Articles by Dr. Sheryl Brissett Chapman
Homeless Children: The Other One Percent
Drinking a cup of coffee this afternoon, fighting off unprecedented, increasing allergy assaults this spring (I live in a wonderfully flowering parkland with a yard in full bloom), I leisurely read this Sunday’s headlines: Joining Washington’s one percenters takes more than the U.S. average . According to writers Gowen, Morello, and Mellnik, a household income must be far above the national average of $387,000, to be in the area’s top 1 percent. The gateway for the region is $527,000. And the numbers in this category are increasing. Frankly, this may well be considered a good thing. Certainly, this is a sign that the economy is not absolutely flat, and that there is an expanding opportunity for charitable contributions in the… Read Article »
Sisterhood
So I never had sisters. Just one younger brother who ended up going to Brown with me. Although I was admitted in the last class of Pembroke College (all women), became a student activist leader, and later a Trustee of the Brown Corporation, I felt like an outsider. Not rational. I also attended Boston’s Girl’s Latin School for six years and had many friends, but they were from different parts of town. Not connected. It’s not that I do not have women in my life. I adore my mother, who lives next door, and I have reared three girls who taught me how powerful and important sisterhood really is. I developed four relationships over my life with women I consider… Read Article »
Sometimes We Just Need to Listen
I have been thinking lately about the power of listening. Sometimes we forget how important it is to just listen, to hear what someone else is saying. When I pick up my granddaughter at school, I tell her I want to know all about her day. I ask her for the details. What did you draw in art class? What did you do on the playground? If she tells me her day was “good” or “fine,” I push a little harder. She now expects that. Our children are moving farther and farther away from us. They get so distracted by the computers, the phones, the iPods. They don’t often come to us wanting to “talk.” And we get so busy—doing… Read Article »
Why the Silence?
When I was growing up, my parents let me watch the Ed Sullivan Show before bed. I couldn’t just turn on the television whenever I wanted to. I only saw what they wanted me to see, when they wanted me to see it. And they didn’t have to worry about what I might find on the computer. Everything is different now. Children aren’t protected from the media. They see it all: The grandmother who throws her two-year-old granddaughter from a walkway at a shopping mall. The little boy who finds a gun in his parents’ car and accidentally shoots himself. The teenage gunman who opens fire in a school cafeteria. Trayvon. Our children are exposed to violence all the time…. Read Article »
Happiness: What Every Child Deserves
I’m blogging. I feel younger already. My children will be so impressed. It took me a while to get comfortable with this idea. I’m 62. I didn’t even want to go on Facebook—my staff had to convince me to join. Now, of course, I have 297 friends and find myself getting caught up in all of my FB family drama. I have spent my life raising children. I’ve raised five of my own, and they would probably tell you they have always had to share me with the kids at work. I’ve dedicated my entire 40-year career to mastering the science of child and family development, reading most of the books and going to countless trainings. But the most important… Read Article »
Dr. Sheryl Brissett Chapman recently celebrated 20 years as Executive Director of The National Center for Children and Families (NCCF), a private nonprofit agency committed to serving vulnerable children, youth, and families in the national capital area for nearly a century. Under Dr. Chapman’s leadership, the organization has grown from a facility housing 60 children to a comprehensive regional center serving homeless children and their parents, impoverished families, survivors of domestic violence, and abused and neglected children and adolescents who have been removed from their families. A nationally accredited organization, NCCF now propels more than 4,000 children, youth, and families every year into an improved quality of life, through a wide continuum of over 14 programs located throughout the National Capital Region...
