For many young people today, the word prevention is complicated. Some might think that prevention doesn’t affect them, and some might not...
Molly McGrath Tierney is not some bomb-throwing outsider who wouldn’t say terrible things about the child welfare system if she understood what...
We know that almost everyone who struggles with addiction began using substances before the age of 18. So, we need to talk...
One of the main reasons I ended up addicted to drugs and alcohol was anxiety. Now make no mistake, I suffer from...
Opioid use in the U.S. is a crisis. For 30 percent of kids removed from their parents’ care, substance use in the...
For many youth, foster care can be a safe place for care and support when the biological family does not provide appropriate...
As prescription pain medication abuse grows in prevalence among youth, we can expect the rates of accidental overdose deaths among 12- to...
The comment made to me the most by those who are not foster parents is: “I could not do what you do....
For too long, adult intervention has been society’s knee-jerk reaction instead of youth intervention. It is a failed approach, and a fundamental...
From outbreaks of polio to the embrace of automobile seatbelts, the United States has a long record of rising to the challenge...
A young writer reflects on how his father’s addiction impacted his family, his growing up and his own substance use. “After everything,...
To turn the tide on opiate addiction and right the course of many young lives before intensive and costly treatment is needed,...
Cook County now has a pilot program for dual status youth. It’s an intensive wraparound program with up to 30 hours a...
The summer after my second year teaching, I traveled to Malawi — one of the poorest nations in east Africa — with...
Organizations should take a planful approach to the recruitment and hiring process for summer program staff to improve program quality overall, quality...
A young writer’s story indicates many places where youth workers and systems could have intervened — healing child sexual abuse, treating drug...
During a congressional hearing in 2011, Michael Petit, who then ran an organization called Every Child Matters, was asked which states do...
Orphanages are not cruel institutions as so many people think. It is a home where children have opportunities to be loved and...
Sometimes it takes a tragic and heartrending story of a single human being to move broad public policy. In the instance of...
Hitting eight years sober means I’ve officially been in recovery longer than I was in active addiction. That’s something incredibly special to...