Blog

By Marlon Peterson, The Marshall Project, January 23, 2020. I celebrated the 10th anniversary of my release from a New York prison in Accra, the capital city of Ghana. I was there to participate in The Year of Return , a countrywide commemoration of the 400 years since the first Africans were trafficked to the British colony now known as Virginia. Yes, I went to Afrochella . But on December 23—10 years to the day that I left prison—I was compelled to visit the Cape Coast Castle, a trading...

By Rhitu Chatterjee, NPR, January 28, 2020. Shortly after she gave birth to her son last May, Meghan Reddick, 36, began to struggle with depression. "The second I had a chance where I wasn't holding [my son], I would go to my room and cry," says Reddick, who lives with her son and husband. "And I probably couldn't count how many hours a day I cried." Reddick is among the many women who suffer from depression during pregnancy and after childbirth . "There's this kind of myth that women...

By Lanesha McPherson, The Hechinger Report, January 27, 2020. Educators today hear a lot about attending to students’ social-emotional needs and implementing “trauma-informed” practices. For some, I’m sure this sounds like jargon, but that’s not the case in the University City school district in Missouri, where I teach. Here, we have embraced the goal of “humanizing” school and returning joy to our classrooms. Our district is located just six miles from Ferguson, where Michael Brown was...

By Jenna Grace, PsychCentral, January 17, 2020. Capturing your thoughts in writing can seem daunting at first. Trust me, I’ve been a writer for most of my life and the blank page can still feel intimidating. And putting your thoughts and feelings in writing can feel uncomfortable. Because confronting your thoughts and feelings can be difficult. But writing doesn’t have to be painful. In fact, it’s one of the best forms of therapy we have. It requires no one else. You can do it for yourself.

Photo credit: Texasarchitects.org An updated map of laws and resolutions addressing ACEs science and trauma-informed policies is now available in the “Laws and Resolutions” section of Map the Movement (you can also find "Map the Movement" on the navigation bar on the ACEs Connection home page). The earliest law on the map was passed in the state of Washington in 2011, creating an ACEs science public-private partnership. The data base of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) is...

My book Victim to Victory, Healing generational abuse from my bloodline, is a book that might interest you or someone you know. If so, you can receive the first 3 chapters for free if you log onto the site below and fill out the form at the end of the introductory page. If anyone is interested in doing a discussion of my book through social media or podcasts I would be happy to mail you a copy for free. https://www.healingpain.solutions/ I thought sharing some of the reviews would be helpful...

Last year, the California Department of Health Care Services rolled out its plans for universal screening for trauma among its pediatric and adult Medicaid population. Beginning January 1, 2020, California physicians were able to receive an incentive payment of $29 for each pediatric patient screened for ACEs using the PEARLs ( Pediatrics Adverse Childhood and Resilience Study) tool. Dr. Dayna Long talked with ACEs Connection staff reporter Laurie Udesky about ACEs science, what led to the...

We are proud to celebrate the 71 community initiatives that joined the ACEs Connection network in 2019. They are listed below, and can be found along with all existing ACEs Connection communities via the ACEs Connection map. Communities in the United States: Midwest ACEs Indiana Coalition Ardmore (OK) Behavioral Health Collaborative: Chisago County (MN) ACEs Initiative Franciscan Health ACEs Connection FH–Jasper & Newton Counties (IN ) FH–LaPorte County (IN) FH–Lake County (IN)...

Hi Team! I just wanted to share a link to part 1 of 3 webinars directed to educators entitled: Trauma-Informed Practices in Schools and Beyond. It is co-hosted by my company Dovetail Learning and Aperture Education . The first webinar which you can watch here called Trauma 101 : Participants learn the history and context of the science behind Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), and the biological/neurobiological effects of toxic stress on children and adults. Feel free to register for the...

By Vivek Sankaran, The Chronicle of Social Change, January 23, 2020. “ Your father is as worthless as your mother.” Those words – said by a caseworker to a 13-year-old child whose parents were addicted to heroin – jumped out at me as I read the case file. My heart immediately sank. I tried to imagine how I would have felt if someone had uttered those words to me as a child. And I tried to visualize the sadness on my children’s faces if they had heard those words. Devastated is the one word...

By University of Missouri-Columbia, Science Daily, January 27, 2020. Hormonal changes, different schools, more teachers and changing expectations are just some of the challenges families face when a child enters middle school. Now, researchers from the University of Missouri have found that 94% of middle school teachers experience high levels of stress, which could contribute to negative outcomes for students. Researchers say that reducing the burden of teaching experienced by so many...

My approach to my own personal adversity and trauma has been deeply shaped by my spirituality. I grew up in a liturgical church, which means that we kept to something called the "Church calendar" which had seasons built into it for various readings, celebrations and observances. Every late winter brought with it the experience of "Ash Wednesday" that led into Lent, a time of self-examination, observance of disciplines and practices that framed human suffering into a larger context, a grand...