Tagged With "Mary Vail Ware, Office for Victims"
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Middle school tackles everybody's trauma; result is calmer, happier kids, teachers and big drop in suspensions
6 th grader Cayla White (right) helps lead class meditation with Niroga Institute’s Lauren Banister/ photos by Laurie Udesky During the 2014/2015 school year, things were looking grim at Park Middle School in Antioch, CA. At the time, staff couldn’t corral student disruptions. Teacher morale was plummeting. By the end of February 2015, 192 kids of the 997 students had been suspended -- 19.2 percent of the student population. “I was watching really good people burning out from the [teaching]...
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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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One year ago, Pittsburgh schools committed to relationships over punishment
The headline: Pittsburgh to transform climate in 23 schools
That alone is an impressive statement to read! We may be approaching a cultural shift in the way schools think about their responsibility to build healing relationships for the children and adults in their buildings.
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Program offers hundreds of young men, boys safe space to heal from ACEs
Dennis McCollins recounts some of the experiences that caused him to harden against the world as a teenager. “There were times I went to more funerals than birthdays,” says McCollins, who is the clinical director of the School Based Health Center at Greenwood Academy in Richmond, Calif. And it took its toll: “I spent time homeless. I got expelled [from school]. I was so angry and upset and mad,” he says. Dennis McCollins Then a man that he met when he was sent to Job Corps as a teen turned...
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Gathering in Topeka, Kansas for the Educators’ Art of Facilitation Chapter IV
According to Alice Miller author of The Drama of the Gifted Child, an Enlightened Witness is “an understanding person who helps a victim of abuse recognize the injustice they suffered and gives vent to their feelings about what happened to them”. Brene Brown author of Daring Greatly states, "empathy is feeling with or alongside someone, while sympathy is feeling sorry for." https://youtu.be/1Evwgu369Jw In Topeka we unpacked and explored the message of the Enlightened Witnesses in our lives.
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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 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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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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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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Teaching Traumatized Kids [TheAtlantic.com]
When Kelsey Sisavath enrolled as a freshman at Lincoln Alternative High School in Walla Walla, Washington, in the fall of 2012, her mother was struggling with drug addiction. Kelsey herself was using meth. The multiple traumas in her life included a sexual assault by a stranger at age 12. She was angry, depressed, and suicidal. Her traumatized brain had little room to focus on school. Today, much has changed in Kelsey’s life. She graduated from Lincoln this spring with a 4.0 GPA while also...
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The 12-Year-Old Who Brought Education to His Community (dailygood.org)
For the nomadic community of Narikuravars in Tamil Nadu, the only mode of livelihood comes from selling beads on streets or worse, begging. Amidst the various ostracised communities in the state, Narikuravars are a marginalised group who continue to be shunned from mainstream society and have no access to primary opportunities like that of education and employment. One amongst five children, Sakthi Ramesh, had also been a victim of similar treatment in various government schools that he had...
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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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Child Bullying And The Long Term Effects Of Negative Body Image
Childhood bullying can have lasting harmful effects on kids, lowering their self-esteem and causing some to become suicidal when left unchecked. It’s crucially important for parents, teachers, and other adults to get involved and fight back when it comes to children being bullied. Bullies have a tendency to pick on children who have deformities or disabilities. Sometimes the bullies themselves have their own, similar issues and tease others so as to feel better about themselves. Whatever the...
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Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement (jesselewischooselove.org)
Compassion takes on a whole new level of meaning when something momentously destructive and painful happens in your life, and you have to find a pathway forward. Scarlett Lewis' six year-old son, Jesse, was murdered in the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. She had to dig unbelievably deeply into her well of compassion to be able to move forward with her life. Scarlett says she knew she had a choice - to be a victim for the rest of her life, or to chart a new way forward. She chose love.
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Reclaiming Disconnected Kids
TROUBLED KIDS ARE DISTINGUISHED BY THEIR REGRETTABLE ABILITY TO ELICIT FROM OTHERS THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT THEY NEED. (L. Tobin ) Underneath their surface behaviors your most difficult students are young people in pain. Painful emotions including negative inner states like fear, anger, sadness and shame. Painful thoughts including worry, distrust, guilt, hatred and helplessness covered up by defense mechanisms like denial, blame, and rationalizations to cover the pain. And of course, pain...
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Rural Oregon County Integrates ACEs Screening in School-Based Trauma-Informed Health Centers
For the last two years, nearly all students referred for mental health services in seven school-based health centers in Deschutes County, OR, have taken the 10-question adverse childhood experiences (ACE) survey.
It didn’t take long to realize why this was good idea.
“The average ACE score for a student being seen by a Deschutes County clinician was 5 out of 10,” says Elizabeth Fitzgerald, supervisor of school-based health centers at Deschutes County Health Services.
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Re: Amplifying empathy in teachers can help prevent student suspensions, researchers find
Please don't put the cart before the horse. Please remember - (1) that bullying is a national public health concern, per CDC; (2) that the definition of bullying, per CDC, ***is insufficient*** and sets too low of a bar. In essence, only the worst forms of bullying meets this definition: "CDC defines bullying as any unwanted aggressive behavior(s) by another youth or group of youths, who are not siblings or current dating partners, involving an observed or perceived power imbalance and is...
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Re: Amplifying empathy in teachers can help prevent student suspensions, researchers find
The key is to hold adults who "teach" bullying accountable and then worry about laws for children. Right now in US and Canada, emotional abuse (ie adult bullying) is fine; there are no laws, no deterrents, nothing that stops it and if there is, it's chaotic, lacks federal sanction, is random. Adult bullying of children is rampant in sports for example and nothing is done about it. The UK has changed this by recently making emotional abuse criminal. Can't happen soon enough in US and Canada.
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Re: Education in 2015 Visualized [TheAtlantic.com]
This makes my blood boil. This is just a more sophisticated form of bullying. It reminds me of that shocking scene of the girl in class being a victim of police brutality while the school teacher and admin watched. The gist of the school response was that she was acting up and deserved what she got. If I was in charge, any teacher or admin who watched a child be victimized by a police officer, would be instantly fired. Child safety is an absolute baseline of education. Those who cannot grasp...
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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-informed groups rev up to address race, inclusion
Eighteen-year-old Kia Hanson has always enjoyed her time as a youth leader at the East Oakland Youth Development Center (EOYDC). She’s worked mostly with five- and six-year-olds since she began in 2016. Recently, she tapped into new skills, especially if the kids were having a meltdown. Kia Hanson “If they’re off, we ask them, ‘What’s wrong?’ ‘Do you want to talk about anything?’,” she explains. “Basically asking before assuming they’re mad at the world for no reason.” What made the...
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Visionary Atlantan grows community model for trauma-informed education with a housing solution
Title image: Marjy Stagmeier, Atlanta real estate developer and social entrepreneur **Author's note: This story was a combined effort and co-authored by ACEs Connection members Jennifer Hossler and Carey Sipp. We are a new and united front focused on shedding light on a variety of trauma-informed and ACEs - informed initiatives happening across the state of Georgia. Thanks to Carey for her awareness of the work of Marjy Stagmeier and for leading me to her so we can share her vision with the...
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Wendy Lecker: Coping with trauma in the classroom [stamfordadvocate.com]
An experienced kindergarten teacher contacted me the other day. She reported that she and teachers in her district have seen a spike in children entering kindergarten having suffered trauma. Distraught, she said that she and her colleagues are not trained to meet these children’s needs, and there are not enough services in the schools to help. This phenomenon is sadly not unique. The New York Council of School Superintendents recently issued the results of its annual survey. In 2017, for the...
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What Lies Beneath Behavior? Introducing Echo's New Infographic!
Every novelist, psychologist, anthropologist and your Aunt Jane have wanted to know this. What motivates people and what’s going on when their behavior is irritating or just plain doesn’t make sense? At Echo, we encourage adults to look beneath the behavior of children and to understand ‘behavior as communication.’ It may be that the child is choosing a way of communicating that is hard for you to deal with but that doesn’t diminish the fact that the behavior is driven by some deep need or...
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YBRS survey and report from Monroe County, New York
Elizabeth Meeker, an ACEs Connection member from Monroe County, New York shared that her county schools added ACEs questions to their Youth Behavioral Risk Survey (YBRS) in 2015, which is administered to students in schools. They were kind enough to share the instrument as well as a summary report of findings (both attached here). Elizabeth has indicated that she is available to answer questions that you all may have about the implementation of the survey. Thank you Elizabeth, for sharing!
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Youth ask San Diego Gang Commission to stay the course on human and sex trafficking issues
Four student leaders from Youth Voice told twelve Commissioners of San Diego’s Commission on Gang Prevention and Intervention last month how important it is that they raise awareness, educate the community, and encourage other youth and adults to become involved in eliminating human and sex trafficking in San Diego. The FBI states that among children and teens living on the streets in the United States, involvement in commercial sex activity is a problem of epidemic proportion. California...
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Re: For parents who want to talk to schools
Hello Ariane, I have some suggestions: Chapter 4 of The Connected Child (attached with permission) shows the disarming of fear to create felt safety in what I think is an approachable way that is easy to share with teachers. An Article of "Trauma Informed Classrooms" from Adoption Advocate (attached with permission) gives some practical framework to what is needed in a classroom setting TBRI® Animate: Toxic Stress & The Brain - is helpful as well. I provide resources for Southern...
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Re: Could Parkland Shooting Be Prevented? Yes, and Runcie Knew How
Please see the attached report that demonstrates the effectiveness of the interventions - seen in the Paper Tigers movie: Higher Resilience and School Performance Among Students with Disproportionately High Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) at Lincoln High, in Walla Walla, Washington, 2009 to 2013 Research Report, February 2015 Conclusions This s tudy provides empirical support for the thesis that systemic changes in school practices, ones developed with the support of the community to be...
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Re: Posltive Pax: Yakima Valley schools embrace program that teaches kids to be good people — and good students [YakimaHerald.com]
Interesting article. I always have a hard time when people talk about children's 'good' and 'bad' behavior, especially in the context of trauma. It is not 'bad' if your nervous system is set to respond a certain way as a result of toxic stress. It feels a little bit like blaming the victim. However, I do see the value of structure and predictability that this program provides. Just my 2 cents...
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Re: Paper Tigers Data Slides.pdf
Hi, Sara -- Try it again....it worked for me. I'm also attaching the slides. Cheers, Jane
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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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More Than Reduced Police Presence: Schools Must Commit to Implementing Restorative Justice [law.com]
By Thalia Gonzalez and Rebecca Epstein, The National Law Journal, July 9, 2020 In this historic moment, cities across the nation are recognizing the damage caused by police presence in schools. From disproportionate action in response to small offenses, to police involvement in tantrums and dress code violations, officers militarize school environments in ways that harm all students, but especially students of color. In New York City, the schools chancellor recently announced that police...
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Choose Love Movement Introduces Free SEL Wellness Program for School Reopening
The Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement ™ launched a free social-emotional wellness program to support educators and students as they navigate the start of the 2020/21 school year. This special reentry unit, “Choosing Love in Our Brave New World,” is designed to help transition students back to class or to support them during distance learning. The Choose Love Movement honors six-year-old Jesse Lewis who was killed in the Sandy Hook, CT elementary school tragedy. “Choosing Love in Our Brave New...