Free
summer meals (breakfast, lunch, or snacks) will be served to children in
low-income areas at sites such as neighborhood parks, libraries, schools, places
of worship, mobile buses, and recreation centers.
To find free summer meals near you, call the toll-free National Hunger Hotline at 1-866-3-HUNGRY or visit www.whyhunger.org/findfood. If you work for an organization that serves low-income children, you can learn more about addressing childhood hunger when school is out by watching the Summer Food training videos. Learn more about the summer meals program. You can also get childhood nutrition e-mail updates from the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service. |
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
USDA Food and Nutrition Service: FREE SUMMER MEALS FOR CHILDREN
Monday, April 29, 2013
Application Deadline Extended for New Youth in Custody Certificate Program
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Keeping your Disability Benefits While you work.
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Thursday, April 25, 2013
Haiti: We have not forgotten. A place to come together
A community coming together. Something as simple as a park, a place to enjoy nature, a place to enjoy family, and place to enjoy life can make a difference in a community.
cds
The 'B' in BEMA is non-negotiable
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Dear
Friends,
Imagine
being stopped and searched by the police because of the color of your skin. Then
imagine it happening to you again and again.
This
is the reality for law-abiding people like Paul, an educator and father. And
Anthony, a video editor and father. And even Nick, who is himself a police
officer.
They’re
not alone. Black people in the United Kingdom are stopped and searched by
police at seven times the rate of white people. Asians are stopped at twice
the rate of whites. People of color in France, the Netherlands, and other
countries are also stopped disproportionately.
If
you think those numbers are staggering, what do you think ethnic profiling is
doing to those who are subjected to it? What is it doing to our communities?
Ethnic
profiling is not just ineffective. It fosters a more damaged, divided, and
dangerous society.
Let’s
end the denial about the real cost of this practice.
Thank
you for your support,
James
A. Goldston
Executive Director, Open Society Justice Initiative |
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
PTSD May Strike Bostonians in Bombing, Lockdown Aftermath
By LIZ NEPORENT (@lizzyfit)
Less
than a week after Andrew King moved to Cambridge ,
Mass. Little
Rock , Ark.
With no cable hookup and his cell phone's Internet connection on the
fritz, he found out about the lockdown from a friend in Atlanta .
"As soon as I read the text, I ran back in my room and literally
covered my head with the sheets," he said. "It was terrifying."
For several hours, King huddled in his unpacked apartment that bordered where
the suspect was eventually apprehended, peering out the window at the legions
of armed police performing a slow sweep of the streets and driveways. King's
friend kept texting him updated news reports, which King tried to reconcile
with what he was seeing outside his door.
"It was just unbelievably surreal," he said.
Now that the subject has been apprehended, the city has no doubt breathed
a collective sigh of relief. But a nagging sense of insecurity will likely
linger for many, said experts.
"There is a particular sense of vulnerability to this act of
violence, because these men lived among us. It is one of those traumatic events
that are at the very heart of post traumatic stress," said Dr. Paul Ragan,
an assistant professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt
University Medical
Center Nashville ,
Tenn.
After a traumatic five days that began with the marathon bombings and
ended with the manhunt and lockdown, Ragan said he'd expect some percentage of
Boston-area residents to experience some lingering level of anxiety, depression
or fear.
Some will develop an "acute stress disorder," characterized by
an emotional detachment, flashbacks, a heightened startle response, poor
concentration and irritability, Ragan said. If such symptoms last for six
months or longer, they could morph into full-blown post traumatic stress
disorder.
"People think PTSD is a normal response to abnormal happenings, but
that's not true," Ragan said. "It's classified as a severe
anxiety disorder that requires treatment."
Ragan
said he suspected the most deeply affected would continue to relive the events
of the past week through nightmares, flashbacks and intrusive memories. He said
they were also likely to develop a set of avoidance behaviors -- a marathoner
might give up running, others might avoid Copley
Square
Although it is impossible to know how many people will be plagued by
long-term psychological problems, Ragan said women, children and those with a
genetic predisposition to psychological problems, including PTSD, or who lived
through similar traumatic events, were at highest risk.
One of the biggest risk factors is proximity to the danger.
King's
friend Taraq Abdallat was walking in Watertown
Abdallat,
who is originally from Jordan
"I
can't feel secure the same way I used to before these terrible things happened.
I don't feel secure in my hometown anymore," he said.
Studies
find that after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World
Trade Center New
York
Dr.
Alan Manevitz, a clinical psychiatrist at Lenox
Hill Hospital New
York Boston
But
Manevitz said Boston
Manevitz
said he believed social media may be transforming the way we respond to
catastrophic events. Social media, he said, allows people to feel less
isolated. Although it can be the source of rumors and misinformation, it can
also, he said, help people stay calm.
The
Boston
As
for King, he said he felt shaky for a few days but said he must move on with
his life.
"I
was a little nervous on Saturday but by Sunday the streets were crowded again
and people were in the park playing soccer and softball. I'm not having second
thoughts about moving to Boston
The Happiest People Pursue the Most Difficult Problems
The Happiest People Pursue the Most Difficult Problems
The happiest people I know are dedicated to dealing with the most difficult problems. Turning around inner city schools. Finding solutions to homelessness or unsafe drinking water. Supporting children with terminal illnesses. They face the seemingly worst of the world with a conviction that they can do something about it and serve others.
Ellen Goodman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist (and long-time friend), has turned grief to social purpose. She was distraught over the treatment of her dying mother. After leaving her job as a syndicated columnist, she founded The Conversation Project, a campaign to get every family to face the difficult task of talking about death and end-of-life care.
Gilberto Dimenstein, another writer-turned-activist in Brazil, spreads happiness through social entrepreneurship. When famous Brazilian pianist Joao Carlos Martins lost the use of most of his fingers and almost gave into deepest despair, Dimenstein urged him to teach music to disadvantaged young people. A few years later, Martins, now a conductor, exudes happiness. He has nurtured musical talent throughout Brazil, brought his youth orchestras to play at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, and has even regained some use of his fingers.
For many social entrepreneurs, happiness comes from the feeling they are making a difference.
I see that same spirit in business teams creating new initiatives that they believe in. Gillette's Himalayan project team took on the challenge of changing the way men shave in India, where the common practice of barbers using rusty blades broken in two caused bloody infections. A team member who initially didn't want to leave Boston for India found it his most inspiring assignment. Similarly, Procter & Gamble's Pampers team in Nigeria find happiness facing the problem of infant mortality and devising solutions, such as mobile clinics that sent a physician and two nurses to areas lacking access to health care.
In research for my book Evolve!, I identified three primary sources of motivation in high-innovation companies: mastery, membership, and meaning. Another M, money, turned out to be a distant fourth. Money acted as a scorecard, but it did not get people up-and-at 'em for the daily work, nor did it help people go home every day with a feeling of fulfillment.
People can be inspired to meet stretch goals and tackle impossible challenges if they care about the outcome. I'll never forget the story of how a new general manager of the Daimler Benz operations in South Africa raised productivity and quality at the end of the apartheid era by giving the workers something to do that they valued: make a car for Nelson Mandela, just released from prison. A plant plagued by lost days, sluggish workers, and high rates of defects produced the car in record time with close to zero defects. The pride in giving Mandela the Mercedes, plus the feeling of achievement, helped the workers maintain a new level of performance. People stuck in boring, rote jobs will spring into action for causes they care about.
Heart-wrenching emotion also helps cultivate a human connection. It is hard to feel alone, or to whine about small things, when faced with really big matters of deprivation, poverty, and life or death. Social bonds and a feeling of membership augment the meaning that comes from values-based work.
Of course, daunting challenges can be demoralizing at times. City Year corps members working with at-risk middle school students with failing grades from dysfunctional homes see improvement one day, only to have new problems arise the next. Progress isn't linear; it might not be apparent until after many long days of hard work have accumulated. It may show up in small victories, like a D student suddenly raising his hand in class because he understands the math principle. (I see this from service on the City Year board. You can find dozens of these stories on Twitter under#makebetterhappen.)
It's now common to say that purpose is at the heart of leadership, and people should find their purpose and passion. I'd like to go a step further and urge that everyone regardless of their work situation, have a sense of responsibility for at least one aspect of changing the world. It's as though we all have two jobs: our immediate tasks and the chance to make a difference.
Leaders everywhere should remember the M's of motivation: mastery, membership, and meaning. Tapping these non-monetary rewards (while paying fairly) are central to engagement and happiness. And they are also likely to produce innovative solutions to difficult problems.
ROSABETH MOSS KANTER
Rosabeth Moss Kanter is a professor at Harvard Business School and the
author of Confidence and SuperCorp. Her 2011 HBR article, "How Great Companies Think Differently," won a McKinsey Award for best article. Connect with her
on Facebook or at Twitter.com/RosabethKanter.
author of Confidence and SuperCorp. Her 2011 HBR article, "How Great Companies Think Differently," won a McKinsey Award for best article. Connect with her
on Facebook or at Twitter.com/RosabethKanter.