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STORYCATCHERS HELPS JUSTICE-INVOLVED YOUTH FIND THEIR VOICES AND RESOLVE OLD TRAUMAS BY MAKING THEM THE STARS OF THE SHOW. Storycatchers Theatre — also known as Storycatchers — is a nonprofit musical theater group that works with justice-involved youth in Chicago. Through programming both inside and outside of the justice centers, children and young adults turn their life stories into musicals. [For more on this story, written by Nation Swell, go to:...

By Daun Kauffman Riveting and emotional: The full, first-ever Congressional hearing on “Identifying, Preventing and Treating Childhood Trauma” by the Oversight Committee chaired by Representative Elijah Cummings. Across the hearing, the story of developmental trauma is well-conveyed and powerful. The magnitude and the priority of addressing developmental trauma were clear. [For more on this story, written by Daun Kauffman of ACEs Connection, go to:...

By David Murphey and Jessica Dym Bartlett, Child Trends, July 9, 2019. Exposure to adversity in childhood is widespread and can pose a serious threat to individual health and well-being over the life course. By age 18, nearly half (45 percent) of children in the United States have had at least one adverse experience; among young children and other vulnerable subgroups, the prevalence is much higher. Childhood adversity is defined as one or more stressful events or conditions that can...

A hearing of unprecedented scope and depth on ACEs science and childhood trauma — " Identifying, Preventing, and Treating Childhood Trauma: A Pervasive Public Health Issue that Needs Greater Federal Attention " — will be held this Thursday in the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. You can watch the live stream at 10:00 am ET through a link from the committee site. Along with testimony from trauma survivors, the hearing will include testimony on the prevalence and impact of adverse...

When Dr. Walter Gilliam’s groundbreaking national study was released, exposing expulsion rates in state preschool programs, the findings asked us to explore not only the way we meet the social and emotional needs of young children, but how our implicit bias plays a role. The data showed that 4-year-olds are 50% more likely to be expelled than 3-year-olds, Black preschoolers are 3.6 times as likely as White preschoolers to be expelled, and boys are more than four times as likely as girls to...

Valencia’s Peace and Justice Institute has started a common read Facebook group to focus on books related to the theme of the most recent conference Creating a Resilient Community: From Trauma to Healing . We are starting with Nadine Burke Harris' book, The Deepest Well. We hope you and members from your organization, family, or community will join in the conversation! The first discussion question was just posted today and it would be wonderful to have a robust ACEs Connection Central...

Valencia’s Peace and Justice Institute is excited to announce that we received a grant from the Khatoon Foundation to continue momentum around the work of ACEs and resilience in Central Florida. With this grant, we are able to bring on a Project Coordinator (Kelsey Visser) for 10 hrs/week for 4 months. Since our “sector” as Valencia College is education, our focus will be on contributing the following to the educational goals of the ACEs work: Film Screenings: Coordinating and marketing 2...

Shannon has over 25 years experience working with children in preschool and after school settings. Originally from Boston, Shannon holds a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology as well as an Associate’s Degree in Early Childhood Education. Since moving to Florida in 2000, she has built a career working in the early intervention field with ages 0-5, as well as working with truant teens as a case counselor in child welfare and currently as the Behavior Specialist for the YMCA of the Suncoast.

Not long after she finished her medical residency at Stanford University about a decade ago, Nadine Burke Harris got to work as a pediatrician in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco. She founded and became CEO of a clinic there, focused on addressing health disparities in the community. It was in talking with those children and their families, she says, that she first realized how many of her patients experiencing the worst health outcomes — those with the highest levels...

Photo credit: Florida's Governor's Office The story below illustrates the urgent need to proactively build psychological and psycho-social-spiritual--Transformational Resilience--for climate change related disasters. It describes how the mental health impacts of these disasters often becomes most acute months after a disaster occurs, which is long after mental health first aid and other disaster mental health services have ended. Prevention is the only solution, and the focus must be on...

If you are looking for powerful infographics to summarize the impact of trauma to an audience or group, the organization Echo offers a whole page of info graphics related to trauma for free as downloads. Some examples include: "How to Support Someone Who Has Experienced Trauma," "The Effects of Trauma on the Body" and "Do's and Don'ts of a Trauma Informed Classroom." [For more information, go to: https://www.echotraining.org/resources/ ]

Hi everyone! After the success of the Creating a Resilient Community: From Trauma to Healing conference in April, there has been enormous interest in keeping the momentum going. With this in mind, strategic planning meetings have been held since the conference and the most recent one happened on 6/18/19 at Valencia College. You can read the notes from our most recent meeting here (attached) and see what amazing things people are working on in our community. For example, ACEs tracking...