Blog

Benchmarks is excited to welcome Cabarrus County DSS as the newest member of our Standardized Assessment Protocol (SAP) project! The SAP project is a process created to ensure timely trauma screening for children over the age of four entering foster care to quickly identify a child’s need for further assessment, with the goal of increasing their likelihood to receive the treatment necessary to reach their full potential. This treatment goes beyond just mental and behavioral health; treatment...

Learning from peer Initiatives to better understand the current landscape of TIC/ACEs efforts and their outcomes nationally.

By Catherine Rampell, Photo: Craig Mithelldyer/AP, The Washington Post, October 13, 2022 How about getting some of that sweet, sweet industrial policy for an industry that really needs it? Not manufacturing plants. Not the tech sector. I’m talking about the “care” industry — the sector that’s needed to grease the wheels when it comes to the rest of the economy but one that Congress has largely ignored. The U.S. economy has more than recovered all the jobs lost in the pandemic. But there are...

By Mike Hixenbaugh, Suzy Khimm, and Agnel Philip, Photo: Stephanie Mei-Ling, ProPublica, October 12, 2022 More than a decade before the Penn State University child sex abuse scandal broke, an assistant football coach told his supervisors that he had seen Jerry Sandusky molesting a young boy in the shower. When this was revealed during Sandusky’s criminal trial in 2012, it prompted public outcry: Why hadn’t anyone reported the abuse sooner? In response, Pennsylvania lawmakers enacted sweeping...

By Pam Strayer, Photo: Eric Forberger/Business Wire/AP, The Guardian, October 13, 2022 I t is not easy to rattle Rosa Vivian Fernandez. The chief executive of a California healthcare clinic, she sees the harsh realities that the low-income, largely Hispanic community served by the clinic faces every day. But when Fernandez traveled to Puerto Rico in 2017 to visit family, she was shocked to see how deeply Hurricane Maria had devastated the island. “All the healthcare centers – the ones that...

As co-founders of the Global Resiliency Accelerator, Dr. Warren Larkin and I are happy to announce the November 15 learning session which will feature Chuck Price, Founder of Blue Collar Consulting presenting. This presentation is intended to take a look at the current ‘system’ and our current practices through a trauma informed lens, and then challenge all of us to apply the “know better, do better” mindset. Because…a trauma-informed approach to Child Welfare, and other systems, is...

This presentation introduces the Benevolent Childhood Experiences (BCEs) scale, a brief, culturally sensitive measure of positive childhood experiences that can be used as a counterpart to the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) scale (Narayan et al., 2018). We will review research on the role of BCEs in predicting adaptation over the lifespan and across generations in individuals experiencing high levels of risk and adversity, including parents in emergency housing and low-income pregnant...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXzkXjQLb_M&t=24s Interview with Skip Skipper, CEO, Justice Peer InitiativeConducted by Carl Blumenthal, Peer Specialist 1. What's your recovery story and how did it lead you to your current job? 2. What are the origins of the JPI and who has been involved? 3. Since you don't want to reinvent the wheel, what are the models and who are the leaders in the field? 4. What is the mission, goals, and structure of JPI, including your fundraising efforts? 5. Where...

By Robert Sege, 10/13/22, https://positiveexperience.org/category/blog/ HOPE National Resource Center Director, Bob Sege, went to Darwin Australia two weeks ago. Below is his firsthand experience and impression of how international foster care organizations are practicing the HOPE framework. I recently gave a keynote address at the International Foster Care Organization ’s annual meeting in Darwin Australia. This was their first in-person meeting since 2019. About half of participants were...

The most effective, affordable, and decent thing we can do to prevent suicide is to prevent the lifetime of pain ACEs cause.

Take a Second Look Educational Foundation presents an online Book Study of Dr. Perry and Oprah's book. Join us to explore how childhood experiences continue to affect us well into adulthood. Tuesdays on Zoom at 7 p.m. PST 10/18 to 11/15 We will discuss 2 chapters per week. Perfect attendance NOT required. Zoom link to register for the series

It's time, as a society, to stop separating mental health from physical health. “Research has found that there is credibility to the term ‘mind-body connection’. There is a clear link between our thoughts, feelings, emotions and our physical body. At this point, shouldn't we, as a society, stop separating mental health and physical health? Are they not one in the same?” says Ingrid Cockhren, PACEs Connection CEO and cohost of the podcast History. Culture. Trauma. She and guest Dr. Donielle...