Daily Archives: June 27, 2021

Third-graders at Lake Country School in Delafield practice cursive writing on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2019.(Photo: Scott Ash/Now News Group)

State legislators have reintroduced a bill originally introduced in 2019 requiring cursive in schools to be taught.

State Rep. Jeremy Thiesfeldt and state Sen. Joan Ballweg, along with senators Alberta Darling, Stephen Nass, Howard Marklein, Lena Taylor and Van Wanggaard,reintroduced the bill, which issimilar to AB 459. That billpassed the state Assembly in 2019 before stalling in the state Senate during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Co-sponsoring the bill are state representatives David Armstrong, Rachel Cabral-Guevara, Barbara Dittrich, James Edming, Gae Magnafici, Clint Moses, David Murphy, Jeffrey Mursau, Donna Rozar, Ron Tusler, Michael Schraa and Daniel Knodl.

If passed, the bill would require that cursive writingbe incorporated into the state's model academic standards for English language arts. Specifically, it would require elementary students to be able to write legibly in cursive by the end of fifth grade.

It would alsorequire all school boards, independent charter schools and private schools participating in a parental choice program to include cursive writing in their respective curriculums for elementary grades, according to the bill's text.

"We just think it's an important part of a particularlyyoung mind, speaking specifically of kids when they first start school," Thiesfeldt said in a phone interview June 22. "Those first few years are when most of the learning takes place, and it's important for us to maximize the amount of learning they can get in that time, and I believe cursive writing is part of that."

Ballweg said she hoped cursive would not become a lost art.

"There is evidence that shows that it does more to actuallyput the left and right sides of the brain together to work together. (It) provides for greater dexterity moving forward and just helps you retain more information and gets your entire brain working when you're working in cursive," Ballweg said.

"I know over the years, of course, it's important that we all learn to type so that we can do emails and everything else that goes along with being on the Internet and learning that way, but I think this is a way of communication that needs to be preserved, and if we don't teach it in schools, it's not going to happen. People can, moving forward, decide what kind of format they want to use when they are writing. But it is something that I think we should train so that people have that background as an option."

The bill, SB 431, has been referred to the state Senate Education Committee, according to the state legislature's website.

Some area school districts are already teaching cursive.

The Germantown School District offer cursive writing instruction in third grade, said Brenda O'Brien, the district's director of teaching and learning.

"While we do recognize the prioritization of digital communication, research tends to support how putting pencil to paper reinforces reading in a way that fingers to keyboard does not, ashandwriting provides students a better idea of how words work in combination," O'Brien said in an email."Additionally, research tends to support how learningcursiveenhances fine motor skills."

It's a similar story in Menomonee Falls schools, where Superintendent Corey Golla said the district has continued basic instruction on the subject at the elementary level and hasnot discussed any changes to that requirement.

But he added that the district opposed the legislation on the basic grounds that the community consistently endorses local control.

"Our school board is elected to make these decisions in partnership with our community and our leadership team.We have also opposed any unfunded mandates from the Legislature," Golla said in an email.

The New Berlin School District does not have a formal curriculum for teaching cursive in its classrooms. However, the district begins exposing students to cursive in second grade. From there, the district gives students the opportunity to practice cursive writing in the third, fourth and fifth grades, saying it knows they may run into it outside of school and at minimum wants students to be able to sign their names.

Superintendent Joe Garza echoed Golla's concerns about state mandates.

"In almost all cases, we support local control and believe it should be up to local school boards to determine whats taught in our schools, especially considering how much is already mandated from the state and federal levels," Garza said in an email.

Palmyra-Eagle School District public relations coordinator Caitlin Kirchner said the bill is in line with the practices the district is already doing and would not change its curriculum.

Eagle Elementary School principal Katie Robertson saidthe school has taught cursive as an intentional handwriting unit during the third grade. She said the school uses a program called "Handwriting out Tears" to teach students.

"We feel that there is a value in this instruction, and provides students with an opportunityto use this writing artform. Students continue to usecursivein the classroom beyond third grade and have opportunities to imbed it into their fourth- and fifth-grade learning," said Robertson.

Waukesha School DistrictAssistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Jody Landish said with the district's adoption of the Benchmark Phonics program, handwriting is already incorporated into the curriculum. She said cursive writing starts in the third grade.

"If the proposed bill passes, it will not adversely affect the instruction we have in place in Waukesha," Landish said in an email.

The Wisconsin Department of Instruction said in an email that thedepartment does not take a position on bills until the scheduled hearing.

But the Wisconsin Association of School Boardsdid take a position on the bill.

WASB government relations director Dan Rossmiller said the organization generally opposes bills that would impose unfunded curricular mandates on schools or attempt to micromanage decisions best left to local discretion.

"Whatever the merits (or lack of merits) of bills imposing cursive writing mandates on schools, such bills seem oddly out of step with the realities of the learning disruption that occurred during pandemic," Rossmiller said in an email. "We think lawmakers would better help students by focusing on helping schools help students recover from the learning disruption caused by the pandemic than by adding new mandates."

Rossmiller said the WASB also opposed similar bills in 2019. He said the new proposed draft appears to be identical to the bills considered last session.

ContactAlec Johnson at(262) 875-9469 oralec.johnson@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AlecJohnson12.

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Area school districts react to reintroduced bill requiring cursive to be taught in schools - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

This op-ed is part of an occasional series published by The Dallas Morning News Opinion section on human rights and human freedom. Find the full series here.

Under a muted gray sunset, the last vestiges of fall turning to winter, dozens of Yazidi girls and women, with faces drained of light, moved like ghosts through the crude, ripped tents of the displacement camp they now call home.

They held each other close, clinging to each others thin bodies. They are all survivors of sexual violence under the brutal, yearslong campaign waged by ISIS insurgents across Iraq and Syria starting in 2014. They have all endured more torture and death than the human brain can process, targeted by the Islamic terrorist group because of their ancient faith devoted to the tenets of the Peacock Angel rather than Abrahamic texts.

But many of these brave souls emerged from the shadows to tell their stories for one reason, and one reason only: to stop this from happening to others.

I am alive, shuddered Gazal, 22, in Duhok, Iraq, hours after she was rescued from more than two years of captivity. Thanks to God.

The young woman with dun-colored eyes and a distant smile cowered alongside her two sisters-in-law, Nadifa, also 22, and Basima, just 17. They had also suffered through the hell of ISIS captivity and had been rescued months earlier. All the men in their family brothers, husbands, fathers and sons had also been apprehended by ISIS when the terrorist outfit overran their ancestral home of Iraqs Sinjar Mountain in the dwindling summer of 2014.

Some Yazidi men were executed in cold blood with bullets to the backs of their heads. The terrorists carted off others into the darkness, never to be seen or heard from again, believed to be rotting away in the many shallow mass graves that still permeate the vast plains of Iraq.

First, they put us in a school and held us for 20 days. They didnt let us eat or drink. Only the children were given a little bread, but we had to go to the bathrooms to share it. If they caught us sharing, we were tortured, Basima said, speaking about the early days of abduction as if she were a historian, recounting someone elses story.

The children were dying, starving. They wouldnt drink the little amount of dirty water. So, we found some toothpaste and put it in the water to pretend it was milk, so they would drink and not die from dehydration.

Clumps of the womens hair fell to the ground, and the Yazidi women, children and elderly were forced to drink urine to stay alive after ISIS ruptured the only water pipe. But the worst was yet to come.

In the middle of the night, the ISIS men were coming in and yelling to know who was still a virgin, Basima whispered. And from the age of eight, they were taking girls to the market to sell for a cigarette.

However, Basima and several of her siblings thought up a plan to avoid being attacked. They tried to look like ugly boys by using a piece of a broken plate to shave their heads and dressing in some mens clothes they found hidden away.

We thought that if they mistook us for boys, we would be taken out and killed rather than raped, she said. But instead, when they knew our trick, the men came in and stripped us in front of everybody. In front of everybody, hundreds, they touched us everywhere, sexually abused us. My father and brother had to watch. And that was the last I saw of them.

Basima did not shudder while she talked. She was telling her story, but she was also telling somebody elses story. She was telling the story of so many other women. Perhaps that is how she was able to get through it, by separating herself from the narrative.

As the dark days unfurled, Basima, Nadifa, Gazal and other relatives were transferred to another prison, stripped to expose every inch of their raw, bruised flesh and selected by various ISIS leaders for marriage.

Only it wasnt a real marriage. There was no contract, no real ceremony, Gazal continued, the last chinks of daylight falling across her crumpled face. It was just rape. I was forced to be a Muslim, to pray five times a day.

I wondered how such fragile women, with such delicate bones, could take such abuse. I wondered how they lived with the anguish without proper professional support or even a proper house to call home.

Most of all, I puzzled about whether their bravery would amount to any change. Despite the Yazidi communitys very closed and conservative nature, their religious leaders came forward soon after the Mount Sinjar invasion to insist that the returnees be welcomed home and not punished even honor-killed over what had happened to them.

We just want to see this stop, Basima said, opening her scarred hands in a gesture of desperation.

With such anecdotes and accounts, sexual violence in conflict is finally cleaving through the lingering layer of shame and silence that has left victims feeling as though they are to blame and the perpetrators living free with impunity.

Nonetheless, there is a long way to go when it comes to justice and accountability.

Despite the hundreds of Yazidi women who have come forward to tell their stories of survival including girls as young as 8 years old who were sold to fighters and carted between Iraq and Syria on dusty cattle trucks no ISIS member has explicitly been prosecuted or tried for the crime of sexual violence.

The courts in Iraq are overwhelmed with ISIS prosecutions and therefore are happy to just prosecute on basic terrorism crimes, said Anne Speckhard, director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism and a professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine. This is not very satisfactory to those who suffered genocidal rapes and killings.

Yet it is a distinction that makes a big difference. The mere mention of sexual violence has the power to turn the tide on this war crime.

Sadly, rape as a weapon of war is as old as humankind and for too long has been submerged in the shadows as either a lesser crime than slaughter or too taboo to talk about, especially in deeply guarded or staunchly religious societies where honor is inexplicably tied to a womans virginity.

Although the language in Article 27 of the 1949 Geneva Convention states that women are to be protected against any attack on their honor, in particular against rape, enforced prostitution, or any form of indecent assault, the crime has little presence in international justice efforts.

It was only in the late 1990s that rape was formally acknowledged in war crime tribunals. It has come to be a quiet stain on almost every conflict from antiquity through the modern battles of World War I and II, Korea, Vietnam, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Syria and beyond.

The first landmark prosecution took place in 1998 at the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. However, in its 20 years of existence, that court, the International Criminal Court, only achieved one conviction for rape and sexual slavery, and that was in a 2019 case of a Congolese warlord.

It was not until 2008 that the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 1820, which officially recognized rape and other forms of sexual violence as a war crime, or a constitutive act with respect to genocide.

One can take a life without killing, and that is what rape as a weapon of war all too often does. Sexual violence is an effective genocidal tool that is readily available and inexpensive, useful in not only devastating victims but strategically and for the long-term debilitating families and entire communities.

Rape wrapped inside combat comes with a mosaic of consequences. Victims on a large scale might be infected with HIV or other life-threatening diseases or injuries, ethnicities might be dramatically depleted through intentional impregnation, and husbands and families often shun victims. And jarringly, the pervasiveness of the atrocity then normalizes sexual violence in society and reinforces gender inequality long after a conflict concludes.

Nonetheless, the prevalence of such wartime sexual violence has continued because perpetrators have not historically faced retribution. According to human rights advocates, rape remains one of the most underreported and inadequately prosecuted of all war crimes.

The United Nations and world leaders continue to issue words of condemnation, but words are not enough. Activists also emphasize that governments still downplay or deny state-sanctioned crimes of the past, exacerbating the trauma survivors still suffer.

For one, the Japanese government only recently recognized with a thin apology the hundreds of thousands of so-called comfort women, typically Korean, Chinese, Filipina and Indonesian women and girls forcibly kept by Japanese soldiers as sex laborers and prostitutes during World War ll.

Sexual violence over the years has also had a permanent place in a multitude of smaller, paramilitary-style strifes. Pakistani soldiers scuffling to squash the post-1971 independence of Bangladesh became synonymous with raids to rape women. Molestation was additionally reported amid the Turkish invasion of Cyprus three years later. Human Rights Watch documented dozens of rape cases in the 1992 skirmish between anti-government and Communist Party loyalists in Peru.

Yet that is barely the tip of an overwhelming iceberg, or a thickening file, as they say in the diplomacy world.

Compounding the problem is the generational damage, which is as destructive as it is widespread. The ruthless attacks also harm the young, who are sometimes forced to watch their mothers or protectors endure sexual assaults or in some twisted cases, act as perpetrators themselves.

Burma, also referred to by its modern name Myanmar, has long been a hotbed for sexual assault as an instrument to demoralize and mutilate minorities. Tu Aung, a minority Kachin Christian activist, told me that what he remembers most about his early childhood amid the savage 1990s military clampdown is not the hail of bombs and bullets. It is watching the women he loved most in the world running.

If they got caught, we had to watch the soldiers rape them, he said. Then, sometimes after that, they were tied to the trees and set on fire.

Today, rape is inflicted by government troops in a bid to eliminate and drive out the Rohingya, a Muslim minority sect.

And in another interview I conducted several years ago in Iraq, a young Yazidi mother and ISIS sexual slavery survivor by the name of Seve revealed that her four children, all younger than 10, had not only been beaten blue, swung from ceiling fans and had their teeth smashed to pulp, but were made suffer through her own screams during rape.

The more the children cried and screamed, the more they hurt me in retaliation, Seve remembered, her face falling as she explained that her son continued the learned behavior of beating his three baby sisters.

However, there are a few small steps in the right direction that could signal some change for other groups still afraid to come forth in a public way. In March, Iraqi lawmakers voted to compensate Yazidi women and girls who had been enslaved. The compensation is in the form of land, housing and education.

Iraqi society and many others continue to wrestle with the notion of children born from rape. Children often fall between the cracks without reparation, support or equal opportunity, and can endure lifelong stigmatization.

Two years ago, I met a Congolese woman in a sprawling refugee camp inside Kenya. Her name was Nancy. Barefoot and broke, she brought to light the all-too-routine nightmare of three masked men bursting into her home and raping her. Her 14-year-old son was forced to watch the horror, and Nancy was subsequently banished from her family. After fleeing her homeland, she discovered she was pregnant, augmenting the already persistent ostracizing inside the refugee camp.

Sexual violence has become a defining factor of the protracted conflict plaguing the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ten years ago, U.N. officials termed the central African country the rape capital of the world, with conservative estimates indicating that at least 48 women are raped per hour by armed, lawless militiamen.

Victoria Nyanjura was just 14 years old when she was kidnapped from her Northern Uganda Catholic boarding school on an October night in 1996. With some 139 other terrified students, she was taken by insurgents belonging to infamous warlord Joseph Konys Lords Resistance Army.

Almost every day for eight years, Victorias childhood innocence was clawed away.

Every night, they are having their way with you, and there is nothing you can do. Everything about captivity is about survival. You either survive, or you perish; there is no in-between, Victoria said in a small, stern voice. Often, you would see someone fall to the ground and think they must be resting, but when you get closer, you realize they are gone.

She gave birth to two children inside that hellish captivity, teetering on the periphery of life and death, and the whole family has sustained the ever-present psychological ramifications and social imputations.

Kony remains a free man.

And women certainly arent the only victims. Sexual violence against men is only now acknowledged as one of the most far-reaching yet underreported war crimes. I have recently listened to countless testimonies from men who disappeared into the dungeonlike depths of Syrian gulags.

On a trip a couple of years ago to Afghanistan, I visited Taliban fighters who were arrested and held inside a windowless government prison outside Kabul.

One juvenile, his stoic face shattering, told me that a religious Taliban recruiter at the secret training camp had him drugged, raped and filmed threatening to release the footage if the boy declined to participate in a suicide attack against a Western consulate in Afghanistans north.

Adding to the complexities of confessing such an ordeal is that in countries where homosexuality is outlawed, survivors are at risk of being arrested by law enforcement.

Too often, ending impunity for sexual violence is not seen as a priority, despite the well-documented devastating impact on survivors, their families and communities, said Lauren Aarons, head of the Gender, Sexuality and Identity Team for Amnesty International.

Where do we go from here? Having laws that criminalize sexual violence on their own is not enough. We need states to do the work to prosecute these crimes, in line of course with fair trial standards, including if and when the perpetrator was from their own security forces.

Ultimately, impunity for rape during times of conflict must be abolished. Without this, there is little incentive for the genocidal transgression to stop. And there is little chance that survivors will have their dignity restored and heal from the tangle of nightmares that play on a loop in their heads, their lives forever in limbo.

Hollie McKay is a writer, war crimes investigator and author of Only Cry for the Living: Memos from Inside the ISIS Battlefield. She wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.

Got an opinion about this issue? Send a letter to the editor and you just might get published.

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When rape is used as a weapon of war, it must be prosecuted as a war crime - The Dallas Morning News

This is the first installment of conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion in recruitment and mentorship at academic cancer centers.

These conversations, which will continue in upcoming issues, are intended to help disseminate best practices employed to diversify the oncology workforce of the future.

If youd like to take part, reach out to Matthew Ong (matthew@cancerletter), associate editor of The Cancer Letter.

Matthew Ong: What best practices in hiring and recruitmentor in pipeline programsdo you use at your institution to elevate potential diverse leaders? How effective are these strategies?

Christopher Lathan: I think, first, as I answer that question, I want to put it in context, because I think that this conversation is quantitatively different from a conversation that could have been had a couple of years ago.

So, when The Cancer Letter published your survey data, which is remarkably similar to the study that was just published, there was some consternation, but there wasnt as much focus. The focus on structural inequity throughout our system has really made the medical leadership rethink their approach. Theres always been good intentions, theres always been good thoughts, but I think that some of this was not seen as the priority.

To answer your question now, I would say our institution has always focused on some of the standard efforts that youve seen. We have focused on the usual approaches in the past. Pipeline issues, trying to support underrepresented leaders on multiple levels.

So, one new approach is supporting young aspiring leaders with continuous mentorship, especially folks who are coming from underrepresented-in-medicine backgrounds. In addition to that, creating relationships with, whether its medical schools and community leaders, where you can try to build those new diverse leaders. So, I think the first part is your pipeline.

The second part is prospectively thinking about support group situations. So, if you have underrepresented minority faculty, then, again, putting folks in groups and efforts to try to give them support through. I think those have kind of been the standard approaches. And I would say our institution has utilized those.

What I would say is that those approaches work somewhat. I think one of the things that we havent seen until fairly recently is really putting leadership in the executive suite, because thats where the difference comes in.

I would also say there isnt enough time yet to see. For example, my position is relatively new just within the last few months. And I think theres a lot of folks in the country who are in a similar situation.

So, lets see, I think these efforts will pay off, but I think the pipeline and the fermenting of young dynamic leaders and reaching out to try and pull established leaders from other institutions is another thing that, I think, institutions have tried to utilize, and my institution has done that as wellkind of thinking outside the box and maybe really thinking about leadership tracks and looking at folks who dont fit the same mold, I think, and maybe having people really broaden what they think a leader can do as well as what a leader looks like would be really helpful.

In your experience as a member of your centers executive leadership, how has increased diversity among your faculty improved patient outcomes, as well as your ability to reach and engage underserved communities in your catchment area? Could you provide a few examples?

CL: I would say the short answer to your question is, again, in the executive suite, looking at representation there, its relatively recent at our institution. So, were going to have to see those outcomes; well look at that going forward.

I would say we have seen other institutions, though, where this has paid off. At ASCO this year, Dr. [Carmen] Guerrera and Dr. [Robert] Vonderheide [from Penns Abramson Cancer Center] actually presented some data that showed how their interventionit was an intervention, but it was really supported by the cancer center directorto really diversify their patient population and have it match up with Philadelphias catchment area .

And they showed, how these kinds of initiatives are actually supported from the top throughout the instituteintegrating the whole institutes mechanism to really think about clinical trials and improving clinical trials for marginalized populations, African Americans for the most partreally made a huge difference in recruitment of folks to clinical trials, and greater representation of the marginalized catchment area.

I think that that is a good example of how Dr. Guerreras work where she is, in a leadership-level job, with the support of the cancer center director, has shown that if you put people who are interested in outreach, who are dedicated to outreach, and I think looking for leaders who are from different and diverse backgrounds, gives you folks who might have slightly different emphasis in their career. If you give them the support, they will build the initiatives and put the folks together and really make things work.

I do think that there are other examples out there. Derek Raghavans efforts at the Levine Cancer Center, and what theyve been doing, I think, is another example of how you find the people who want to do this kind of work. You support that from the cancer center leadership on down.

You pick executives who want to do this work, medical leaders who want to do this work, and you can make incredible gains and get the outcomes that youre looking for.

The trap for me in the question that you asked is, Hey, so youre going to do this. Youre going to diversify your leadership. Well, wheres the money? When are we going to see the outcomes that we want?

This sort of thing takes time and effort and commitment. And the trap is, if these physicians are not in the position to succeed, then leadership gets to say, Oh, were going to go back to what were doing.

Thats the one thing about having it so black and white, youve got to have a longer term view and plant the seeds so that the leaders can grow strong and can integrate their ideas throughout your institution.

Right; my question is a response to a dated and very loaded colorblind approach to science that I often run into in my work on DEI issues, i.e. Good science is good science, regardless of race. How is a good doctor from Baltimore different from a good doctor from Idaho? Its patronizing to racial minorities to tokenize them.

But I hear what youre saying here; you cant ask for outcomes on deadline as if its an engineering project.

CL: Right. Thats exactly right.

What programs have you led or are leading that are directly contributing to greater equity i.e. a reduction in disparity of outcomes or disparity of access in your catchment area? What is the nature of those disparities and what have you learned?

CL: Weve been fortunate. Even though my particular role is relatively new, there have been some efforts that weve been working on at our institution for some time that we have some data on.

Ill talk about two things, and theyre related. One is one of the efforts Ive been involved in for about 10 years. Its our Cancer Care Equity Program where weve actually set up outreach clinics in Federally Qualified Health Centers. And the idea is that we would help the primary care docs with any cancer-related questions.

So, we do expedited workups, survivorship, lung cancer screening visits, all in their health center under their license. For people who actually need to get biopsies or other things, they come into the cancer center. And thats a navigated process. Its built around a nurse navigator.

We put that program together about 2011. And so, over the nearly 10 years, weve collected data that shows that, not only do we help people, we decrease the time to evaluation for cancer-related questions, and weve got a manuscript that well be sending out, but theres some other published work that weve done.

Also, we found that the folks who did get diagnosed with cancer who were sent to our program were more likely to go on clinical trials. And this is a majority diverse population, about 40% of the patients speak Spanish and 70% identify as African American.

So, I think we have some preliminary data that shows that this kind of prolonged, determined, navigation, clinical access program not only helps the patient, but it also gives what were looking for in the long term, which is more access and higher representation in clinical trials.

Now, the actual total N is small, because this is a small pilot program, but were expanding this program and were trying to make a bigger impact.

The other thing is our Community Benefits Office and our research programs have long been working hand in hand to really innovate and try to come up with different types of interventions that can have impact.

So, besides some of the work that weve been doing, theres some work on prostate cancer, theres work on liver cancer, where theyre really trying to integrate the research process much more in addition to the clinical process.

And in our breast cancer group, there is a Boston-wide navigation program where all the different institutions, different academic institutions are coming together.

And the data isnt quite published yet, but thats another, probably seven or eight year program that we have some good data showing the impact of navigation for breast cancer patients, specifically, for comparing what happens to folks who are coming from underserved neighborhoods from marginalized communities.

So, these programs have been going on for a while. I think its just we need to ramp them up a little bit more.

Speaking of next steps, are you working on any new initiatives or new priorities, on a very high level, at your institution?

CL: We are working on, like many institutions, rethinking the integration of our approach to clinical access throughout the institution.

One specific example is integrating navigation into the disease center in a much more prospective way for vulnerable and underserved patient populations.

So, as opposed to having a navigator thats supported by a philanthropic program, were talking about in the center, integrating the navigator, the community-focused navigator, to really assist all the way through their process on a disease center level throughout the cancer center.

Thats something that I really havent seen often, even in programs that have navigators in clinical operation systems. So, weve started that program where were going to integrate, were going to look at some metrics, and were going to try to demonstrate that approach over time.

And in addition to that, I think really building up some of our outreach programs, some of the interventions from the ground up, removing structural barriers and actually focusing on some socioeconomic and other barriers it takes for folks to get on clinical trials.

Lastly, our institution has been able to renegotiate some of the insurance contracts. So, before there was a big gap. Many patients who were in Boston who had a specific managed Medicaid product that excluded our institution, or the health insurance program at our institution was too expensive.

They renegotiated that, so that these patients can, just like everybody else, come into the institution and get a second opinion or get their transplant or specialty care, if need be.

And I think thats also going to allow us to have a positive impact on the patients.

Did we miss anything?

CL: I will say that Im happy that theres a majority of institutions that are thinking about this in a prospective way.

What I want to see thoughwhat I really want to seeis in three, four, or five years, do they remain as committed?

And where are they when some of these initiatives start off a little rocky and they dont necessarily give fruit early? Where is their commitment and how strong is their will for change?

That is where I think we will really see where were going with this and whether this is representation that is weaved in, or if this is a reflexive response to the moment, because many of us whove been doing this work for 15, 20 years have been pushing these things.

Go back and look at the guidelines that ASCOs done, that any of the groups have talked about, and youll see the same thing.

Even NCI, when they changed the core grant, the CCSG grants include more about community engagement. People have been trying to push this for a while.

So, these arent new concepts. What we want to see, in all of this, is as we go forward, is it going to be sustained? And thats, to me, where were going to see the difference in communities, and communities will know the difference then, too.

Right; a friend described it very succinctly to me in a conversation about equity initiatives now popping up everywhere: Yall, weve been seeing it for a long time before COVID and before BLM, but thank you, better late than never.

CL: Exactly. Thats very true. I think thats very true. So, I think, good, if youre late to the party and you want to help, thats great, but lets see what its going to look like going forward.

Matthew Ong: What best practices in hiring and recruitmentor in pipeline programsdo you use at your institution to elevate potential diverse leaders? How effective are these strategies?

Karriem Watson: One of the best practices that we have in our cancer center is to ensure that our research faculty and research team members reflect our diverse patient population.

This is clearly seen in our office of Community Engagement and Health Equity (CEHE) of the UI Cancer Center, which is affiliated with the Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) and health equity program of the UI Cancer Centerwhere the majority of the leadership and team members of CEHE and the COE program are from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds that reflects the UI Cancer Center catchment area.

One of the strategies that we deploy is ensuring that new researchers and public health professionals are recruited from our UIC School of Public Health.

In your experience as members of your centers executive leadership, how has increased diversity among your faculty improved patient outcomes, as well as your ability to reach and engage underserved communities in your catchment area? Could you provide a few examples?

KW: It is well documented in the literature, as well as in my professional experience as associate director of Community Outreach and Engagement of the UI Cancer Center, that having research faculty and staff that reflect a cancer centers catchment area improves the ability of cancer centers to reach and engage with communities in which they share similar lived experiences.

One example of this is how the UI Cancer Center has been able to increase its workforce diversity by creating intentional pipelines from health equity research and engagement efforts such as the NCI funded U54 Chicago Cancer Health Equity Collaborative (Chicago CHEC). Chicago CHEC has served as a major asset in advancing the careers of early stage investigators from underrepresented groups as well as creating workforce opportunities for students who matriculate in the Chicago CHEC fellows research program.

I currently lead a R01-level research project supported by Chicago CHEC engaging African American men in lung cancer screening and two members of our research team are former students from the Chicago CHEC program including the lead study coordinator for the project.

What programs have you led that are directly contributing to greater equity i.e. a reduction in disparity of outcomes or disparity of access in your catchment area? What is the nature of those disparities and what have you learned?

KW: In addition to the NCI funded U54 Chicago CHEC program, the director of CEHE, Dr. Vida Henderson and I have led a community-engaged research and service project to improve colorectal and cervical cancer outcomes among underserved populations in the UI Cancer Center catchment area.

The project is funded by the Bristol Myer Squibb Foundation (BMSF) and engages barbers, beauticians and safety net hospitals in the UI cancer Center catchment area. Data from our catchment area showed colorectal cancer disparities on Chicagos Southside were greater than many state and national averages.

The catchment area data also showed inequities in access and screening uptake for cervical cancer among African American and Latina/Hispanic women on Chicagos west side area.

We have learned from this project that it is both feasible and effective to implement community based colorectal cancer screening within community settings including barbershops, beauty salons and Federally Qualified health centers.

We also learned that embedded patient navigators in safety net hospitals in collaboration with cancer centers is an effective way to increase cervical cancer screening and identify system level barriers that can prevent timely cervical cancer screening.

What are your next steps?

KW: Our next steps are to continue to leverage NCI funded centers for health equity like Chicago CHEC to support early stage investigators and to grow the pipeline of students from underrepresented groups engaged in health disparities research.

We will also work with the seven health science colleges at UIC to ensure opportunities for research and student and faculty engagement to support researchers from underrepresented groups.

We are also actively seeking funding that can examine the impact of systemic racism on both cancer screening and uptake as well as its impact on the cancer research workforce.

Matthew Ong: What best practices in hiring and recruitmentor in pipeline programsdo you use at your institution to elevate potential diverse leaders? How effective are these strategies?

Ruben Mesa: The Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio is based in a catchment area of San Antonio and South Texas, a 38-county region of 4.9 million people of which 69% are Latino, so a diverse team and leadership team is crucial.

Working closely with our wonderful vice dean for diversityDr. Chiquita Collins of the Long School of Medicinethe Mays Cancer Center is dedicated to first developing diverse faculty.

We have designed a portfolio of training programs emphasizing opportunities for diverse students to develop careers as cancer investigators and physicians that begin at the high school level through the junior faculty level.

We deeply value diversity in new faculty hires, and work to have a diverse pool of candidates before offers are extended. We actively focus on retention, looking at mentorship, career development, and competitive hiring and retention efforts.

Our university, Long School of Medicine, and Mays Cancer Center have a robust leadership development program, which enriches the career development of potential diverse leaders.

New leadership searches begin with a discussion on diversity, intentional efforts to reach out to diverse candidates and seek their recruitment. We have a very diverse faculty, staff, and leadership structure.

In your experience as members of your centers executive leadership, how has increased diversity among your faculty improved patient outcomes, as well as your ability to reach and engage underserved communities in your catchment area? Could you provide a few examples?

RM: We have a diverse faculty who is focused on conducting research in our very diverse catchment area. South Texas is diverse with both rural and urban areas, with 4.9 million people, mostly Latinos (69%). Nearly half speak Spanish as their primary language, and many face barriers like poverty and low educational attainment.

Amelie Ramirez: Many people in our community fear getting cancer. Cancer has become the leading cause of death for Latinos. I have lost a family member to cancer, and it is not something we want anyone to have to go through.

This is why I am leading studies that are focused on Latinos, engaging them in research and delivering interventions and communications to help them.

And this is why every researcher, clinician, education specialist, and health care worker at the Mays Cancer Center is working hard to make a difference in preventing, reducing, and eliminating cancer for all people.

What programs have you led that are directly contributing to greater equity i.e. a reduction in disparity of outcomes or disparity of access in your catchment area? What is the nature of those disparities and what have you learned?

RM: We know Latinos are getting vaccinated for COVID-19 at much lower rates than their peers. Dr. Ramirez and her Salud America! program created the Juntos, We Can Stop COVID-19 bilingual digital communication campaign to inform and urge Latino families to take action to slow the spread of coronavirus, including getting the vaccine when its available.

The #JuntosStopCovid campaign features Latino culturally relevant fact sheets, infographics, and video role model stories in English and Spanish. Dr. Ramirez and her Salud America! program also created the Latino COVID-19 Vaccine Change of Heart Bilingual Storytelling Campaign to move Latinos from vaccine hesitancy to vaccine confidence.

The campaign uplifts the stories of real Latinos from South Texas and beyond who overcame misinformation, got the vaccine, reconnected with family, and are helping end the pandemic. We want our families to be able to get back together. We want to visit our sisters and brothers, parents, and abuelos and abuelas.

And we want to be able to do our jobs and go to school safely. The best way to achieve what we want is to get the vaccine right when it is available. Vaccines help our bodies become immune to a virus without becoming ill from it.

AR: We are continuing to build the pipeline for a diverse healthcare and cancer research workforce. My NCI-funded program, xito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training, annually recruits 25 Latino students and health professionals annually for a culturally tailored curriculum to promote pursuit of a doctoral degree and cancer research career.

The program also offers internships and ongoing support. Of 101 program participants from 2011-2015, 43% applied to a doctoral program and 29.7% were currently enrolled.

We proved that xito! is a strong model pipeline program that equips Latinos for applying to and thriving in doctoral programs, with added potential to boost the pool of cancer health disparities researchers.

What are your next steps?

RM: We are working to engage more Latinos in clinical trials. Latinos represent 18.5% of the U.S. population, but are less than 10% of those in federal cancer and drug studies.

Dr. Ramirez has received a three-year, $650,000 grant from Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, to create Latino-focused recruitment strategies and systems for clinical trials in cancer treatment and Alzheimers disease.

The new funding, part of Genentech and The Genentech Foundations $16 million initiative to promote health equity and diversity in STEM, will help her team expand its work into inclusive clinical trial promotion and recruitment.

This includes using culturally relevant digital health communications, advocacy networks, and clinical partnerships to promote health equity and advance clinical trials for cancer treatment and Alzheimers disease among Latinos.

Read more:

Will cancer centers remain committed to improving equity in the long term? - The Cancer Letter

Who better to give us a full sense of how the possibly historic heat wave in the Pacific Northwest is affecting people than the residents who live there and the officials who govern. Here we've compiled some of what they're saying.

Quite honestly, it is hard to believe my eyes. ... Folks, this is unparalleled, dangerous meteorological territory. Cliff Mass, University of Washington climatologist

"Triple-digit heat is expected to arrive this weekend and persist well into next week. This event will likely be one of the most extreme and prolonged heat waves in the recorded history of the Inland Northwest. Unprecedented heat will not only threaten the health of residents in the Inland Northwest but will make our region increasingly vulnerable to wildfires and intensify the impacts [of] our ongoing drought." National Weather Service office in Spokane, Washington

This is life-threatening heat. People need to find someplace cool to spend time during the coming days. And for people who already have somewhere cool, their job is to reach out to other people. Ask them to join you, or help them get to a place that is reasonably cool. Dr. Jennifer Vines, health officer for Multnomah County, Oregon

(MORE: Historic Northwest Heat Wave Could Shatter All-Time Records in Washington, Oregon)

"This is a true public health emergency." Dan Douthit, public information officer for Portland's Bureau of Emergency Management

The predictions of 105, 106, 107, 108-degree temperatures this weekend are terrifying, quite honestly, to me. Dr. Christian Molstrom, medical director for Legacy-GoHealth Urgent Care in Portland

"With record-breaking heat in the forecast starting Saturday, the health and safety of Portlanders must come first. Im asking all in the community to prepare accordingly and to have a plan to stay cool. Stay safe, check in with family, friends and neighbors and offer any help they may need." Ted Wheeler, mayor of Portland, Oregon

"It's not so much a matter of what temperature records we will break. Really, what WON'T be broken?" Tweet from NWS office in Seattle

"When I was 12, we suffered through the great August 1981 heatwave. I was living near Mt. Angel at the time. We spent a few days mainly down in the basement. Almost no one had air conditioning back then. Then when my career began in 1991, just out of college, I wondered when we might break that all-time 107 degree record in Portland. It was only a matter of time, but I didnt think it would take another 30 years!" Mark Nelsen, Fox 12 meteorologist

"I don't think it would be safe. I think I would last maybe an hour and a half with a good attitude and then maybe another 20 minutes with a bad attitude and then be like OK I'm done with this." Courtney Reese, manager of Van's Burger in Olympia, Washington, whose owner has said the drive-thru will close Saturday because of the heat

(MORE: Portland, Seattle, Other Northwest Communities Prepare for Potentially Historic Heat Wave)

"Portland's very unique, and I've lived here all my life. When it snows, they wait till there's six inches of snow to go buy tire chains. Nobody seems to like to be prepared ahead of time. ... It's kind of the nature of people, especially in Portland, to say gee, an air conditioner is $200 to $300 and I don't want to spend it if I don't need it. So I'll just wait till I need it. Well, when you need it, so does everyone else and it turns into a giant storm of people needing stuff." Norman Chusid, owner of Ankeny Hardware in southeast Portland, which has sold more than 450 air conditioning units this week

Im not even thinking about how much it costs, Im just trying to cool off. Make sure my daughters are okay. Shopper looking for an air conditioner in a sold-out hardware store in Renton, Washington

There should be enough power. We have no indications that thats an issue for us. Of course were monitoring closely and at this point do not see any issues in continuing to serve power to our customers. Andrea Platt, spokesperson for Portland General Electric

Staff are seeing that since drinking fountains have been off for quite some time, they are needing more work to get turned back on. Spokesperson for Seattle Parks and Recreation, where 80% of park water fountains don't work.

We have been very thoughtful and intentional in our approach to providing relief to all members of our community. Businesses and malls are open and operating at reduced COVID capacities into next week and are still a great way to escape the heat and support our economy. For those in our community who are unsheltered, we have a multi-pronged approach that includes taking advantage of the existing resources and adding additional space to cool off. Nadine Woodward, mayor of Spokane, Washington

Beat The Heat With This Portable A/C Unit (SPONSORED)

"This stagnant dome of record heat, and the intensely strong high pressure producing it, will grudgingly get a move on by the middle of next week. Hang in there and stay cool!" Kristin Clark, KOMO-TV meteorologist

The Weather Companys primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

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'This Is a True Public Health Emergency': What Residents, Officials Are Saying About Northwest Heat Wave | The Weather Channel - Articles from The...

WAUSAU When The New York Times first reportedon Marathon County's Community for All resolutionin mid-May, a national audience focused on a place in Wisconsin that would rather be known for primeskiing, a sprawlingstate park, ginseng and dairyfarms ... and its Midwestern niceresidents.

Wausau Daily Herald reporters, who have been following the resolution for months, receiveddozens of messages in the daysafter the Times article published, from local residents and people acrossWisconsin, askingessentiallythe same question:Whats the deal with Wausau?

"Does (the County Board)intend to continue embarrassing our community in front of the whole nation?" one local residentwrote in an email to the Daily Herald.

The widespread attention has heightenedtensions, concaving into the city of Wausau, which tends to lean slightly more progressive in its politics than other parts ofMarathon County. The city is now struggling with itsown version of the resolution one meant to signal the community is welcoming and inclusive for people from all backgrounds and identities, and stands against hate and intolerance.

At the last City Council meeting, council member Lisa Rasmussen said Wausau's adaption of the county'sCommunity for Allidea would not change peoples' behaviors but instead "pour gas on the fires of division" that already exist.

And those divisions are not unique to Wausau or isolated to the topics of race and equity, Rasmussen said.

"The community is as divided as the rest of the country. We spent all last year fighting about the pandemic. We spent all of last year fighting about the election. We spent a good portion of this year fighting about the election," she said. "There's a clear division in our community andall (of) this permeates into that."

RELATED:Wausau residents call for open-mindedness, inclusivity to address racism

RELATED: 'We should feelembarrassed': After a year of debate, Marathon County 'Community for All' back to drawing board

The Times wasn't the first to report on the Community for Allissue; the Daily Herald and other local news outlets had providedextensive coverage of the resolution.The gist of it is thatMarathon Countys Diversity Affairs Commissionhas beentrying to push forward a resolution that seeks to acknowledge racial disparities and inequities, while facing fierce resistance from conservatives and some elected officials who believe there's no racismin the county.

The County Board's ExecutiveCommittee shot down the resolution in a 6-2 vote May 13 that drew the attention of aTimes reporter, who covered the decision and the heated debate around the topic.

In his article, Reid Epstein wrote, About the only consensus that has emerged is that the prolonged fight over a four-word phrase (A Community for All) has only made things worse, ripping at the communal fabric in this central Wisconsin county and amplifying the tensions that had been simmering before(George)Floyds death.

But some who are deeply invested in the community believe the Times article itself amplified those tensions, no matter whether it was intentional.

Wausau Mayor Katie Rosenberg, already a frequent sourcein national media reports on Midwest politics, said the city has become a political punching bag since theTimes published the article, transformed intothe center of a national debate on race.

It kind of exacerbated whats already going on, Rosenberg said. Theres a lot offinger-pointing."

She detailed emails from constituents,whofalsely claim she recruited the Times to the cityto report on the issue.After that report,an anti-Black Lives Mattergroup addressed theMarathon County Board and madeanother false remark about Rosenberg, saying shesupported exterminating people who are Black.(On Twitter, Rosenberg immediately called the comments "absolute inflammatory nonsense," adding in a comment, "I absolutely oppose genocide.")

RELATED: Wausau school, government leaders condemn comments from anti-Black Lives Matter group ahead of Saturday event

Rosenberg is one of the more outspoken liberal figures in the city; she has expressed immense disappointment in the county's rejection of the Diversity Affairsresolution and proceeded to declarethe city of Wausau a Community for All."

But shes confused why the Times singled out Wausau specifically.

"After that first article ran, I was like This isnt a Wausau issue.It isnta Wisconsin issue, she said.While its about us,itsnot a story exclusively about us its happening across thecountry andworld.

Marathon County Board member William Harris(Photo: Courtesy of Marathon County)

Marathon County Board member William Harrisisone of the main proponents for the Community for All resolution. The only Black member of the County Board, Harris was quoted in The New York Times story.He said the article was accuratebut only a snapshot in time.

At the end of the day, this is for our community here,Harrissaid. Its difficult because people (across the country) will draw their own conclusions one way or the other.

It doesnt send a good sign outward if we cant even say were welcoming. ... I dont think itrepresentsus well. I dont think it shows us well. I think our community has so much to offer and so much to give.

Harris said he "fully intends" for a new versionto go to the county's Executive Committee again in July.

The Daily Herald has made several attempts to reach the County Board members who voted against the resolution in the Executive Committee Chair Kurt Gibbs,Vice Chair Craig McEwen and board members Matt Bootz,Randy Fifrick, Jacob Langenhahn andE.J. Stark but only oneresponded to an interview request.

Stark resigned in May. He told the Daily Herald that he is "done with politics for the time being" and that there was "too much stuff unfolding right now."

Fifrick, who represents District 15 encompassing the village ofKronenwetter, said he hopes the County Board can reach some middle ground.

Randy Fifrick(Photo: Wausau Daily Herald)

"If we're going to have a resolution that we title as a 'Community for All,' it should be something that the majority of our community can support, not something that creates a greater divide,"Fifrick said, explaining why he voted against the resolution in May. "I'm happy to support the resolution, but we need to find the right wording and language where people don't feel alienated."

But Fifrick acknowledged that even he's unsure if his rationale is "right or wrong."

"There needs to be some collaboration between both sides.That's what I'm hoping to see," he said.

Meanwhile, the Wausau City Council voted 6-5 on June 15to send its own version of the resolution mirroring the mayor's proclamation in Mayback to committee.

One of the proposed revisions was to remove mention of The New York Times' coverage in the resolution.

Rasmussen, who proposed sending the resolution back to committee, saidthere was "palpable division in the room."

"The decision that we need to make hereneeds to reflect the majority of public opinion in each district, whether we agree with that majority or not,"Rasmussen said."The county struggled with this issue for over a year and couldn't find common ground. There has got to be a reason for that.

"We have taken on issues that are a really hard fit for local governments to solve."

KayleyMcColley,a21-year-old local activist who lives in Wausau, said her hometownis being puton the map for all the wrong reasons. She's not sure that's entirely bad, even if it's not fair to those who believe in fighting racism and supporting equality.

I dont feel like it was a disadvantage for the article to come out because it holds a mirror up to Wausau, she said. But this is not representative of Wausau."

Kayley McColley at the June 6, 2020 march she helped organize in Wausau to honor George Floyd, who was killed at the hands of Minneapolis police in May 2020.(Photo: Courtesy of Kayley McColley)

Epstein, who declined to speak with the Daily Herald about his reporting, followed up on the resolution last weekin an article headlined, I Reported on a Community Dispute. The Dispute Got Worse.

Its always a reporters goal to illuminate an issue, not create more problems we travel to places like Wausau to reflect the mood of the country, Epstein wrote. This article happened to awaken emotions that broke out into the open after it published, shining a light on long-simmering community tensions.

Doug McLeod, a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,said conflictcan indeed be threatening, especially to smallercities, and that the national attention that Wausau is receiving woulddisappearinto everything else in a city like New York or Chicago.

(Conflicts) can be more divisive, they can raise tensions in smaller communities, said McLeod,who studiessocial conflicts and the mass media. "Those communities might look for scapegoats to place blame, (and) its often the person coming in from outside like a journalist from New York.

Its true that neither Epsteinnor the Times nor any other outside force caused Marathon Countys problems in addressing the topic of race those have been embedded in cities and counties across the U.S.for centuries, McLeod said.But he addedthat sometimesjournalistsmake generalizations and get things wrong.

Journalists work hard and do their best, but they often dont get the whole story, he said.

For example, Rosenberg told TheNew York Times for Epstein's more recent article that seeing Wausaus local political dispute play out in front of a national audience has undercutherefforts to bring the community together.Shes quoted saying, We have ripped our relationship apart.

But she told the Daily Heraldthatsometimes things need to rip like a muscle in order to grow stronger.

Im hoping were not just irreparably torn apart I dont think we are, she said. I think were building the muscle and learning how to have that conversation.

Harris said, if anything, hehopes the national spotlight will press people who havent tuned in to the debate to make their voices heard.

We allhave todo our part to step up and have these conversations," he said. "I hope this will be a call to action for people to engage and get involved.

Contact Allison Garfield at 715-351-9799 or agarfield@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @aligarfield_.

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A New York Times article sought to expose Wausau and Marathon County's racial tensions. Some say that 'snapshot' only made things worse. - Wausau...

By Jim Provenza, Lucas Frerichs, Garth Lewis and Jesse SalinasSpecial to The Enterprise

These past weeks have been a time of joy in Yolo County. A parade of high school seniors crossed stages to receive their diplomas. Children of all ages completed an unprecedented year of virtual and masked in-person schooling, due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

These celebrations reflect a significant achievement in our communities, yet there are troubling signs that many of our young people and their families are struggling.

Along with the celebrations, we need a long-range plan to ensure a better future for Yolo County. This means confronting the issues of poverty and physical and mental health especially among our youngest friends and neighbors.

According to the Yolo County Office of Education, our county is home to just under 30,000 students in K-12 schools and a little more than 13,600 children ages 0-5. Of these:

* Approximately 15% of all children 0-17 live in poverty.

* Local Black children face a 28% poverty rate.

* Latino children endure a 20% poverty rate.

Poverty also creates toxic stress in babies in utero, and prenatal care is an essential preventative measure. According to First 5 of Yolo County, during the pandemic:

* Only 47% of pregnant women on Medi-Cal in Yolo received on-time prenatal care. Compare that to 2018, when 84% of mothers on Medi-Cal received on-time prenatal care.

* Pediatric well-child visits dropped by an estimated 24% from pre-pandemic baselines.

* Childhood vaccinations dropped by more than 40% since the start of the pandemic.

How do we ensure our children and families move from surviving to thriving? How do we meet this post-pandemic moment and create structural change? How do we tap the potential of the region and make it a place of innovation where young people thrive and families see our county as a place to work, live, and succeed?

These are the questions (many) elected officials throughout Yolo County are asking. The pandemic has demonstrated that we have a collective responsibility to our communities that can only be met by acknowledging our joint responsibility to leverage the federal, state, and local opportunities before us.

Although we have had successful county collaborative efforts in the past, the American Rescue Plan (ARP) and other anticipated one-time funding provide a unique, once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in communities and build up our public health and economic infrastructure.

And the investment that will have the biggest long-term impact for our society is an investment in our children, youths and families.

We are observing the greatest COVID-related impacts in areas of mental health and well-being. Even prior to the pandemic, high school students attending Yolo Countys Youth Empowerment Summit shared stories about their mental health. Their stories were supported by public health statistics indicating that:

* In 2018, 22% of youths accessing Medi-Cal mental health services in Yolo County did so at a crisis level, according to the California Department of Health Care Services.

* A 2020 California Healthy Kids Survey found that 28% of Yolo County 11th graders were harassed or bullied in the previous year.

* Nearly 36% experienced chronic sadness/hopelessness while at school. The pandemic exacerbated this issue.

We need to plan, with urgency, a new focus on the physical AND mental health of our communities by developing an innovative, practical and effective cradle-to-career blueprint for every one of our young people.

To make this a reality, we must make a commitment to one another and our community to plan together, to dream together, to rebuild and re-engage together.

We have an unprecedented opportunity to develop a comprehensive and coordinated strategic plan for children, youths and families throughout the county. Yolo County is one interconnected community and we understand that when one community thrives, we all thrive together.

We call on our elected colleagues on the Board of Supervisors, city councils, school boards, and Yolo County Office of Education to join us in this effort as we work collaboratively with our leaders in youth advocacy, higher education, nonprofit and private sectors to develop a roadmap for countywide success. The blueprint would:

* promote balanced economic development

* provide parents viable opportunities to earn a living wage

* ensure our children live healthy lives, and

* create positive opportunities for our youths to enjoy increased civic engagement, leadership development, and a healthy environment to work, live, and play in Yolo County.

This plan should be transformative and leverage resources across the entire county and all sectors in such a way that prioritizes children, youths and families. It is only by working in a more intentional and collaborative way that these resources will have a long-term, multi-generational impact on our community.

In July, the county will begin convening virtual and in-person community workshops. To learn more go to http://www.bit.ly/yoloamericanrescueplan. Join us and help support our effort in this important journey as we map out the future of our county through a commitment to collaboration the Yolo Way!

Jim Provenza, chair Yolo County Board of Supervisors and First 5; Gary Sandy, Yolo County Board of Supervisors; Jesse Salinas, Yolo County assessor, clerk-recorder, elections; Garth Lewis, Yolo County superintendent; Tico Zendejas, Yolo County Board of Education; Gloria Partida, mayor of Davis; Lucas Frerichs, vice mayor of Davis; Tom Stallard, mayor of Woodland, Mayra Vega, Woodland mayor pro tem; Martha Guerrero, mayor of West Sacramento; Quirina Orozco, West Sacramento City Council member; Wade Cowan, mayor of Winters; Jesse Loren, Winters City Council member; Tom Adams, Davis Joint Unified School District trustee; Vigdis Asmundson, Davis Joint Unified School District trustee; Coby Pizzotti, president, Washington Unified School District; Jackie Thu-Huong Wong, vice president, Washington Unified School District; Jake Whitaker, president, Woodland Unified School District; Bibiana Garcia, Woodland Unified School District trustee; Jesse Ortiz, Yuba Community College District Board Trustee Area 5; Kelly Willkerson, Los Rios Community College District Board Area 4.

The rest is here:

Commentary: Mapping the future of Yolo youths - Davis Enterprise

Feature Story June 23, 2021

The Kaiser Family Foundation found that rates of anxiety and depression have quadrupled during the pandemic, with about 40% of adults in the U.S. reporting symptoms of anxiety or depression. Thats up from 10% in the first half of 2019. The impact of the coronavirus on adults showed up in measures of adult mental health and well-being such as difficulty sleeping (36%) or eating (32%), increases in alcohol consumption or substance use (12%), and worsening chronic conditions (12%), due to worry and stress over the coronavirus.

This comes as no news to anyone who struggled with isolation, job uncertainty, food insecurity, or the generalized social instability the entire nation experienced due to both the pandemic, the national response to the murder of George Floyd and other Black Americans, and the insurrection of January 6.

A study by the Center for State and Local Government Excellence defines the toll of the past year on K-12 educators in terms just as stark, especially in comparison to other government employees: a decline in job satisfaction; significantly higher rates of stress, burnout, fatigue, and anxiety; concerns about health and safety related to contracting or spreading coronavirus to their families; and increased number of work hours.

The second volume of the U.S. Department of Educations Covid-19 HandbookRoadmap to Reopening Safely and Meeting All Students Needs says, As schools reopen, it is important to consider that educators and staff will also be returning to school changed. Some will be coping with grief, elevated levels of anxiety, and loss. Many [educators] may be struggling as they watch the students they serve and care deeply about going through challenging experiences. Last summer, the American School Counselor Association and the National Association of School Counselors recommended psychological triage for staff as well as students to address the trauma and intense stress of the pandemic.

Dr. Donna Christy, a Prince Georges County school psychologist and president-elect of the Prince Georges County Educators Association, says this isnt surprising. When you think about causes of trauma as those events which put you in a position in which you are unable to control your own well-being, I would say the most damaging aspect was that of having to wait and watch news conferences to learn your fate as a public employee, knowing that the people in those positions of power were not only controlling your professional life, but your life itself.

Throughout the pandemic, MSEA stepped up as Governor Hogan and Superintendent Salmon stumbled to provide the clear guidance and ample support that students, educators, and employees needed in an unprecedented crisis. Everyone was using student mental health as a talking point to reopen school buildings without any regard for the mental health of our educators who were forced to put themselves, and their families, in grave danger, Christy adds.

Stacey Cornelius is a behavior analyst in St. Marys County. At her school, staff wellness is a priority and the Wellness Wednesdays she facilitates provide an outlet for staff to be seen, heard, valued, respected, and vulnerable. Our schools need dedicated intentional spaces for staff to talk and not just about school and work, Cornelius says. They need to experience that being restorative is building community to strengthen relationships. This process humanizes everyone.

Through my healing circles and coaching of educators, says Robin McNair, a restorative practices coordinator in Prince Georges County, I learned that educators feel there was no intentional time given to them to unpack their own trauma of coronavirus, the dramatic shift to virtual learning, and the social and political crises. Resilience was expected instead of nurtured when confronted with these unprecedented threats. Find many free restorative practices resources from the University of Maryland Carey School of Law here.

In Garrett County, Principal Jamie Friend found something humanizing in the way rote professional developments on learning management systems evolved into something even more valuable early in the pandemic. Its the best, most collaborative working atmosphere that Ive ever been involved in. Our need to get lessons to our students brought us closer together as we learned how to do it together. Our students are the better for the relationship-building of the past year. Across the state, administrators like Friend and specialists like Christy, Cornelius, and McNair are bringing new programs, insights, and opportunities to staff to come together, share, and support one another.

The past year has been filled with questions about our safety, our health, the national political climate, and, critically, about the historic and systemic racism it is taking our country hundreds of years to confront and meaningfully repair. The racially-motivated murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many, many others are changing the way many of us see ourselves and each other.

Im passionate about promoting equity-centered capacity building, modeling a restorative philosophy, and nurturing a culture that integrates an inclusive approach to lifelong learning, says Cornelius. As a white mother of a Black son, I have an increased responsibility to speak up and out against racism and social injustices. I believe educators have a unique role in leading the charge in ending white supremacy and dismantling systemic racism.

I know that our voices are powerful and what we say matters. To make progress in the pursuit of racial equity and justice, I must show up in support of our Black colleagues, students, neighbors, and communities, adds Cornelius. Indeed, as educators, one of our core beliefs is a commitment to lifelong learning. Who better to be at the forefront in dismantling racism?

In the NEA and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) joint project Learning Beyond Covid-19: A Vision for Thriving in Public Education, the countrys two national educators unions call for an education system that centers equity and excellence. Rather than simply returning to normal, we are committed to building the public schools our students deserve.

Like the Blueprint for Marylands Future, NEA and AFT leaders call for creating new systems where students and educators can thrive. They call for reinvigorating the teaching professions by reimagining instruction, curricula, assessments, and professional development that is grounded in the science of learning and building a teaching corps that is diverse with new pathways and supports that get people in the profession.

Programs like MSEAs Aspiring Educators, Early Career Educators, and Praxis Core Prep are part of a new pipeline for diversifying and strengthening the educator force in Maryland, says Bost. The Blueprint brings new and different opportunities for career growth for educators, too, including for paraeducators who excel in supporting the smaller-group and targeted instruction post pandemic-classrooms need. Students must see themselves represented in the curriculum and also by who is in front of the whiteboard.

The health of a school is assessed by the well-being and success of its students and educators. Rebounding from the trauma of the past yearwhen educators were both lauded and vilifiedrequires educator self-care and school-based resources to ensure school community resilience. Educators were left feeling powerless over the past year, watching social media go from as parents we now realize how much you deal with at the beginning of quarantine to, these selfish teachers are blocking reopening, Donna Christy says. They seem to have forgotten that everything from mental health to the economy depends on our public education system.

For Stacey Cornelius, an anonymous climate and culture survey at her school proved invaluable. After analyzing the survey results, it was obvious that staff were craving true collegial connection and more meaningful administrator interactions, she says. I knew that this was the time to focus on our educators because they are carrying a lot, the cycle of trauma is real, and our staff have limited outlets. It is my belief that the faculty and staff in a school building are who set the tone, climate, and culture. If the adults dont feel calm, healed, safe, and secure then how are they going to show up for kids?

Im proud of how well we filled the void, says MSEA President Cheryl Bost. We did that by providing the information and advocacy that members neededwhether at the state or local level, whether through social media, car rallies, or public campaigns for safety and transparency. We knew we needed to supply the critical information and guidance that our members were desperately seeking. Through the worst of the pandemic to the legislative session and school building reopenings, we used our power and influence carefully and wisely to keep educators and students safe. I believe we helped educators feel safer, more secure, and more respected while we were all grappling with the stresses surrounding us from the public health, race, and political crises in our country.

Our challenge nowindividually and collectivelyis to take the summer to reflect on what worked, and what we need as educators to bounce back and help our students recover from the trauma, disruption, and challenges of this school year. We cant bottle up what happened and simply move on, Bost continues. We must address the trauma; we must take care of ourselves, our students, and our families. We must keep doing the necessary work of fighting for racial and social justice. And we must continue to have each others backs as we did throughout the pandemicbecause our union and our profession will only become stronger if we do so.

MSEA holds its first of several teletown halls during the spring to share updates and answer questions related to coronavirus and its impact on our schools. MSEA publishes its first of more than 20 Coronavirus FAQs, guiding educators through technology skills to ESP-specific issues to taking sick and personal leaveduring coronavirus-related closures.

MSEA launches the first Learn More at 4 on Facebook Live, featuring MSEA President Cheryl Bost and General Counsel Kristy Anderson. The weekly live series later morphed to the bi-weekly Educate at 8, included MSEA and NEA experts, state and federal legislators, higher ed leaders, and many others.

George Floyd is murdered in Minneapolis. My heart and soul are heavy as we grieve yet another Black person killed senselessly by a white police officer, said MSEA President Cheryl Bost. MSEA and NEA and allied organizations provide resources on racism, hate, trauma, talking about race, and teaching tolerance and acceptance.

As schools close for the school year, MSEA starts the conversation for next school year urging reopening planning committees to ask: Are racial and economic disparities/impacts being considered? Whose conditions are being improved? Whose voices are included?

MSEA launches its How to Be an Anti-Racist Educator series to talk about bias, hidden curriculum, and applying an equity lens to our work. MSEA, the Baltimore Teachers Union, and the Maryland PTA call for a virtual start to the school year to protect student and educator safety. In a letter to Gov. Hogan and Supt. Salmon they wrote: We must rise above politics and focus on the reality and complexities of safely reopening schools. MSEA issues, along with the Baltimore Teacher Union and Maryland PTA, a Health and Safety Checklist for Buildings and Workspaces around the most critical health and safety concerns.

President Cheryl Bost formally launches the Presidents Council on Safe, Healthy, and Supportive Teaching and Learning Environments.

MSEA launches its Becoming a Trauma-Informed Educator series. MSEA legal and research teams support local coronavirus-related memoranda of understanding to create formal agreements on reopening plans and expectations.

As coronavirus numbers spike, President Cheryl Bost writes a letter to Supt. Salmon stating MSEAs position that schools remain virtual through the end of the semester: Lets work to destress an already stressful situation and, at the state level, declare that schools will remain virtual through, at a minimum, the end of the semester.

MSEAs second Racial Social Justice Summit, Meeting the Moment: Becoming a Racial Social Justice Warrior featuring Dr. Cornel West, who told attendees: Justice is what love looks like in public.

MSEA virtually celebrates the passage of the Blueprint for Marylands Future and the four-year campaign to bring equity and fairness to all Maryland students. The Blueprint addresses many of the inequities exposed and exacerbated by the pandemic andthe struggle for racial justice.

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We're Turning the Lights Back On! - Maryland State Education Association