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When I ask an audience, “Who believes we are on a path to self-extinction ?” nearly every hand goes up. It’s a sign of a growing awareness that humanity is on a path to self-imposed environmental and social collapse. For me, that awareness is a source of hope. I recently discovered an even deeper source of hope on a trip to South Korea. There I was involved in a remarkable series of international discussions on the transition to “ecological civilization.” I had the privilege of keynoting a...

For the fifth year in a row, Mental Health America (MHA) released its annual State of Mental Health Report , which ranks all 50 states and the District of Columbia based on several mental health and access measures. This year, Minnesota came out on top overall with Nevada coming in 51st. The report also dives into addressing trauma in youth, and its long-term impact on performance and behavior in school. In developing the report, MHA looked at 15 different measures to determine the rankings.

Trauma-informed care has emerged as a core competency to improve how health care organizations deliver services to people who have experienced adverse life events. Through the Advancing Trauma-Informed Care (ATC) initiative, and with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Center for Health Care Strategies convened innovators in the field to build on existing trauma-informed efforts and share lessons nationally. The Urban Institute conducted an implementation analysis to better...

Evidence has been building in recent years that our diet, our habits or traumatic experiences can have consequences for the health of our children -- and even our grandchildren. The explanation that has gained most currency for how this occurs is so-called 'epigenetic inheritance' -- patterns of chemical 'marks' on or around our DNA that are hypothesised to be passed down the generations. But new research from the University of Cambridge suggests that this mechanism of non-genetic...

Welcome Merced County (CA) Trauma & Resilience Network to the ACEs Connection community! Their community consists of a wide-range of local representatives from various public and private organizations including businesses, faith-based organizations, school districts, local government and NGOs. Together they have a common desire to make their communities trauma-informed build resilience in their youth, families, neighborhoods and county. Their mission: Building momentum for individuals...

Please advocate vigorously for the maintenance of the Flores standards and regulations which protect immigrant children from incarceration-requiring that they be reunited with families (outside of prison) or if that is not possible, that they be placed in licensed child welfare settings. Instructions for creating your own message and how to forward your message are at the following link. Immediate followup is needed to preserve FLORES. ...

Welcome Resilient Amador (CA) community site on ACEs Connection! In 2017, in response to the ACEs Study findings and community needs, the Amador Child Abuse Prevention Council and a wide range of community partners took a collective impact approach by developing Resilient Amador. This community-wide solution to ACEs is working on prevention efforts and improving services through trauma-informed approaches and services within our diverse communities. Working together they can create a...

(l to r) Joe Dorman, CEO, OK Institute for Child Advocacy, OK State Rep. Mark Lepak _______________________________________________________________ Joe Dorman, CEO of Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy (OICA) , and former Oklahoma state representative and challenger to Republican Governor Mary Fallin in 2014, conveyed surprise and satisfaction when he told me that Fallin gave him the pen she used to sign a bill to create a Task Force on Trauma-Informed Care ( SB 1517 ) in April. This...

In contrast to the portrayal of homelessness as affecting people with behavioral health problems or low employment capacity, cycles of homelessness could reflect job shifts that bring a household in or out of poverty. To assess the connections between employment and homelessness, researchers focused on three topics: (1) employment and earnings before, during, and after adults used a homeless shelter; (2) changes in employment and earnings in connection to shelter entry and exit; and (3)...

Several stories showing racial profiling of black Americans by police and white Americans continue to go viral — in one video, a white woman calls the cops on a black man babysitting two white children in Georgia. In another, a white student calls 911 when she sees a black classmate sleeping in a dormitory common room. In this essay, a former police dispatcher remembers the racist calls she used to take every day and law enforcement’s rules that forced her to respond to every caller,...

Since the spring of 2015, the Education Redesign Lab has partnered with the Partnership for Resilience to accelerate collaboration between the Illinois Education Association (the NEA affiliated teacher’s union) and the Illinois chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Their new report, Early Lessons in Building Trauma-Sensitive Schools: Creating School-Health-Community Partnerships to Improve the Lives of Children , describes the launch and early lessons of the Partnership for...

This is an obituary for Madelyn Linsenmeir written by her sister, Kate O'Neill, who was interviewed on NPR about why the family was so open about Madelyn's addiction. Our beloved Madelyn Ellen Linsenmeir died on Sunday, October 7. While her death was unexpected, Madelyn suffered from drug addiction, and for years we feared her addiction would claim her life. We are grateful that when she died, she was safe and she was with her family. Maddie was born on March 31, 1988, in Burlington, Vt.,...