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Resilience and Positive Psychology The message from three decades of research on resilience underscores central themes of the positive psychology movement (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Snyder & Lopez, in press). Psychology has neglected important phenomena in human adaptation and development during periods of focus on risk, problems, pathology, and treatment. Attention to human capabilities and adaptive systems that promote healthy development and functioning have the potential...

To create healthy communities, we need to begin addressing the prevalence of trauma in our student’s lives. This webinar will discuss how community schools are helping to address trauma, as part of an effort to improve the health of communities. Speakers Include Tracey Schear, Director, Center for Healthy Schools and Communities, Alameda County Health Care Services Agency; Lara Kain, Senior Director, Transform Schools, Los Angeles Education Partnership; and Andrea Blanch, Acting Director,...

This election has been a wake up call: sadly it has woken up and given permission for more overt and public forms of harassment modeled and condoned by president-elect Trump. In the three days since the results were announced, I have read news stories about a student handing deportation orders to students of ‘various ethnicities’ at his school, a teacher telling a student Trump should deport their parents , a non-Muslim student writing a note to a Muslim teacher telling her to go hang...

“ Troubled children with histories of abuse and neglect who show up in clinics, schools, hospitals, and police stations, the traumatic roots of their behaviors are less obvious, particularly because they rarely talk about being hit, abandoned, or molested, even when asked. Eighty two (82%) of the traumatized children seen in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network do not meet the criteria for PTSD. Because often they are shut down, suspicious, or aggressive they now receive...

A collaborative Merced County program is using mentoring in an effort to improve high school graduation rates and decrease crime. Through Project 10%, UC Merced students visit county middle school classrooms to motivate students to graduate from high school and pursue higher education. The UC Merced volunteers share their stories with eighth-grade students about their journeys to the university. The UC students send the message that the younger students can survive their situations and move...

I am excited to announce that ACEs Connection Network has partnered with the producers of the film, Portraits of Professional CAREgivers: Their Passion. Their Pain . to host a FREE SCREENING of the film for our members. If you have been t hinking of hosting a screening of CAREgivers in your community or are interested in learning more about secondary traumatic stress and what to do about it, join our ACEs Connection Network for a FREE screening of this film and a virtual chat with the...

When students returned to their two public high schools in Palo Alto, California in August, they found something new on campus: wellness centers. In this Silicon Valley town that has experienced too many teen suicides, the schools are trying to make mental health services as normal as eating breakfast or taking medicine for a physical ailment. At the wellness centers, students can visit a nurse, see a counselor, or just relax with a granola bar or cup of tea. “I actually come in here quite...

This is a good article that identifies key reasons why educators need to be trauma-informed.

Co-regulation with Kids "At-Risk"-Calming Together Highlights and thoughts from an article by Howard I. Bath:Calming together: The pathway to self-control Neuroscience shows that humans develop their abilities for emotional self-regulation through connections with reliable caregivers who soothe and model in a process called “co-regulation.” Since many troubled young people have not experienced a reliable, comforting presence, they have difficulty regulating their emotions and impulses.

The focus at Robert W. Coleman Elementary is not on punishment but on mindfulness — a mantra of daily life at an unusual urban school that has moved away from detention and suspension to something educators hope is more effective. Here, students are referred to the Mindful Moment Room when they misstep or need calming. In a space decorated with bright curtains, lavender cushions and beanbags, program staff members coax students to explain what happened, to talk about their feelings, to...

Andrew Vega is a first-generation American, the son of Mexican immigrants. He identifies as gay. He's also the principal of Bates Elementary School in Boston. Like so many of us, he had a lot on the line during this election. And like so many of us, he’s still processing the results and grappling with the implications for himself, for his family, for the people he loves. As a school Principal, Vega also had an entire school of children and their families looking to him for guidance in the...

The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) invites you to join us on Wednesday, November 16, 2016 at 9:00 p.m. EDT for a live Twitter chat and discuss how adverse childhood experiences affect children’s well-being. Film director, James Redford (@jred5562) and educational leader, Jim Sporleder (@SporLin ) will co-faciliate this convening to explore strategies used by educators, therapists, pediatricians, and communities to disrupt cycles of violence and trauma. For those...