News and Events
A Worry-Free Way To Stay Connected - FREE Phone, 250 FREE Minutes & 250 FREE Texts Each Month
April 24, 2013 Assurance Wireless
Assurance Wireless is a federal Lifeline Assistance program brought to you by Virgin Mobile. Lifeline is a government benefit program supported by the federal Universal Service Fund.
Read more…Natalie Warne: Being young and making an impact
April 24, 2013 TED Ideas worth spreading
At 18, Natalie Warne’s work with the Invisible Children movement made her a hero for young activists. She uses her inspiring story to remind us that no one is too young to change the world.
Read more…Health care giants fight stress with meditation SUTTER, KAISER SEE ROLE IN THE MAINSTREAM FOR ALTERNATIVE HEALING
April 8, 2013 Sacramento Bee
As the nation embarks on a top-down overhaul of health care, a simple movement with the potential to improve wellness is quietly growing from the ground up.
Access and cost pose no problems here. Unlike insurance-driven medical models, this one comes free and is available to virtually anyone. All it takes is a willingness to learn, discipline and plenty of practice.
It’s called mindfulness meditation, an outgrowth of the West’s fascination in recent decades with eastern Buddhist philosophy.
Read more…Lawmakers Argue Over ACA's Effect on Young Adults' Health Premiums
March 18, 2013 California Healthline
Republican and Democratic members of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health on Friday debated whether certain provisions in the Affordable Care Act would significantly increase health insurance premiums, particularly for young adults in the individual and small-group markets, The Hill's "Healthwatch" reports (Viebeck, "Healthwatch," The Hill, 3/15).
Read more…Nancy Lublin: Texting that saves lives
March 15, 2013 TED Ideas worth spreading
When Nancy Lublin started texting teenagers to help with her social advocacy organization, what she found was shocking -- they started texting back about their own problems, from bullying to depression to abuse. So she's setting up a text-only crisis line, and the results might be even more important than she expected.
Read more…Foster Care Advocates Fight Plan to Eliminate Statewide Program
March 13, 2013 KQED
Anteus Stinson says he pushed himself to learn, but his situation did not make it easy. (Courtesy Anteus Stinson)
"I was actually in high school in Merced, Modesto, Stockton and then finally here in San Jose," Stinson says. "The curriculum kept changing. I never really caught up to the classes, and never really understood. I always just jumped into a class."
Read more…Doctors urge mental health screenings with physicals
March 12, 2013 USA Today
Would you be offended if someone told you to get your brain checked out?
Doctors worldwide are asking you to not be.A new study from the University of Cambridge suggests everyone should get their mental health checked as often as they have an annual physical.
Essentially, treat your brain just like any other organ.
Read more…
Keep Foster Youth Services out of governor’s funding formula
March 10, 2013 EdSource
Governor Jerry Brown’s new funding formula for education threatens to leave more than 40,000 school-age foster children in California without the essential support they need to succeed in school.
Read more…
Neighbor to Neighbor: Voice Our Independent Choices for Emancipation Support (VOICES)
January 23, 2012 Napa Valley Register Com
There’s a house on Lincoln Avenue in Napa that’s much more than a home. It’s become a true community center and the rallying point for services that support and nurture youths who may have had little support growing up. With the sweat equity of those youths and the contributions of money, materials, expertise and time of hundreds of community volunteers, that house, already in use, has been renovated and will be ready in just a few weeks for a grand celebration. It is the Napa headquarters of VOICES — Voice Our Independent Choices for Emancipation Support.
Read more…Fresno County Projects Address Teen Drug Abuse
January 17, 2012 California Healthline
FRESNO -- Teenage prescription drug abuse is on the rise in California, so much so that a California Department of Education survey assessing student well-being included questions about it for the first time in its last statewide report.
