By Karen Jordan. Malissia Clinton was on a business trip in 2015 when she received a disturbing call from her husband, Ronald. Someone had thrown a burning car tire at their Manhattan Beach house, igniting the front door. After getting their three children to safety, Ron doused the flames with a garden hose. Repairing the scorched entryway and smoke damage cost more than $500,000, but the toll was far greater.

Peter Block explores a way of thinking about our places that creates an opening for authentic communities to exist and details what each of us can do to make that happen. Published by Berrett-Koehler, 2009, San Francisco, Calif.

Cognitive shortcuts can lead to stereotyping and biased behavior. Here are some suggestions on how to “reroute” these shortcuts. By Jen Cort, Teaching Tolerance.

Angel Alviar-Langley (a.k.a. Moonyeka) runs a movement-based program for black and brown girls, welcoming like-minded women and LGBTQ+ people into the dance scene. Watch her and other dancers pop, strut and waack at the Seattle Center, across the Jose Rizal Bridge and in the alleyways of the International district. From the PBS/WETA series If Cities Could Dance, season 2, episode 4.

Strategies for ensuring that students in every grade feel like they’re part of the classroom community. By Emelina Mineroby, Edutopia.

Examining the achievement gap through the prism of race, authors Glenn E. Singleton and Curtis Linton explain how to use "courageous conversations" to create a learning community that promotes academic parity. 2nd Edition (2015). Corwin: A SAGE Company. Thousand Oaks, Calif.

From StoryCorps: After befriending Matt, Brian started a non-profit called Faces of Santa Ana, for which he paints portraits of people in the homeless community and donates the proceeds from the sales of his work to his subjects.

A new model of gratitude incorporating not only the gratitude that arises following help from others, but also a habitual focusing on and appreciating the positive aspects of life. Research into individual differences in gratitude and well-being is reviewed, including gratitude and psychopathology, personality, relationships, health, subjective and eudemonic wellbeing, and humanistically orientated functioning. By Alex M. Wood, Jeffrey J. Froh, and Adam W.A. Geraghty.

From Psychology Today and author Pamela B. Rutledge Ph.D., M.B.A., "The Psychological Power of Storytelling," tells how stories leapfrog technology, taking us to authentic experiences.

The word “gratitude” has a number of different meanings, depending on the context. However, a practical clinical definition is as follows—gratitude is the appreciation of what is valuable and meaningful to oneself; it is a general state of thankfulness and/or appreciation. By Randy A. Sansone, M.D., and Lori A. Sansone, M.D.