE screenings conducted in California between January 1, 2020, and September 30, 2020, and the number of individuals who completed the “ Becoming ACEs Aware in California ” online training between December 4, 2019, and March 31,...

Offers information on unaccompanied and separated immigrant youth in the US who have experienced migration-related trauma and family separation. This brief includes information about: who unaccompanied children are and how many are in the US; how traumatic separation affects immigrant children, youth, families, and systems; and what can be done to assist immigrant children, youth, and families who experience traumatic separation. Click here to access this resource.

By Carolyn Jones and Andrew Reed, EdSource, July 29, 2021 For Gov. Gavin Newsom and anyone else promoting college savings accounts for low-income children, Oral Lee Brown has some advice: “It’s not about the money.” Brown, an Oakland real estate agent now in her 70s, has been promoting the same idea since 1987, when she “adopted” a class of first graders from Brookfield Elementary School in East Oakland, promising to pay their college costs if they stayed in school. [ Please click here to...

By Claudia Boyd-Barrett, California Health Report, July 29, 2021 For Lydia, 40, of southeast Los Angeles County, there was nothing safe about staying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Being home meant being stuck with her abusive husband who beat her and tried to control her every move. The abuse predated the pandemic – her three children went to live with a family member in 2018 because of it. But when Lydia’s husband lost his job because of the shutdown, he became angry and bored, and...

By Isabella Bloom, The Sacramento Bee, July 28, 2021 California community colleges will get $100 million to help homeless and food insecure students as part of a $47.1 billion higher education spending plan that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed on Tuesday. The community college money for students in need would help fund meal donation programs, food pantries, CalFresh enrollment and other nutrition assistance programs. It would also help colleges offer on- and off-campus housing resources. “Student...

By Jeremy Loudenback, The Imprint, July 22, 2021 Once the nation’s most vast youth prison system, California’s Division of Juvenile Justice stopped admissions this month — with the state’s highest level offenders headed for starkly different settings. Instead of a cell block monitored by guards, Los Angeles County young people will soon be moved to detention camps, where formerly incarcerated men will mentor them alongside local probation officers. El Dorado, Fresno and Sonoma counties are...

PC Reacts is a new series by PACEs Connection in which we look at current events through a trauma-informed and PACEs science lens. In the next episode in this series, we will respectfully and mindfully discuss issues that are adjacent to Britney Spears' public struggle with mental health, human rights, as she fights to end her conservatorship with her father. The emphasis of our conversation will be on positive and adverse childhood experiences and potential trauma experienced for children...

By the HOPE Team, 7/28/21, positiveexperience.org/blog Like so many people, we spent part of the weekend transfixed by the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Despite COVID, no crowds, and troubles with the Tokyo organizing committee, the athletes dazzled us with their speed, endurance and grace. In particular, Simone Biles seems superhuman – a woman who seems to defy gravity and performs gymnastic feats that had been thought to be impossible. She wears her past on her body and outfit: her collarbone bears...