Tagged With "NJ Dept of Human Services"
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NJ Resiliency in Action: How Leaders for Life Helped Gloria, A Struggling Mother in Newark
My name is Gloria and I’m a 36-year-old Puerto Rican mom of five children — three boys and two girls — who was born and raised in Newark. In December 2016 I was able to move my family out of a small two-bedroom apartment in Bradley Courts housing project to a four-bedroom apartment on Clinton Place and that’s where my family became a part of the Leaders for Life (L4L) family. One of my sons is a special needs child who is always looking for friends and a place to play. He started finding new...
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Addressing Trauma in Health Care, Schools, and the Community: Greater Newark Healthcare Coalition
As in many post-industrial cities, Newark has experienced dramatic challenges since the second half of the 20th century. A confluence of factors has resulted in the current landscape in which one third of the city lives in poverty, 72 percent of children are born into single female-headed households, and high rates of community and interpersonal violence burden residents. In 2008, Newark faced a health crisis created by the abrupt closures of two of its five hospitals. In response, the New...
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A Welcome Message from the Commissioner of New Jersey's Department of Children and Families
Dear NJ Resiliency Coalition Community Members, One of my favorite quotes is from Maya Angelou. She said “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” This statement gives permission and grace for us to change our thinking, change policies, and change the world we live in. During my earlier work as an Assistant Commissioner with the Department of Children and Families (NJ DCF), and then in my work at Casey Family Programs, research about adverse childhood...
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Addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences through a Coordinated Statewide Response in New Jersey
July 31, 2019, By Sana Hashim, MPH, CPH, CHES, Center for Health Care Strategies. States nationwide increasingly recognize the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on their communities, families, businesses, and workplaces. ACEs include all types of abuse, neglect, and other potentially traumatic experiences for children and youth under the age of 18. These exposures are linked to greater potential for risky health behaviors, chronic health conditions, and early death. With this...
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New Jersey's Department of Children and Families Commissioner Discusses Addressing ACEs in the State
December 2018 - Steve Adubato goes on-location to the "Overcoming Childhood Adversity and Trauma: A Healthier Future for NJ Kids" event to talk to Christine Norbut Beyer, Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Children & Families, about the short and long-term effects of children exposed to neglect and abuse and how her department deals with children in these situations.
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New Jersey Appoints National ACEs Expert to Head Office of Resilience
June 9, 2020, Trenton, NJ – The New Jersey Department of Children and Families (DCF) today announced that Dave Ellis has been named as Executive on Loan to the State of New Jersey, functioning as the first Executive Director for the Office of Resilience within DCF. Ellis will share his expertise with the state and coordinate statewide efforts to prevent, protect against, and heal from the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). ACEs are stressful or traumatic events, including...
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New Jersey’s First Director of Resiliency Discusses Childhood Trauma and the Path to Change
New Jersey’s children have been particularly vulnerable population during COVID-19 crisis and experts are wading through the psychological effects on kids caused by toxic stress — both from ongoing trauma due to the coronavirus and historic racism and discrimination. The state recently appointed a national expert on adverse childhood experiences to head up its new Office of Resilience within the Division of Children and Families. Correspondent Michael Hill spoke with the Executive Director,...
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Human Services & Children and Families Unveil $25 Million Plan to Support Continued Access to Critical Home and Community-Based Services During the Pandemic
New Jersey is using federal Coronavirus Relief Fund resources to provide up to $25 million to help providers of home health, developmental disability, child welfare, and homeless services remain open and accessible during the pandemic. Human Services and the Department of Children and Families will be reimbursing for the added costs they are incurring due to COVID-19 for essentials such as PPE and enhanced cleaning. Qualifying COVID-related expenditures include: Personal protective...
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Weekly Highlights
Murphy signs bill to release thousands of N.J. prisoners early beginning the day after Election Day On October 19th, Governor Murphy signed legislation to free those trapped inside New Jersey jails, prisons, and halfway houses, where they face the worst COVID-19 outbreak of any prison system in the country. We anticipate that over 2,000 men and women within 8 months of their release date will gain relief from Public Health Emergency Credits, and will be released in the first week of...
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Weekly Highlights
Neighborhood conditions associated with children’s cognitive function November 4, 2020 U.S. National Institutes of Health A study published today in JAMA Network Open shows that children from poorer neighborhoods perform less well on a range of cognitive functions, such as verbal ability, reading skills, memory, and attention, and have smaller brain volumes in key cognitive regions compared to those from wealthier neighborhoods. While multiple studies have shown that household socioeconomic...
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NJ medical school program requires all first-year students to learn about ACEs science
In 2015, Dr. Beth Pletcher, a pediatrician and associate professor specializing in genetics, was at the annual conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics in Washington D.C. when she heard two speakers that forever changed her work with medical students. Dr. Beth Pletcher “I went to two talks on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) that were so mind-boggling to me that I decided on my drive back to New Jersey that I had to do something about it,”says Pletcher, director of the Division...
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Childhood Trauma - "Invisible Scars" PBS Video
Childhood trauma impacts millions of Americans, and its consequences can be devastating. Those experiencing high levels of trauma can see dramatically lower life expectancies, and the CDC estimates it accounts for billions of dollars in healthcare costs and lost productivity. Special correspondent Cat Wise reports as part of our series, “Invisible Scars: America’s Childhood Trauma Crisis."
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Nicholson Foundation Funding Efforts to Address ACEs and Build Resilience in New Jersey on Multiple Fronts
Since 2018, The Nicholson Foundation has been working hard to make New Jersey a leader among states in how it addresses, treats, and prevents Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)—traumatic events that can cause children lifelong physical, mental, and social damage. Over the past two years, The Nicholson Foundation has invested $3.5 million in efforts that directly prevent ACEs or build resilience to their effects and complementary programs and services that support healthy child development...
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Nashville’s Purposeful Twist on ACEs: All Children Excel
In 2015, the pieces that became ACE Nashville began to fall into place. A five-year Community Health Improvement Plan included the support of mental and emotional health as one of its three goals. A core team of individuals from the Metro Public Health Department (MPHD), Prevent Child Abuse Tennessee and the Family Center, a non-profit focused on breaking generational cycles of child trauma, began to meet weekly. And a citywide “consensus workshop” in April of that year—drawing 44...
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*NEW PUBLICATION* Chronic Disease Among African American Families: A Systematic Scoping Review
Chronic diseases are common among African Americans, but the extent to which research has focused on addressing chronic diseases across multiple members of African American families is unclear. This systematic scoping review summarizes the characteristics of research addressing coexisting chronic conditions among African American families, including guiding theories, conditions studied, types of relationships, study outcomes, and intervention research.
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Self-Healing Communities Model, Co-Hosted with CTIPP, Second in a series
Self-Healing Communities Model, co hosted with CTIPP Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, 3-4:00 ET (Noon-1:00 PT) Second in a series on state-to-state best practices featuring the self-healing community model Self-Healing Community Model , Washington, developed networks that promoted collaboration across sectors and empowered local leaders to think about whole systems. The use of data helped prioritize efforts and learn what was working. Beyond Washington State, numerous other states are using the...
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The Turrell Fund is proud to present the first Turrell Town Hall featuring Dave Ellis, Office of Resilience, NJDCF discussing ACEs.
Welcome! Thank you for your interest in the first-ever Turrell Town Hall, a virtual discussion series for Turrell grantees, partners, and networks. Hosted and moderated by Evan Delgado, Vice President of Programs at the Turrell Fund, this Town Hall will feature Dave Ellis, Executive Director of the Office of Resilience at the New Jersey Department of Children & Families to discuss statewide developments around Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the key role of Turrell affiliates...
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NJ DCF Commissioner shares thoughts on National Day of Racial Healing
Dear ACEs Connection community, Today is the 5th Annual National Day of Racial Healing. This commemoration was established in 2017 by leaders in social services, faith-based organizations, government and private corporations from around the country to raise awareness and to recognize the need for racial reconciliation. These last several months have certainly shown us that equity among races is a goal not yet realized. The pandemic has disproportionately impacted individuals and families of...
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Healing-Centered Engagement Event
Healing-Centered Engagement Learn more about a new pilot program to help NJ schools address adversity and trauma NJPSA/FEA invites all public school superintendents, school and teacher leaders, and family/community organizations to attend an Information Session on February 4 to learn about an exciting and innovative initiative. In partnership with over 100 education and community leaders across the state, the NJPSA/FEA-led team has researched and designed a school framework to address adult...
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NJ Governor Phil Murphy launches state’s first ACEs Action Plan today at noon (EST) on Facebook Live
New Jersey’s first Adverse Childhood Experiences Action Plan will be launched by Governor Phil Murphy today, Feb. 4, at noon EST along with Tammy Murphy , Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver , and New Jersey Department of Children and Families Commissioner Christine Norbut Beyer on Facebook Live. ACEs Connection will cover the launch and will share the plan. It also will be available on NJ Resilience Coalition community on ACEs Connection. ...
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NJ ACES ACTION PLAN SOCIAL MEDIA KIT
We’re asking for your help to spread awareness about the ACEs Action Plan. Below are links to graphics and a video for download, suggested post copy for social media and flyers that can be shared digitally or printed out for display. Please join us in sharing these materials across your social media accounts, via email, websites, newsletters or blog posts. Graphics can be downloaded here: https://www.nj.gov/dcf/news/publications/aces.html Remember to use #ResilientNJ and/or #ACEsAction...
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Re: NJ ACES STATEWIDE ACTION PLAN
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PreventingACES.pdf
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Black history explains why COVID-19 has ravaged that community | Opinion
By Star-Ledger Guest Columnist By Hamid Shaaban Black History Month is often observed by commemorating Black excellence and honoring the remarkable achievements and contributions of Black people in the United States and around the world. This month, I propose to all my colleagues in healthcare and medicine to promote and advance education about the history of medical racism. That history is Black history and it is often neglected and remains largely unacknowledged. It’s important to...
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How are law enforcement leaders using ACEs science to change policing?
Eleven years ago, Pennsylvania Executive Deputy Attorney General Robert Reed learned about the landmark Adverse Childhood Experiences Study , which linked childhood trauma to a higher risk of aggression, substance abuse, suicide and many life-threatening mental and physical diseases later in life. For him, it was a revelation. “The [ACE Study] gave me the language to understand what I felt, but didn’t have the language to express,” Reed said. “I had been in law enforcement for 30 years and...
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ACEs Action Plan to make New Jersey a “trauma-informed/healing centered state” launched on February 4 by Governor Phil Murphy and other key officials
Growing up with trauma inextricably linked to racism in southern Illinois, working as a state employee in Minnesota, training folks about ACEs and diversity and equity in several states—these are just a few of the life experiences Dave Ellis brings to the work he is now doing as Executive Director of the New Jersey Office of Resilience. Seven months ago Ellis took the job to head the Office of Resilience with the assurance that there would be a deep and meaningful focus on community...
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ACEs Action Plan launched to make New Jersey a 'trauma-informed/ healing centered state'
Growing up with trauma inextricably linked to racism in southern Illinois, working as a state employee in Minnesota, training folks about adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and diversity and equity in several states—these are just a few of the life experiences Dave Ellis brings to the work he is now doing as executive director of the New Jersey Office of Resilience. Seven months ago Ellis took the job to head the Office of Resilience with the assurance that there would be a deep and...
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Dr. Valerie L. Thomas - Inventor of the Illusion Transmitter (3D movies)
Valerie L. Thomas was born in February of 1943 in Maryland. She was fascinated with technology as a very young child. Around the age of eight, her curiosity about how things worked inspired her to borrow a book called, “The Boy’s First Book On Electronics," which she took home hoping that her father would help her take on some of the projects in it. After all, he liked to tinker with radios and television sets. But he did not help her. Thomas attended an all-girls high school that did not...
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A Call to Connection: Making Childhood Trauma Personal | Dr. Allison Jackson | TEDxRVA
Silence gives consent. Choosing a story of silence raises our chances of mortality rates when ACEs are involved. ACE stands for Adverse Childhood Experiences. If silence is a killer then why do we do nothing? How can community help? Dr. Allison Jackson is a Trauma Informed Care Specialist. She makes a compelling case for, “connection as a cure” to counter a lot of damage done by trauma. This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. It was filmed...
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Racial Equity and Philanthropy
“... Philanthropy is overlooking leaders of color who have the most lived experience with and understanding of the problems we are trying to solve.”
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Patricia Bath - Pioneer Ophthalmologist - Inventor of laser cataract surgery
Patricia Bath was the first African American to complete a residency in ophthalmology in 1973. Two years later, she became the first female faculty member in the Department of Ophthalmology at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute. In 1976, Bath co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, which established that "eyesight is a basic human right." In 1986, Bath invented the Laserphaco Probe, improving treatment for cataract patients. She patented the device in 1988, becoming...
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N.J. teachers, child care, transportation workers to become eligible for COVID vaccine, Murphy says By Matt Arco | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
New Jersey teachers, child care and transportation workers will be eligible starting March 15 for the coronavirus vaccine, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday morning. The governor, appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” said it’s “an imperative” to have those people vaccinated and hinted he would provide additional details at his regular COVID-19 briefing in Trenton at 1 p.m. Murphy followed with a Tweet indicating the new group would includes “additional public safety workers.” “We’re phasing...
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N.J. schools must teach about unconscious bias, economic inequality, new law says By Adam Clark | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
New Jersey schools must begin age-appropriate lessons about diversity and inclusion as early as kindergarten under a new law signed Monday by Gov. Phil Murphy. The law, which several Republican lawmakers vocally opposed, calls on schools to promote “economic diversity, equity, inclusion, tolerance, and belonging in connection with gender and sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, disabilities, and religious tolerance.” It also asks schools to “examine the impact that unconscious bias and...
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Adverse Childhood Experiences: Inside NJ's Plan to Address a Perennial Harm
Last month New Jersey unveiled a unique action plan to help families and communities protect against and heal from the effects of adverse childhood experiences that can cause harm to individuals and families for generations. After a year of living under intense pandemic pressures, the need has likely never been so great. Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, impact four of ten youngsters in New Jersey across racial and economic lines according to a 2019 report . These traumas – such as...
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Jane Fonda | Actress and Activist
From a polite and wholesome Hollywood starlet with billowing blonde locks to a fierce and outspoken activist with a choppy shag haircut, the early days of Jane Fonda’s political awakening proved to be a transformation no one saw coming. Beginning in the 1960s, the Academy Award-winning actress’ journey to social consciousness carries on to this day. Still speaking out for causes close to her heart such as the Black Lives Matter movement and the environmental crisis , Fonda rebels against the...
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Re: Adverse Childhood Experiences: Inside NJ's Plan to Address a Perennial Harm
Thank you! Looking forward to this.
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Re: Adverse Childhood Experiences: Inside NJ's Plan to Address a Perennial Harm
Hey @Former Member I just update the post and I will add it to the calendar.
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Re: Adverse Childhood Experiences: Inside NJ's Plan to Address a Perennial Harm
Hi @Dwana Young , This sounds great! Do you have a registration link for the event?
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For Your Consideration
That Is Not How Your Brain Works Forget these scientific myths to better understand your brain and yourself. T he 21st century is a time of great scientific discovery. Cars are driving themselves. Vaccines against deadly new viruses are created in less than a year. The latest Mars Rover is hunting for signs of alien life. But we’re also surrounded with scientific myths: outdated beliefs that make their way regularly into news stories. Being wrong is a normal and inevitable part of the...