Blog

By Diana Williams, California Health Care Foundation, December 1, 2020 At the big city charter school she ran, Ashley Edwards was surrounded by future artists, writers, and engineers who radiated talent and grit. Many of her students were driven to succeed despite encountering racism, poverty, and community violence on a routine basis, she said. “I’d generally describe them as survivors,” Edwards said of the young people at Newark Prep Charter School in New Jersey. In communities nationwide,...

SACRAMENTO – The Office of the California Surgeon General today released the first California Surgeon General’s Report - Roadmap for Resilience: The California Surgeon General's Report on Adverse Childhood Experiences, Toxic Stress, and Health. The report serves as a blueprint for how communities, states, and nations can recognize and effectively address Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress as a root cause to some of the most harmful, persistent, and expensive societal and...

JOIN US TOMORROW FOR A SPECIAL WEBINAR DISCUSSING THE FIRST SURGEON GENERAL'S ANNUAL REPORT Roadmap for Resilience: The California Surgeon General's Report on Adverse Childhood Experience, Toxic Stress, and Health Thursday, December 10, 2020 Noon - 1:30 p.m. Register Now! California Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris set a bold vision to cut ACEs and toxic stress in half in one generation through a strategically deployed, coordinated public health initiative designed to raise awareness,...

This short and practical paper explains how relationships are vital to health, and what you can do as a health provider to help children and families be healthy in the face of increasing stress and physical distancing. The fear and social isolation associated with COVID-19 are worsening existing chronic stressors, as well as creating new ones for families who are experiencing new kinds of adversity. People are feeling isolated and alone and have less emotional support than they did prior to...

This is a one-hour webinar on December 16 from 3-4pm PST by Dovetail Learning is cosponsored by the Center for Care Innovations and ACEs Connection. It is second in a webinar series on health care provider wellness. Please click here to register. Healthcare providers are experiencing high levels of stress from the COVID surge. Add vicarious trauma from screening for ACEs and it can feel overwhelming. We Are Resilient™ designed to improve our own resilience as healthcare providers. It also...

Forum , hosted by Michael Krasny Dec 8 at 9:00 AM As the Bay Area heads again into shutdown and Covid-19 cases surge, essential workers continue to struggle with the mental health toll of being on the front line. This is where the Frontline Workers Counseling Project comes in. The project, which was founded in the Bay Area at the start of the pandemic, offers free mental health counseling to essential workers, from doctors and nurses to firefighters and postal delivery workers, and more.

By Erika D. Smith, Los Angeles Times, November 29, 2020 As a Black man and a nurse practitioner working at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Long Beach, Walter Perez hears a lot of cringeworthy stuff from his Black patients. Like how the forthcoming COVID-19 vaccines won’t be safe because Big Pharma is cutting corners to make more money. Or how the medical establishment wants to use Black people as guinea pigs to test those vaccines. Or how the vaccines could actually prove...

By Vanessa Grubbs, California Health Care Foundation, December 2, 2020 The COVID-19 pandemic has been wreaking havoc across the US for eight months, and new cases and deaths are reaching alarming and record-setting heights. For many Americans, especially people of color with low incomes, the effects of the pandemic are far more personal than the devastating numbers that dominate news media reports. To better understand the scope of the pandemic’s impact on the health care experiences of...

After the U.S. education system fractured into Zoom screens last spring, experts feared millions of children would fall behind. Hard evidence now shows they were right. A flood of new data — on the national, state and district levels — finds students began this academic year behind. Most of the research concludes students of color and those in high-poverty communities fell further behind their peers, exacerbating long-standing gaps in American education. A study being released this week by...

Effort Aims to Prevent Childhood Trauma, Break the Cycle of Domestic Violence and Promote Healing During COVID-19 and beyond Genentech, Blue Shield of California Foundation Team with Futures Without Violence to Support Community-Led Approaches to Protect Children, Support Communities Virtual Event Series Kick-Offs New Initiative Today SAN FRANCISCO – Futures Without Violence today announced the launch of the All In For Kids Fund with a $5 million seed investment from Genentech and $1.5...

By Alejandra Reyes-Velarde, Los Angeles Times, December 2, 2020 Los Angeles will offer a one-time $800 stipend to employees who work in food service industries, including restaurants, breweries and food stands, Mayor Eric Garcetti said Wednesday. The Secure Emergency Relief for Vulnerable Employees, or SERVE, initiative will give 4,000 workers the cash using money from the nonprofit Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles, Garcetti said in an evening briefing. The news comes as the number of...

By Nigel Duara, Cal Matters, November 25, 2020 In late 2017, a house fell on Jacques Gene. The construction foreman in Cool, east of Sacramento, was inside a half-finished home when the rolling trusses that make up the underside of the roof fell, collapsing the whole house. Gene, 46, suffered broken ribs, a punctured lung and a concussion. When his coworkers sorted through the rubble, he says, they didn’t expect to find him alive. But he found work again, earning $70,000 annually as a...