“We can help one woman and keep her safe, but her abuser will very likely hurt someone else. So how can we stop triaging?”
Author: Lily Dayton
When the first storm of the season hit California’s Central Coast, the rain was no deterrent to the more than 300 people who showed up at Blanco Circle Dental Care in Salinas, seeking free treatment. They starting arriving the night before—some sleeping in cars, some sleeping in tents—waiting out the frigid February downpour in hopes of getting their teeth fixed.
Teen dating violence has become a widespread occurrence. One in three American youths between the ages of 14 and 20 reports they’ve been victims of physical, sexual or psychological abuse within a dating relationship, according to findings that researcher Michelle Ybarra presented last year at the American Psychological Association annual convention. Almost one in three teens reports they’ve committed an act of violence against a dating partner.
The evidence is clear: Children’s clothing departments offer an assortment of candy-colored push-up bras, while extra-small menstrual pads come decorated with sparkly star designs that appeal to elementary schoolgirls. An advertisement for “Fresh Kidz” deodorant touts a child-friendly formula designed for “younger, sensitive skins.”
When Dr. Morgan Magid was a dermatology resident at Northwestern University in Chicago, his instructor asked him to remove a tattoo from an ex-gang member’s arm. “He was in a gang and he wanted out,” Dr. Magid says decades later, recalling the long, slow process of treating the patient with an old CO2 laser, which kills tissue and forms a scar. Afterwards, he asked his professor, “What are we doing this for?”
The farmworker town of Pajaro is one of the poorest communities in the central coast region of California. For the New Year, the town is getting its park—and a piece of public art that reflect the spirit of the community.
In cases of domestic violence, the use of technology as a means for batterers to track, control and harass their victims is becoming more common.
Even though the HPV vaccine is one of the only vaccines that prevents cancer, fewer than 50 percent of adolescent girls in California were fully vaccinated against HPV in 2011.
For some, the library serves as ad hoc daycare while their parents are at work. For others, the library is a safe place to escape the streets. Many kids show up in the morning and stay all day—but few have food, or money to buy a meal.
Over half the kids in California receive free or reduced lunch at school—yet the majority of these low-income kids don’t receive federally funded meals during the summer. Now schools and community organizations are coming together to make sure summer lunch reaches kids in need, even if they aren’t in summer school.