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ACEs Connection, we need your help ! We are performing a research study to better understand the relationship between positive childhood experiences (PCEs), ACEs, and health outcomes in adulthood. All we need is 5-10 minutes of your time and your honesty to complete the following anonymous survey. With your help we can find a better way to combat ACEs and to support the development of children into resilient adults. Just a little bit more about the survey: This survey is sponsored by the...

In Fresno, volunteers from local churches were already working with the schools, mentoring kids and running weekend recreation programs. Community-based non-profits were in conversation with educators; pastors were talking to social-service providers. The problems were clear: nearly 30% of Fresno’s residents living in poverty (the rate tops 40% for Black residents), with a 20-year gap in life expectancy between the richest and poorest parts of this sharply segregated city. For several years,...

Five years of convening Newark’s ACE Impact Team has taught Keri Logosso-Misurell a crucial lesson: Fight the urge to reinvent the wheel.

The March meeting of the New Jersey Education Association’s ACEs Task Force opened without an agenda. It was a virtual gathering with more than 50 people—educators, social workers, professionals in pediatrics, juvenile justice and child abuse prevention. The pandemic had landed emphatically close to home, with a governor’s order to close all schools on March 18, and participants were grappling with what that meant for their students, their families and themselves. So ACEs Task Force co-chair...

The following letter went out to the list serve of the Alaska Resilience Initiative on Monday, February 24th. I am sharing it here...because the reflections on lessons learned may be useful to those in the broader ACEs movement... Most important, perhaps: an ethic of self-reflection and of welcoming feedback creates safety, creates a trauma-informed environment. And so, it is both a tool for growth, and a way of walking the walk on trauma-informed, culturally-responsive care.

By Michael S. Lockett, Juneau Empire, December 4, 2019 Just as a house built on a shattered foundation won’t stand straight, mounting research points toward a child’s earliest years as setting a pattern that will last their whole life. “What happens early in your life has really big and dramatic impact on the later parts of your life,” said Alex Newton, the counselor at Glacier Valley Elementary School – Sít’ Eetí Shaanáx. “All development for kids starts with their early caregiver...

Dr. Melissa Merrick, president & CEO of Prevent Child Abuse America, provides four key takeaways from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest Vital Signs/ACEs report , of which she is the lead author. Merrick also identifies several practical solutions for creating the conditions for safe, stable and nurturing relationships and environments for all children, families and communities, which are fundamental to preventing ACEs. Among these solutions is strengthening economic...

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By Derek Minemyer, Oct 20, 2019, for KTUU PALMER, Alaska (KTUU) - A Palmer business providing employment opportunities for at-risk youth burned in a structure fire early Tuesday. Now, the owner is receiving support from the community he's helped to improve. Jim Beach was visiting family in Kansas City when he says he got a call from the Palmer Police Department telling him his business, an auto detailing service called Car Deets, had caught fire. "My first thought was I was just glad it...

By Samie Solina, Oct 18, 2019, for KTUU ANCHORAGE (KTUU) - A make-shift food bank lives in the office of Abbott Loop Elementary in Anchorage inside of the school’s family services coordinators office. Abbott Loop Elementary is a Title I school, which means it has high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families. These schools receive financial assistance to help their students meet goals. Melinda Jarvis, a former student and now parent volunteer, knows what it’s like to...

The Alaska Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Oct. 9 on the constitutionality of Alaska’s energy policy promoting development of oil and gas. The plaintiffs in Sinnok vs the state of Alaska are 16 young Alaskans ranging in age from 5 to 22. Several of the plaintiffs spoke outside the courthouse after the oral arguments. They described the effects of climate change on their lives. Esau Sinnok, Inupiaq and age 21, is the lead plaintiff in the case. He’s from Shishmaref, in northwest Alaska.

“A trauma-informed, culturally responsive lens must be a part of everything we do.” This statement by Laura Norton-Cruz, Director of the Alaska Resilience Initiative, sums up the key message of last week’s Senate Afterschool Caucus briefing for Congressional staff which focused on “Afterschool Programs and a Trauma-Informed Approach.” On Wednesday, Sept. 11, the Senate Afterschool Caucus* — in partnership with the Afterschool Alliance, Alaska Children’s Trust – Alaska Afterschool Network,...