coming soon
Virtual Center for Human Flourishing
a collective of persons, schools, and organizations who hold a common belief that flourishing is good for everyone.
“It is for your benefit that your neighbor live and lead well, and for theirs, that you do the same.” Dr. Ivy Bonk
SELF-DISCOVERY
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
MENTAL HEALTH & WELLNESS
Research Highlight
“I remember it like it was yesterday. The student was standing in front of me, referral in hand. He had been referred for special needs testing. As he is standing there, I am having an internal dialogue with myself. I knew in my spirit I was not looking at a true learning dis ability. There is no way he wouldn’t test ADHD, I thought. I knew what I was looking at was the manifestation of childhood trauma.” Dr. Ivy Bonk
The initial epiphany of the injustice of misdiagnosis is what has driven Dr. Ivy Bonk since 2008. She has conducted research, developed program, designed trainings, authored, and innovated solutions, all in an effort to bring awareness to the systemic inequities perpetuated and exacerbated by the impact of unaddressed trauma early and from within the family collective. When Dr. Bonk realized that the injustice of misdiagnosis was happening at disproportionate rates for students of color, this became an area of focus. One of the results of this injustice is what has been coined the school to prison pipeline. Dr. Bonk believes she has insight on how to address. If you are interested in obtaining the journal article entitled Reforming Juvenile Justice Requires Innovating Equity in Education, click the button below.
Citation correction to linked article: Perry, B.D. & Winfrey, O. (2021) What happened to you? Conversations on trauma, resilience, and healing. Flatiron Press, New York (in the UK it would be Bluebird/Pan Macmillan).
Special thank you to the research assistance of student interns, Armando Flores and Angelic May Amita, California State University, Monterey Bay.
Innovation and Design Highlight
Although we didn’t make it to the final round of competition, the application was a very valuable learning process and we were very proud of our game-changing application.
This short video represents RTL’s partnership with Every Child Whole and their application to the RE2030 competition. As mentioned above, although the application didn’t make it to the final round, it is still a model and framework that speaks to the research and work of the affiliate organizations.
Special thank you to Dr. Yvonne Walker, Rod Walker, Arturo Roque, and Dr. Dinorah Bores.