Tagged With "Vincent Felitti"
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ACE Surveillance Study of Teachers and Administrators in Public and Private Schools in Southwest Nigeria, West Africa
Note: These findings were presented at the Child Trauma Conference in Lagos on October 25-26, 2019. Rationale: Many children today live with layers of stress both subtle and overt which in this report are collectively referred to as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Specifically, these ACEs are physical, emotional and sexual abuse; physical and emotional neglect; household dysfunction and domestic violence as well as community violence. The children have a life marked by chaos,...
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ACEs Champion Julie Kurtz Gives Every Child (and Adult) a Voice
Julie Kurtz hasn’t stopped creating ways to build and promote resilience in herself and others who have experienced trauma since she left her family home for college at age 18. Although she experienced four types of adversity during her childhood, the CEO of the Center for Optimal Brain Integration has traveled a complex journey to mitigate those adversities by recognizing her own internal resilience, building skills to buffer her toxic and traumatic stress, uncovering her voice through...
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ACEs Science Champions Series: Eulanda Thorne Applies ACEs Science Awareness at School and at Home
Eulanda Thorne and her children (L to R) Sarah, Joshua, Leah, Emmanuel When school counselor Eulanda Thorne discovered the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in 2018, she felt as if she were on fire. “I felt that I had missed a vital part of my education. Anyone who is in college for social work or teaching, a class on ACEs and trauma should be a required course.” Without an understanding of ACEs, she says, “I would think the students who are sent to me are being defiant or...
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ACEs Science in Education: The Next Big Challenge is Systems Change #ACEsCon2018
One of the first sessions of the 2018 ACEs Conference: Action to Access discussed the barriers and opportunities for increasing access in the field of education. The main question was: "How can one achieve systematic changes within the field of education?" The session was moderated by Michelle Flowers, a passionate advocate, and the principal of Kinney High in Rancho Cordova, CA, which is part of the Folsom Cordova Unified School District. It included a dynamic and diverse panel of education...
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‘Ambassadors of Hope’ Trauma-sensitive schools understand the whole child [DerbyInformer.com]
Kindergarten teacher Erica Nunemaker ripped down the clip chart she used for behavior management in her classroom. Children moved their clip up for good behavior and down for bad behavior. Nunemaker realized the same students were moving down every day. The clip was a public display of the student’s failure, and children weren’t learning how to fix their behavior. “I’ve noticed that a lot of times we discipline them and tell them that’s not right ... but then we don’t give them a solution to...
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Portions of the Educators’ Art of Facilitation shared in Wichita
An exercises we encountered at the Family Peace Initiative in Topeka and one that both Rebecca and Katie shared at the Moving the Needle conference in Wichita, is “pandora’s box and the cover story.” Pandora’s box contains the following evils: sickness, death, turmoil, strife, jealousy, hatred, famine……but also within the box is the light of HOPE. Katie Perez, an education consultant at Essdack, made over 400 of the boxes pictured above for those in attendance at their Moving the Needle...
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Discipline bill is well intentioned, but doesn't meet needs of students, parents or teachers [VtDigger.org]
This commentary is by Alyssa Chen, a career educator who recently made the transition to education advocate and community organizer. Over the past two years, Vermont Legal Aid has brought much-needed attention to the issue of disproportionate suspension, the practice by which certain students get suspended at rates exceeding those of others. Legal Aid formed the Dignity in Schools Coalition to fight for statewide policy change. Bolstered by the findings of the Kicked Out Report (January...
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How It Feels & How We Heal: Parenting with ACEs Chat Quotes (You Tube, Database, PDFs, Links)
Parenting with ACEs is sharing inspiration, information, and expertise from our chat series in 3 formats. Parenting with ACEs: How It Feels & How We Heal Quote Collection (pdf version below as well) Quotes Database (pdf version below as well) Links to Chat Transcripts and before and after-the-chat blog posts. Thanks to everyone who showed up, who shared, and who is doing the important work that is our mission (prevent ACEs, heal trauma, build resilience). We know that work happens...
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In Search of the Missing ACEs...
I remain forever grateful that my long felt and seeming innate knowledge ( actually garnered from personal experience, work with traumatised animals and people ) has been evidenced and validated by the amazing work of Vincent Felitti and Robert Anda. They created the peg I, we, can hang our experience and expertise on and work to best apply our skills to assist others. With ACEs I am now able to communicate my knowledge with clients, colleagues and communities with the additional confidence...
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Incorporating Trauma Informed Practice and ACEs into Professional Curricula - a Toolkit
The toolkit is designed to aid faculty and teachers in a variety of disciplines, specifically social work, medicine, law, education, and counseling, to develop or integrate critical content on adverse childhood experiences and trauma informed care into new or existing curricula of graduate education programs. This toolkit provides an overview of colleges and universities that have courses in trauma-informed practice and ACEs science. Most of the toolkit comprises content for a course on...
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Setting the Wheels in Motion - Becoming a Trauma Informed and Trauma Sensitive School
I recently wrote a blog post about how to take the first step in creating a trauma informed care model (TIC) in your school. The first step, Establishing a Baseline, is necessary because it fuels future steps in the process. In the blog post "Is Your School Ready to be Trauma Informed and Trauma Sensitive," I also listed the key components of a TIC model. I am adding them here as well, because I don't want you to have to keep going back to the other blog as you are working on this process.
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Shootings & Suicides Past the Tipping-Point: ACEs Epidemic & Declining Lifespans in US
Re: Building community by facing collective trauma with hope I am writing from Broward county, Florida, the school district in which the MSD school shooting occurred and that gave rise to the March for Our Lives Movement sparked by our students. Mankind has developed solutions to deal with self-perpetuating waves and EPIDEMICS of BEHAVIORALLY TRANSMITTED Neuro-Toxic Stress, CPTSD Trauma & ACEs that cause FIXED-MINDSET reactive black and white Scarcity-based thinking to increase and...
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Some 350 Florida Leaders Expected to Attend Think Tank with Dr. Vincent Felitti, Co-Principal Investigator of the ACE Study; Expert on ACEs Science
Leaders from across the Sunshine State will take part in a “Think Tank” in Naples, FL, on Monday, August 6, to help create a more trauma-informed Florida. The estimated 350 attendees will include policy makers and community teams made up of school superintendents, law enforcement officers, judges, hospital administrators, mayors, PTA presidents, child welfare experts, mental health and substance abuse treatment providers, philanthropists, university researchers, state agency heads, and...
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Misunderstood, mislabeled, mistreated
Finally, a “doctor told me NOT to call it a “mental illness” it’s a “mental injury”
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New Guidance on Trauma Screening in Schools
In partnership with the Defending Childhood State Policy Initiative and the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice, new guidance has been released on trauma screening in schools. Importantly, this document lays out a series of important considerations when determining whether trauma screening is indicated in each context, and how to go about collecting and utilizing the data generated from the process. Please feel free to share input.
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New Resource Guide for Child Sexual Abuse/Exploitation Prevention
Greetings, ACN Community! I wanted to share this fantastic new resource guide developed by one of the work groups from the Georgia Statewide Human Trafficking Task Force. This guide provides background on best practice, principles of prevention, identifying resources for the classroom, developing a prevention plan, age appropriate teaching suggestions, analysis of specific programs, and guidelines for implementation and evaluation. It is really quite thorough and is full of excellent ideas...
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Responding with Care to Students Facing Trauma (ascd.org)
Many K–12 students are experiencing ongoing life stresses. Recognizing this can help educators respond effectively to their needs. Looking at Felitti and colleagues' list of adverse events (which includes experiences like a parent going to jail, the death of a loved one, or substance misuse in the home), teachers will likely realize how prevalent traumatic experiences are among today's students. The ACEs study has been replicated over time and has since included looking at the impact of ACEs...
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Re: Nowhere to Hide the Elephant in the [Class]room
Dr. Felitti, Thank you so much for your kind words and your suggestion. I am very honored and the DVD idea is quite intriguing! Daun Kauffman
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Re: Chronic absenteeism pervasive in California and nationwide, report shows [edsource.org]
This is probably analogous to what we found in the ACE Study about the relationship of ACE Score to absenteeism from work. This slide is based on self-acknowledged information. VINCENT J. FELITTI, MD San Diego, California VJFMDSDCA@mac.com > On Sep 10, 2018, at 10:06 AMPDT, ACEsConnection < communitymanager@acesconnection.com > wrote: >
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Re: Burnout Risk for In-Prison Educators Could Jeopardize Programs for Incarcerated Students
Dr. Felitti, thank you, I have replied directly to your query.
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Re: Co-Parent Training Helps Kids Adjust to School [PsychCentral.com]
So many things to say about this. "Parents who argue and are often in conflict with each other over parenting issues can become more impatient and harsh with their children... Even if parents don’t take out frustration on their children, the emotional security and well-being of the child can be threatened by the presence of conflict in the home." What about parents who are in conflict with each other, period? I'm surprised this is not one of the ACEs. And yes, when will the insurance...
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Re: Oregon State educators visit Cherokee Point Elementary in San Diego
Thank you Dr. Felitti. Your graciousness is tremendously appreciated. Your groundbreaking research is breaking through endemically diseased roots in our society and the transformation of the children, youth and families is bringing hope and healing to our communities.
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Re: In Search of the Missing ACEs...
Hi, Dawn: These are good questions. Drs. Felitti & Anda also understood that there were other types of ACEs, but the 10 in the study were the 10 they looked at. Since then, people have expanded the definition to include more ACEs. We have included many examples of those in the Resources Center: https://www.pacesconnection.com...xtended-aces-surveys It's probably not a bad idea for organizations to ask the population they're asking and surveying what other ACEs they're experiencing in...
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Trauma education and mindfulness help youth living amid gun violence
Armon Hurst, 2nd from left, first row, Teens on Target, courtesy of YouthAlive! Eighteen-year-old Armon Hurst serves as vice president of the student body at Castlemont High School in Oakland, Calif. He has a 4.0 grade point average, is an avid baseball player, and is slated to go to college next year. But until a few years ago, Hurst would find himself waking from nightmares in the middle of the night. It was difficult to concentrate at school, and he wasn’t eating well. Armon Hurst “There...
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Trauma Informed Care -- Workforce training framework
A colleague of mine -- here in New Zealand!! -- recently passed the attached PDF, from Scotland, onto me. It concerns a relatively recent, and still developing, proposed trauma training framework. This might be helpful to others wishing to go further in introducing TIC in their own services. It includes a consideration of ACEs. Naturally, it needs to incorporate culture-specific additions or modifications to suit your local conditions. The document as it is likely has broad application.
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Trauma-sensitive teacher
This is a good article that identifies key reasons why educators need to be trauma-informed.
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Unintended Consequences
This article -- The Education Practice That is Costing Taxpayers Billions of Dollars -- is about what may happen to students who are suspended from school. While not everything bad happens to all students who are suspended, there are enough of them to have a societal impact. The problem is that the societal impact is far enough into the future that it becomes disconnected from the event that might cause it. Or maybe there are a lot of events that might lead to the result, but we aren't aware...
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Why I believe Gregory Williams, and his book, Shattered By The Darkness, will help save lives and revolutionize healthcare.
When you first hear about it, it sounds unlikely, fact that something that happened to someone in utero, at the age of two months, or four years, or any time in childhood, is what is killing them as an adult, or making them want to die, or making them want to hurt themselves or others. Yet the connection between childhood trauma and adult disease, mental illness, addiction, suicide, violence – most all of society’s ills – is as irrefutable as the myriad truths revealed about it in the...
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Re: John Wetten Elementary School offers traumatized kids a springboard to hope (pamplinmedia.com)
It might be of interest to collect anonymous student answers to the one-page version of the ACE Questionnaire and then pool the anonymous results so they could be projected to a trial group of older students for their discussion of what they think this information means. This has been done a few times in city newspapers and college newspapers with very meaningful discussions resulting. VINCENT J. FELITTI, MD San Diego, California VJFMDSDCA@mac.com > On Feb 27, 2017, at 6:58 AMPST,...
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Re: Mental Health in Finnish Schools: So Close to Perfection [thelancet.com]
It would be wonderful if we can find a way to improve parenting skills. However, a couple of the obstacles that I have most encountered, (I am from a low-income Mexican migrant community in the Central Valley of California) include: ability to invest time in events which may not include some form of economic benefit and one of cultural stigma. That is not to say that these obstacles are not being addressed and have seen progress in overcoming them. My question would be a broad one, which...
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Re: Mental Health in Finnish Schools: So Close to Perfection [thelancet.com]
Yes, parent-training is a necessary, key move, but implementation will be such a tough, tough challenge Dr. Felitti... I'm sure you know that some folks here in the West reject any concept of others' "involvement" (including 'training') in what they see as unassailable, "private", family jurisdiction. Some reject any intrusion into "sacred" personal relationships (and outcomes). Either way, ultimately, we would probably agree that "training" parents is not enough, training must result in...
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Re: Safety First - Toxic Stress in Education
Thank you Dr. Felitti! Wonderful ideas! Will share!
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Re: Portions of the Educators’ Art of Facilitation shared in Wichita
The whole blog is insightful. This paragraph resonates with me The ACE Study’s researchers – Dr. Vincent Felitti and Dr.Robert Anda -- found that most people experience ACEs, and that these experiences are lost in time and protected by shame, by secrecy, and by social taboos. I would say that these experiences are not lost in time, they are hidden in our pandora’s boxes. As long as we keep the box closed we will never be free and will remain devoid of hope. I agree "as long as we keep the...
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Re: Beyond Paper Tigers
Hi Dr. Felitti, I just checked all of the links and everything seems to be working ok. You can find registration and conference information here: www.beyondpapertigers.com For folks that can't make it to Washington for the conference, Paper Tigers is currently screening across the US, so there are screenings happening in many cities, however, a DVD can also be purchased from the production company. Resilience is touring the "film festival" circuit for now, but should also be available to...
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Re: Using Meditation to Help Close the Achievement Gap (nytimes.com)
Thank you Dr. Felitti... Your groundbreaking, life's work is coming into fruition through a plethora of cross-sectors in a socio-ecological model. Now is the Time!
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Re: How Teachers Learn to Discuss Racism (theatlantic.com)
Yes, so true! Thank you Dr. Felitti. Wonder if Dr. Rodney Hood in San Diego has relevant insight respectively. Please know I'll reach out to Dr. Hood.
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Re: How Teachers Learn to Discuss Racism (theatlantic.com)
Dr. Felitti, Please know I just came across this AB1195. Please know your discernment is appreciated on how we can build capacity on this existing bill. California Assembly Bill 1195 which requires continuing medical education activities with patient care components to include curriculum in the subjects of cultural and linguistic competency. Cultural competency is defined as a set of integrated attitudes, knowledge, and skills that enables health care professionals or organizations to care...
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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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New Resource: Strategies for Trauma-Informed School Communities
The California Essentials for Childhood Initiative is excited to share a newly developed attached, “Strategies for Trauma-Informed School Communities: Practices to Improve Resiliency in School-Aged Children and Address Adverse Childhood Experiences”. This new resource is intended to assist state and local public health programs, child-serving systems, non-profits, and philanthropic organizations in their efforts to educate about the need for trauma-informed school policies and practices that...
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New Resource: Strategies for Trauma-Informed School Communities
The California Essentials for Childhood Initiative is excited to share a newly developed attached, “Strategies for Trauma-Informed School Communities: Practices to Improve Resiliency in School-Aged Children and Address Adverse Childhood Experiences”. This new resource is intended to assist state and local public health programs, child-serving systems, non-profits, and philanthropic organizations in their efforts to educate about the need for trauma-informed school policies and practices that...
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Our Trauma-Resilient Educational Communities (TREC) Model's website launched on 1.25.24 with our Award Ceremony!
The culmination of thousands of hours from our Trauma-Resilient Educational Communities (TREC) team in developing our TREC Model, we launched TRECeducation.com website on Thursday, January 25, 2024. Craig Beswick, Vice-President, School Development Division, Lifelong Learning Administration Corporation (LLAC) opened up our exciting launch, which was hosted by the beautiful UCSD Park & Market in downtown San Diego. Craig warmly welcomed over 200 attendees to our Awards Ceremony and TREC...