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There is a little 4-year-old preschool girl who gathers food for her family by putting her school lunch in her pants pockets. Chicken and french fries have been found, uneaten, in her pockets. The same little girl refuses to eat her afternoon snack because she told her teacher she was "saving her food for mommy." Her compassionate teacher reassured the little girl that school has extra food to share with mommy. In fact, the school staff was so concerned about the family that they pooled...

Looking for your regional community facilitator? Seeking to meet and connect with people who are creating a more peaceful and trauma informed world? Have a book, webinar, conference to share? The ACEs Connection team will be at the 2018 ACEs Conference. We're eager to meet you, hear your ideas, support your work, and to learn and share the latest ACEs and Resilience Sciences. We'll be looking for you in San Francisco to help you Meet your Community Facilitator and others from the ACEs...

Children with intellectual disabilities and their families are currently underrepresented in international ACEs research, while they have been found to be even more likely to be exposed to a wider range of adverse life events or traumatic events than their peers. Therefore, by means of a case-file search in Dutch residential care the prevalence of ACEs in children with intellectual disabilities and their parents were explored, aiming to make recommendations for further research. The article...

Youth exposure to trauma is a highly prevalent public health issue in the United States, particularly in urban communities. Although trauma-informed care (TIC) training of service providers to address this challenge is increasing nationwide, we lack empirical evidence regarding the feasibility and acceptability of cross-organizational TIC training, including perspectives of training participants. With support from the NIH National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and in...

"Someone who has experienced trauma also has gifts to offer all of us- in their depth, in their knowledge of our universal vulnerability, and their experience of the power of compassion.”- Sharon Salzberg What a week. You’d have to be living under a rock if you haven’t at all tuned in to the tumultuous news cycle in the US. Those that are survivors of trauma (specifically sexual assault and other forms of abuse) are incredibly triggered, and those that provide psychotherapy for trauma...

11.2 percent. More than 1 in 10. This is the number of adults in Alaska, that had experienced having a family member in jail at some point during their childhood. Seventy percent of those reporting an incarcerated family member grew up with four or more adverse childhood experiences (i.e. witnessed or experienced domestic violence, substance abuse in the household, sexual abuse, neglect, emotional abuse, household mental illness). These ACEs can lead to physical and mental health issues...

If you haven't heard about this yet, this is an amazing opportunity to lift up and support the resilience of foster youth by publishing a book of their stories! Here is a link to a video explaining the book project and their kickstarter campaign: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMGATnMOTVw&feature=youtu.be

All across the country, parents, providers, educators, and advocates have come together around a powerful vision: that each and every child, parent, and family can live whole lives and reach their full potential in healthy, thriving communities of opportunity. In neighborhoods, cities, counties, tribal nations, and states, community leaders have sought to center the people who are facing the greatest inequities in health, education, and access to early childhood resources and ensure they are...

Please see the main post for these parent h andouts in the PACEs Connection Resources Center. We are excited to share two handouts which can be downloaded, distributed, or used freely. Parenting to Prevent and Heal ACEs This handout is based on the work of Donna Jackson Nakazawa , who worked with us and generously allowed us to paraphrase content from her book, Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology & How You Can Heal . Donna's book specifically addresses those of...

I’ve never been sure what to expect when meeting someone who’s just tried to take his own life. But I’ve learned to stop expecting anything. Sometimes, the person in front of me barely speaks, staring right through me, lost in a deep catatonic depression. Sometimes he or she can’t stop talking, breathlessly describing what happened as if we’re gossiping at brunch after an hour of SoulCycle. Yesterday, my patient, a 20-something graduate student, swallowed a jumble of unmarked pills, hoping...

In fives states over the last five years, voters and lawmakers have downgraded felony drug possession to a misdemeanor. California was the first in 2014, with Proposition 47. Then came Utah (HB 348) and Connecticut (HB 7104) in 2015, and Alaska (SB 91) and Oklahoma (State Question 780) in 2016. A new report from the Urban Institute looks at the effect of these reform laws on prison populations, economics, and communities and how other states might fare if they followed the lead of CA, UT,...

The world has only a dozen years to act to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, and stave off the most catastrophic effects of climate change, according to the latest report from the United Nation's top climate science panel out Monday. Without rapid and drastic action, climate change will expose hundreds of millions more people to heat waves, sea-level rise, more extreme weather events—and, according to a new study published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of...