For the last 15 years of her life, my grandmother endured a vicious fight against lymphoma. Like many elderly and/or terminally ill individuals, she had a highly-involved caregiver. That caregiver was my mother. Balancing this role with life’s various demands proved extremely challenging, as my mother shared with me in a recent conversation.  “When you are caring for a loved one with a cancer diagnosis, the last thing you think about is caring for yourself. That seems selfish,” she said. “When my mom was diagnosed with stage IV non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, I tried to manage caregiving while being a new mom […]

On September 12, 2023, Administrator Samantha Powers of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) unveiled a new Biden administration policy on federal collaboration with faith-based organizations. USAID’s new “strategic religious engagement policy” is detailed in the document Building Bridges in Development. USAID is the agency that leads federal efforts to promote overseas development and to respond to overseas humanitarian disasters. The new policy is a commitment by USAID to expand its partnerships with US faith-based relief and development organizations and with overseas faith communities and religious leaders. Designed by an administration often seen as antagonistic to religion’s influence in […]

The federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has published proposed regulations, a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), intended to provide better care for LGBTQ youth in foster care. These young people are disproportionately represented in the foster care system and need appropriate care to thrive and be safe. Though imperfect, the proposals include strong accommodation for religious foster care agencies with morally conservative sexuality standards. The proposals, however, incorporate an understanding of LGBTQ youths’ experience that undermine  the stated intent to ensure “safe and appropriate foster care” for all children and young persons who need it.  The NPRM […]

On September 28-29, 2023, Notre Dame Law School’s Religious Liberty Initiative hosted the Black Church & Religious Freedom Conference in partnership with the Seymour Institute for Black Church and Policy Studies, whose Founding Director is Rev. Dr. Eugene Rivers, and whose current Executive Director is Dr. Jacqueline Rivers. The Religious Liberty Initiative works to live out the university’s Catholic mission of integrating education, research and service. Their vision emphasizes a world where peaceful flourishing is harnessed through strong legal protections and a cultural embrace of freedom of religion or belief. Their mission is to “promote human flourishing by serving as […]

Joya Schreurs: Hello! We’re so excited to hear about everything that’s happening with the DOVE (Diversion, Occupation, Vocation, Education) program. To begin, could you give us an overview of what DOVE is and how it serves at-risk youth? Kolbe Cole: We want to divert at-risk behaviors, because we recognize that any behavior could be good or bad. We want to catch any kind of truancy or delinquency, like small crimes or infractions and turn those in a positive direction, like entrepreneurship, engineering, or farming. We have a lot of amazing youth in our county and we have a lot of […]

Introduction The trajectory of an entire nation is greatly influenced by how its systems of justice treat the  younger and future generations. Unfortunately, the magnitude of this sobering reality may cause us to delegate the responsibility of opposing harmful juvenile justice policies and of crafting beneficial juvenile justice policies to adults alone. Juvenile justice reforms are sweeping the nation, and the prime movers behind them are the voiced experiences and passionate policy proposals and protests of America’s youth. The VOYCE (Voices Of Youth In Chicago Education) movement in Chicago, IL, is Exhibit A. Background of the SB 100 Campaign By […]