Housing mobility and child health: We participated in a powerful Aspen Institute Roundtable in Baltimore last week titled “After Thompson: Getting Kids Out of Harm’s Way – Implications for the Well-Being of Children,” which focused on recent research on the developmental impacts of “toxic stress” and trauma on young children living in distressed communities – and the important public health option of giving poor families with young children the means to move to less violent, lower stress environments (while at the same time working to reduce neighborhood violence). Read the two page briefing paper here. Conference proceedings and research will be posted soon. The Aspen convening was held at the Annie E. Casey Foundation and was co-sponsored by the ACLU of Maryland, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Inclusive Communities Project, and PRRAC.
Nickelodeon covers school integration: Our coalition partners in Hartford received some great exposure this week on Linda Ellerbee’s “Nick News” program, with a documentary titled “Black, White, and Brown v. Board of Education”. The 30-minute documentary featured student interviews about the impacts of segregation in St. Louis and New Orleans, and interviews with students in two Hartford area magnet schools (more than 40% of Hartford children are now attending integrated schools as part of the growing voluntary regional integration plan in the Sheff v. O’Neill case).
A retrospective report by Robert Bullard et al, “Environmental Justice: Milestones and Accomplishments 1964-2014,” and insightful accompanying commentaries from leaders of the EJ movement.
Working with UNESCO and the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Conference of Mayors has established the U.S. Coalition of Cities Against Racism and Discrimination. Over 100 mayors have signed on to the initiative (not yet including New York City).
Annual Scholarship Conference, featuring David Rusk and David D. Troutt, at Rutgers Law School, Newark, NJ, Friday, February 21, 2014 – registration here.
