Tagged With "Focus on Head Start and Universal"
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‘For-Now Parents’ and ‘Big Feelings’: How Sesame Street Talks About Trauma [theatlantic.com]
Inside the Sesame Street studio in Queens, Elmo is playing “monsterball” with his friend, a new Muppet named Karli who has lime-green fur and two ponytails. (Monsterball, for what it's worth, appears to be the same as soccer, but with a furry ball.) Puppeteers, with their hands raised high and their heads cranked to the side to stay out of the camera’s shot, run around, making Elmo and Karli kick, laugh, and throw the ball. Outside, it’s a chilly gray December Monday, but on set the...
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Got Your ACE, Resilience Scores?
What's Your ACE Score? (and Your Resilience Score?) There are 10 types of childhood trauma measured in the ACE Study. Five are personal -- physical abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect, and emotional neglect. Five are related to other family members: a parent who's an alcoholic, a mother who's a victim of domestic violence, a family member in jail, a family member diagnosed with a mental illness, and the disappearance of a parent through divorce, death or abandonment. Each...
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How do these pediatricians do ACEs screening? Early adopters tell all.
Last week, three pediatricians — with a combined experience of 15 years integrating ACEs science into their practices — reflected on the urgency they felt several years ago that prompted them to begin screening patients for childhood adversity and resilience when there was practically no guidance at all. Along their journey , they accumulated a list of lessons learned for other pediatricians and family clinics to use. The three pediatricians participated in the ACEs Connection webinar,...
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How Zoning Shapes our Lives [howhousingmatters.org]
Zoning rules dictate more than just how we can use and build on land. They also shape our communities and our lives. Land use laws determine where we can find housing, schools, and parks—and who has access to them. Policymakers initially created zoning codes to protect public health —for example, to stop residents from getting sick from living too close to factories. But from the start, zoning has separated more than just land uses. It has also separated people. [For more on this story,...
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Integrating Healthcare and Early Childhood Systems Requires Capacity and Expertise [Chapin Hall At the University of Chicago]
Pediatric well-child visits represent a critical, often untapped opportunity to ask families about unmet social care needs and connect them with early childhood and other community services. Innovating in this space to address social determinants of health, early childhood organizations are increasingly building healthcare partnerships with the goal of increasing family access to services and preventing challenges from becoming crises. However, it can be difficult to establish shared...
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It Makes Sense
I felt inadequate and ill-prepared to speak to licensed mental health professionals about ACEs. But when I was asked to attend the 40th Annual Training Institute on Behavioral Health & Addictive Disorders in Clearwater, Florida to represent ACEs Connection, I was honored and eager. My background is in health planning, not mental or behavioral health. I review health data and look for gaps and inequities. My time is spent looking for and addressing the health needs of a community. So,...
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League of Women Voters Hot Topics: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
League of Women Voters Orange County - Hot Topics Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): The Biggest Public Health Crisis You've Never Heard of March 11th, 2020 11:00 am - 1:00 pm Sorosis Club: 501 E. Livingston St., Orlando, FL 32801 ACEs are traumatic experiences that occur in childhood (0-17 years) and are now scientifically linked to changes in the brain that lead to an astounding increase in a lifetime of poor life outcomes. Tragic outcomes include suicide, chronic diseases (cancer/heart...
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ACEs Science Champions Series: Meet Florida's Johnny Appleseed. She plants seeds of ACEs science!
Dr. Mimi Graham is Florida’s Johnny Appleseed, but instead of planting apple trees, she’s been seeding hundreds of ACEs-science-informed schools, courts, juvenile detention centers, hospitals, childcare centers, home visiting programs, mental health agencies, law enforcement agencies, and drug treatment centers. Graham, who has served as director of the Florida State University Center for Prevention and Early Intervention Policy in Tallahassee since 1993, focuses on early childhood,...
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New ‘Handle With Care’ system alerts Manatee schools to kids in possible trouble [Bradenton Herald]
This is not a "new story" but I think this program is critical to consider for Central Florida (as far as I understand we have not implemented this here). At a recent trauma-healing conference I was able to hear about the success of this program in Manatee County Schools and I believe this could be a model for what is possible her in Central Florida. Please see the article by the Brandenton Herald below: BY GIUSEPPE SABELLA APRIL 02, 2018 04:59 PM Detention may be the wrong option for a...
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Principles for How We Treat Each Other Peace and Justice Institute (PJI) at Valencia College
If building healthy relationships is the healing balm of human existence and human suffering, then the Principles for How We Treat Each Other are practices that move us toward strengthening those bonds in our lives and in the community. These Principles for How We Treat Each Other help support inclusive, caring, and safe environments where individuals learn how to listen deeply and without judgment and communicate honestly and respectfully. The Principles for How We Treat Each Other have...
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Second Chance ?
I’m Peter Chiavetta, 1st Assistant Fire Chief in my local fire department. I respond to EMS 911 calls every week. I received this dispatch during the evening. Meet PD for mental health transport. Upon my arrival I am briefed by PD that I have a victim of a suicide attempt. My patient put a shot gun in their mouth and pulled the trigger. 99.9997 percent of the time a bullet primer will fire. That’s how reliable it is. This time there was a missed fire. My patient gets a second chance at life.
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Talking to Children about Tragedy & Other News Events [healthychildren.org]
By Healthy Children, American Academy of Pediatrics, July 2019 After any disaster, parents and other adults struggle with what they should say and share with children and what not to say or share with them. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) encourages parents, teachers, child care providers, and others who work closely with children to filter information about the crisis and present it in a way that their child can accommodate, adjust to, and cope with. No matter what age or...
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The Greatest White Privilege Is Life Itself: Like so many other black men in America, Elijah Cummings died too young [The Atlantic]
Ibram X. Kendi Director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University I had a 30-minute ride to the train station. I nestled into my seat, opened my phone, and saw that Representative Elijah Cummings had passed away. I gasped and covered my mouth. The driver peeked at me in his rear-view mirror. He saw me shaking my head and whispering what many Americans whispered last Thursday: He was only 68 . My mind turned to my father, whom I had just left at a hotel in Princeton,...
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The myth, misconception and misdirection of motive in mass shootings
By JANE STEVENS (ACES CONNECTION STAFF) 16 HOURS AGO Almost the first thing you hear out of the mouths of police after a mass shooting is: “We’re looking for a motive.” In Gilroy, CA, the FBI is investigating the shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival as domestic terrorism. In El Paso, TX, police are describing the shooting as a possible hate crime and act of domestic terrorism , and focusing on the manifesto written by the shooter . Police in Dayton, OH, are still looking for a motive for...
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Tools and how to use them is focus of second webinar on Community Resiliency Model, May 14, 2020
The second of two free Community Resiliency (CRM) webinars with Elaine Miller-Karas , key creator of the CRM, will be held Thursday, May 14, from 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. ET, (10 a.m. CT; 9 a.m. MT, and 8 a.m. PT) and will include the practical application of tools of the model. CRM is an ACEs science-based biological model for helping individuals become emotionally regulated during natural disasters and other dysregulating times. Miller-Karas will be joined by CRM trainers from Wilmington, NC:...
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Upates, good news, recommendation and link to register for Making Meaningful Change: Addressing ACEs through Public Policy Webinar February 18
The World Health Organization has compiled a recent meta-analysis about how much ACEs cost us Millions of adults across Europe and north America live with a legacy of ACEs. Their findings suggest that a 10% reduction in ACE prevalence could equate to annual savings of $105 billion. Programs to prevent ACEs and moderate their effects are available. Rebalancing expenditure towards ensuring safe and nurturing childhoods would be economically beneficial and relieve pressures on health-care...
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Webinar: Cultivating Our Best Selves in Response to COVID-19 | Tuesday, March 17 at Noon PDT
How to use the skills of the Community Resiliency Model (CRM) for self and others to be the calm in the storm as we face the unknown. Free Webinar Tuesday, March 17 at Noon PDT Speakers: Elaine Miller-Karas, LCSW Linda Grabbe, PhD, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC Zoom Webinar Registration Link: https://zoom.us/j/715837300 Additional ways to join are listed at the bottom of this post. About the webinar leaders: Elaine Miller-Karas is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Trauma Resource Institute and...
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Webinar Oct. 17 — Integrating ACEs science in pediatrics: Early adopters share lessons from the field
An ACEs Connection webinar co-sponsored with 4 CA In 2017, California became the first state in the country to pass a law supporting universal screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in the 5.3 million children in the state’s Medicaid program. As clinicians around California await the state’s announcement of what this new policy will entail, many are wondering what it takes to integrate ACEs science in a pediatric practice. Meet Drs. Deirdre Bernard-Pearl, R.J. Gillespie and...
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12 Myths of the Science of ACEs
The two biggest myths about ACEs science are: MYTH #1 — That it’s just about the 10 ACEs in the ACE Study — the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study . It’s about sooooo much more than that. MYTH #2 — And that it’s just about ACEs…adverse childhood experiences. These two myths are intertwined. The ACE Study issued the first of its 70+ publications in 1998, and for many people it was the lightning bolt, the grand “aha” moment, the unexpected doorway into a blazing new...
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2020 Census Could Lead To Worst Undercount Of Black, Latinx People In 30 Years [npr.org]
Hansi Lo Wang, NPR, June 4, 2019. Challenges threatening the upcoming 2020 census could risk more than 4 million people to be missing from next year's national head count, according to new projections by the Urban Institute . The nonpartisan think tank found that the danger of an inaccurate census could hit some of the country's most difficult-to-count populations the hardest. Based on the Urban Institute's analysis, the 2020 census could lead to the worst undercount of black and Latinx...
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ACEs Connection “Map the Movement” now includes an up-to-date section on laws and resolutions
Photo credit: Texasarchitects.org An updated map of laws and resolutions addressing ACEs science and trauma-informed policies is now available in the “Laws and Resolutions” section of Map the Movement (you can also find "Map the Movement" on the navigation bar on the ACEs Connection home page). The earliest law on the map was passed in the state of Washington in 2011, creating an ACEs science public-private partnership. The data base of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) is...
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ACEs Connection's Inclusion Tool makes sure nobody's left out
We developed ACEs Connection's Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Tool — called the Inclusion Tool, for short — to ensure that ACEs initiatives across the world focus on being inclusive when forming a steering committee, recruiting leaders, providing education about ACEs science, recruiting members, or providing resources and services within their communities. The more inclusive your ACEs initiative is, the more diverse it will be, giving your initiative a real shot at achieving equity and...
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After Bryce Gowdy’s suicide, let’s elevate the conversation about poverty’s effects on youth | Commentary [The Orlando Sentinel]
By Shannon Green, The Orlando Sentinel, January 3, 2020 Are you going to be OK, mom? Shibbon Winelle said those were among the final words uttered by her son, Bryce Gowdy, before he left their motel room and stood in front of a freight train. Bryce, who was 17, died of suicide a week before the Deerfield Beach football star was due to start classes at Georgia Tech on a scholarship Jan. 6. Bryce, his mom and his brothers were homeless again, and family members said he wrestled with his...
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All Over the Map: A Baseline Analysis of the incidence of Childhood Trauma and the Implementation of Trauma-Informed Care in Florida [UF Lastinger Center for Learning]
All Over the Map "... In summary, the State of Florida is at an inflection point. “All over the map” is a phrase that comes to mind in describing the disparate picture across counties both in the incidence of adverse childhood events as well as the implementation of trauma-informed care programming. The analysis and recommendations within this report were developed to inform discussions on effective policy and practice considerations that will ultimately reduce the incidence of these...
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An Early Childhood Development Expert Explains How Trauma and Stress Can Derail a Kid’s Life [sarasotamagazine.com]
By Cooper Levey-Baker, Sarasota, December 19, 2019 Mimi Graham has spent her life fighting for kids. She began her career in the late 1970s as a Head Start administrator before moving into the world of academia to study child development and advocate for public policies that improve the health of mothers and children. Today, she’s the director of Florida State University’s Center for Prevention & Early Intervention Policy, a position in which she advises government agencies and...
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Creating a "hospitable and accountable community" in my home
I have a confession to make. I am totally insecure about being my children’s “teacher” during this new COVID-19, stay at home, reality. That is hard for me to admit since I am a teacher and a peace practitioner by profession. Technically I have been training for this my whole life! Why do I feel so unprepared? When I told my 6 year old daughter she and her brother would be doing school from home with mommy and daddy she lit up with excitement and I could see the expectation in her eyes of...
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Creating A Resilient Community: Panel Comments From Orlando Pediatrician, Dr. Candice Jones
Panelist Dr. Candice Jones at the Creating a Resilient Community: From Trauma to Healing Conference in Orlando, Florida on April 3rd, 2019. When I was asked to be a panelist for the community conference on healing from ACES and give my vision as a pediatrician on how to create a trauma-informed and resilient Central Florida, I was both honored and nervous. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t know about the science of toxic stress or the word, ACES until about 4 years ago. No, I didn’t learn...
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Darrell Hammond, Subject of Cracked Up, Will Be Joining Twitter Chat!!
Saturday Night Live veteran Darrell Hammond will be joining the live Twitter Town Hall i mmediately following the virtual screening of Cracked Up! T he documentary film details the long term effects of childhood trauma, told through Darrell’s personal journey in discovering adverse childhood experiences at the root of his lifelong battle with self-harm, addiction, and misdiagnosis. Please join us for this unique chance to hear directly from Darrell Hammond, joined by the film’s director,...
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Florida Governor's Wife announces mental health aid for Panhandle after Hurricane Michael
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...
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The Trauma of Racism [Lisa Firestone, Ph.D., Psychology Today]
In the United States, many black people are born into a life of trauma. It is a trauma informed by a long history of brutal inhumanity, repression, violence, and injustice that continues to firmly grip black men and women each and every day. This trauma is not something any of us who have not had the experience of being black in America can speak to in the same way as someone who has. Yet, acknowledging this trauma and casting it in a broad, unflickering light is all of our responsibility.
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The Traumatic Impact of Racism on Young People and How to Talk About It [Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg]
Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg (Keynote speaker from the recent Creating a Resilient Community Conference) shared the excerpt from his book Reaching Teens titled The Traumatic Impact of Racism on Young People and How to Talk About It. This is a valuable resource for anyone interacting with youth and we are providing the excerpt as an attachment here for you to read and share. Also, Dr. Ginsburg will be coming back to our community (virtually) and you’ll be invited to his workshop. Look out for the...
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THURSDAY!! Cracked Up, The Evolving Conversation: Generational Trauma - Breaking the Cycle [crackedupmovie.com]
CRACKED UP THE EVOLVING CONVERSATION Episode 4: Generational Trauma - Breaking the Cycle with Darrell Hammond, Comedian, actor, SNL Legend Michelle Esrick, Filmmaker, activist Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Author of The Body Keeps the Score Jane Stevens, Founder of ACES Connection and special guest Jane Fonda Academy Award-winning actor, producer, author and activist Thursday June 25th at 1pm PDT / 2p MT / 3p CT / 4pm EDT Hosted by ACEs Connection THE PRICE OF THIS LIVE EVENT IS $12.50 We have...
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A Better Normal Tuesday, June 30th at Noon PDT: Reinterpreting American Identity, a Community Discussion
"I think that all of us, regardless of our racial or ethnic background, feel relieved that we no longer have to deal with the racism and the sexism associated with the system of slavery. But we treat the history of enslavement like we treat the genocidal colonization of indigenous people in North America, as if it was not that important, or worse, as if it never happened." —Angela Davis, "The Meaning of Freedom" Please join us for the ongoing community discussion of A Better Normal, our...
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Help Navigating the Road to Community Resiliency
The first time I ever heard the words trauma-informed care and the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study was in the summer of 2014. At the time, I was working for the local Police Department as the Director of a grant-funded Crime Reduction Project aimed at reducing drug-related and violent crime. Of the many program goals, one was to develop a rehabilitative corrections program for felony offenders with addictions in order to reduce recidivism. Though I’ve lived in this region for...
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Access the Recording: Parenting in an Age of Uncertainty with Dr. Ken Ginsburg [Peace and Justice Institute]
Thank you to those who were able to participate in Part 1 of our Community Resilience Series with Dr. Ken Ginsburg-- Parenting in an Age of Uncertainty , on July 7th, 2020. In case you missed it or want to watch it again, here is the video recording of the workshop. Please share this widely with your networks so this message of resilience, self forgiveness, and love can get out to other parents during this challenging time! Thank you to our sponsor Orlando Health and thank you to those who...
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Virtual K-Ready Community Rally (July 22nd) & Screening of No Small Matter Documentary [K-Ready Community]
If you haven't already, REGISTER for the Virtual K-Ready Community Rally (July 22nd 9:00 - 10:30 am EST) & Screening of No Small Matter ! Seats are limited. Early Childhood Care and Education – the best investment we could make for a more skilled workforce, a stronger economy, and a more just society! You are invited to join Rachel Allen, Director of the Peace and Justice Institute at Valencia College; Glen Gilzean, CEO of the CF Urban League; and Dr. Joel Hunter, Founder and Chairman of...
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Greater Richmond Trauma Informed Community Network, first to join ACEs Cooperative of Communities, shows what it means to ROCK!
In 2012, Greater Richmond SCAN and five other community partners hatched a one-year plan to educate the Richmond, Virginia, community about ACEs science and to embed trauma-informed practices. Eight years later, the original group has evolved into the Greater Richmond Trauma-Informed Community Network (GRTICN) with 495 people and 170 organizations. And they're just scratching the surface.
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Trauma-informed policing: Learn how three highly experienced community leaders strengthen ties between police and community
ACEs initiative participants in communities where there is tension between the community and law enforcement will want to join Becky Haas in a compelling conversation on law enforcement, ACEs science, COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement and protests. Haas is a nationally recognized adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) science initiative builder and trainer. She and colleagues Renee Wilson-Simmons, the head of the ACE Awareness Foundation of Memphis, Tennessee, and Maggi Duncan,...
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‘Death by structural poverty’: US south struggles against Covid-19 [theguardian.com]
Monica McCasklill, left, and her daughter Kena Johnson, at their home in Greenwood, Missisppi. They respectively lost their grandmother and great grandmother, Ethel Huntley, to Covid-19. Huntley lived in a nearby nursing home and the family allege failings in her primary care. Photograph: Rory Doyle/The Guardian. By Oliver Laughland, The Guardian, August 5, 2020 Poor access to healthcare, failed political leadership and the endurance of segregation and racism have contributed to a surge in...
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New ACEs initiatives learn about strategic plan development from from New Hanover (NC) Resiliency Task Force executive director Mebane Boyd
The desire to see other ACEs initiatives grow and flourish was evident at a recent meeting of the Resilient Columbus County (North Carolina) ACEs initiative when Mebane Boyd, executive director of the New Hanover Resiliency Task Force (also in North Carolina), shared with the Columbus County and neighboring Pender County groups how New Hanover created and works on its strategic plan. In the spirit of sharing, Boyd agreed to let ACEs Connection post the strategic plan and the video of the...
Calendar Event
Public Conversations: Racist Policies in Child Welfare
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Public Conversations: Racist Policies in Housing, Child Welfare & Economic Development [UCF]
Event Information REGISTER HERE Welcome, My name is Thomas Bryer, Professor of Public Administration at the University of Central Florida. Learn more about me here: https://ccie.ucf.edu/profile/thomas-bryer/ The National Academy of Public Administration has called on governments throughout the United States to eliminate racism in government. Among the challenges they offered to the community is this: "Develop and promote a framework to identify and eliminate policies and practices in...
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"A Better Normal" Community Discussion: Suicide Awareness and Community Cafes
Join us on Friday November 6, 2020 from noon to 1:00 PST as we come together and join Satya Chandragiri MD, Bonnie O’Hern RN, Denise Proudfoot RN, & Michael Polacek RN for a discussion around the tender issue of suicide. Together we will discuss ways people and providers can support each other and encourage communities to take action to support one another around suicide prevention, crisis intervention, and the layers of culture and structural barriers to care. A special emphasis will be...
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The Pandemic Is Raging. Here's How to Support Your Grieving Students [edweek.org]
By Brittany R. Collins, Education Week, November 12, 2020 Over the past few decades, trauma-informed teaching has gained ground in the United States, yet rarely is grief included in the conversation. In the midst of a global pandemic, with teachers and students confronting loss in and outside the classroom in new and myriad ways, it is more critical than ever to apply a grief-sensitive lens to our conversations about curricula and trauma in the school system. We are not the people we were a...