Tagged With "Alaska Native Native American"
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Afterschool programs and a trauma-informed approach [Afterschool Alliance]
“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,...
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Alaska Day—Not Just for White People Anymore [progressive.org]
Gerry Hope of the Sik'nax.ádi clan of the Tlingit tribe sees good reason for native people to question Alaska Day, an annual celebration of the U.S. acquisition of this land from Russia. The acquisition happened 150 years ago, but the Tlingit people have called this land home for 10,000 years. “Our hurt, anger, and resentment have been simmering and smoldering for the past 150 years,” Hope said. Alaska Day parades feature charming homemade floats, proud high school marching bands,...
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Alaska Native & Native American gathering on trauma and resilience in AK
On May 18th, the Alaska Resilience Initiative, First Alaskans Institute's Alaska Native Policy Center, and the Native Village of Chickaloon hosted a gathering of Alaska Native and Native American people from across the state to discuss ACCCEs (adverse childhood, cultural, and community experiences) and resilience.
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Alaska passes trauma-informed legislation
In the dark early hours of Mother’s Day, May 13th , before the 2018 Alaska legislative session adjourned, Senate Bill 105 was approved by both the Alaska House and the Senate...making Alaska one of only a handful of states to pass ACEs awareness into statute. This represents years of education, collaboration, and some creative and dogged advocacy this last legislative session. It also represents a promising path forward.
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Alaska Wellness Summit: Conquering the Opioid Crisis
August 4th, 2016 9:00AM - 3:30PM Mat-Su College (8295 College Drive Palmer, AK 99645) Click on the link below to register !
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All Alaskans have a role to play in helping others choose life, not suicide [AlaskaDispatchNews.com]
As we recognize National Suicide Prevention Day, I reflect on the old proverb, “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.” This statement is a reflection of the most destructive force in our world today...
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Apply for: Native American Congressional Internship
Native American Congressional Internship Link View Program Website Sponsor Morris K Udall and Stewart L Udall Foundation Deadlines Jan 31, 2020 Contact Jason Curley curley@udall.gov 520.901.8564 Purpose The Native American Congressional Internship offers a summer internship for Native American and Alaska Native students who wish to learn more about the federal government and issues affecting Indian country. Interns work in congressional and agency offices where they have opportunities to...
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ARI Website Goes Live
The Alaska Resilience Initiative is excited to announce the launch of our first-ever website! After months of hard work, akresilience.org is live and looking good . Take a look for yourself and let us know what you think. For quite a while, we’ve been trying to fit all our work into a single page hosted by the Alaska Children’s Trust – but no longer! With our new website, you can check out our steering committee and staff, get updates from the workgroups, learn about and post events, connect...
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Artists in the ACE and Resilience Movement: Creative Avenues to Change
They began with a song and ended with a poem. In-between, there were photographs and giant graphic renderings, movement exercises and a “human pulse” formed when 90 people stood in a circle and squeezed each other’s hands. At a June summit in Whatcom County, Washington, titled “Our Resilient Community: A Community Conversation on Resilience and Equity,” the arts played a starring role. Kristi Slette, executive director of the Whatcom Family and Community Network, one of two Washington sites...
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As teens, they faced the same temptations. One made it, one didn’t. Why? [ADN.com]
This is the story of two childhoods that brought two grown men to opposite sides of a table in Mountain View, one after a life of pain and one of privilege. The meeting was a little awkward. A fine art painter was recruited to learn about a recovering addict, now a car salesman, and depict how childhood events had shaped his life. "It's certainly not something that I'm used to," said painter David Pettibone. "I was absolutely nervous going in. I wasn't quite sure of the questions I was going...
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Balancing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) With HOPE*
New Insights into the Role of Positive Experience on Child and Family Development *Health Outcomes of Positive Experience Abstract This report presents evidence for HOPE (Health Outcomes of Positive Experiences) based on newly released, compelling data that reinforce the need to promote positive experiences for children and families in order to foster healthy childhood development despite the adversity common in so many families. These data: Establish a spirit of hope and optimism and make...
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Big Picture Epidemiology - Comprehensive Dataset Video Presentation
This 30-minute presentation by State of Alaska epidemiologist Dr. Jared Parrish provides a unique “big picture” image of cumulative child maltreatment over the life course.
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Bush Fellowships awarded to 24 who can use the $100K to develop leadership skills[MinnPost]
This article describes the award by the St. Paul, Minnesota-based Bush Foundation of 24 fellowships to individuals in North and South Dakota, Minnesota and 23 Native nations to develop leadership skills. Some of the awardees are doing work trauma-specific work such as Susan Marie Beaulieu who is teaching ACEs in Native American communities. Others are using the arts, drumming and other culturally-grounded approaches to heal communities. One is a state legislator (not seeking re-election),...
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"Business Leaders in the ACE and Resilience Movement: A Different Kind of Bottom Line"
This is a fantastic article about trauma-informed businesses and business efforts across the country, including Vigor Shipyards in Ketchikan, Alaska! Toxic stress in the childhoods and current lives of workers affect worker productivity, safety, retention, and more, and these affect the bottom line. Find out what businesses and resilience coalitions are doing about it: http://marc.healthfederation.org/shared-learnings/business-leaders-ace-and-resilience-movement-different-kind-bottom-line
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Community Voices: Creating a Just, Healthy and Resilient World
Two years ago Alaska (as a partnership between ARI , Southern Kenai Peninsula Resilience Coalition , and ROCK Mat-Su ), was chosen as one of the fourteen pilot sites across the country building strong cross-sector networks to help heal and prevent early childhood adversity. See some of these amazing, inspiring stories: Go to the Collection Download the PDF
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Conference in Anchorage Aug 18th on Complex Trauma and Addictions
Longitudinal Progression of Complex Trauma and Addiction: Case Studies and Interventions The University of Alaska Anchorage - Department of Human Services is hosting a conference on August 18, 2017 from 8 am -5:30 pm with a Dinner presentation from 6 pm - 7:30 pm at the UAA Lucy Cuddy Hall. The conference will spotlight case studies highlighting the necessity of a multi-disciplinary approach in addressing the complexity of trauma combined with addiction. See attached flyer for more...
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Do you live in Arizona, Hawaii, California, Nevada or the US Pacific Islands? Come to our no-cost mental and school mental health Winter Institute!
Do you live in Arizona, Hawaii, California, Nevada or the US Pacific Islands?If so...Check it out! 👇 NO COST. MENTAL HEALTH & SCHOOL MENTAL HEALTH WORKFORCE. AMAZING FACULTY. JANUARY 14, 15, & 16th! LONG BEACH, CA. JOIN US. 🤝 👏 Learn more here: http://bit.ly/mhttc-winterinstitute-flyer Register here: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07egq2f9gaebafa6bd&llr=8wdk4ubab
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Expansion of ACEs in Alaska
I just want to pass along ACT's recent announcement regarding work tied to ACEs in Alaska. It is an incredible opportunity and encouraging to see this work move forward in Alaska. WKH Alaska Children's Trust (ACT) is proud to...
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First statewide meeting of the Alaska Resilience Initiative
Last Thursday, the first statewide meeting of the Alaska Resilience Initiative was held. Over 80 people from different regions in Alaska who work in different sectors, organizations, schools, tribes, etc. gathered around the same goal of building healthy families and communities and moving beyond trauma and the intergenerational transmission of trauma. Participants rolled up their sleeves and got to work on how to structure this collective impact initiative so that it is inclusive,...
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Free Discussion Guide and Movie Loans
Do you ever see a post from us and wonder about ACEs? Want to educate your friends? We can help! For free, ARI can lend you an hour-long documentary (Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope) about the history of ACE science and early years of the Resilience movement, as well as a hard or soft copy of the movie’s discussion guide. This guide ( https://www.recharge4resilience.org/sites/default/files/slides/Resilience%20Guide%20-%20FINAL.PDF ) created in partnership with the...
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Guidance from Alaska Native & Native American Gathering on Trauma & Resilience in Alaska
In May, the Alaska Resilience Initiative partnered w/ First Alaskans Institute & the Native Village of Chickaloon to convene a gathering of Alaska Native and Native American people from every region of Alaska who work on issues of child & intergenerational trauma. The goal was to seek input that would be used to guide the Alaska Resilience Initiative, the training-of-ACEs/Resilience trainers and the curriculum used to present on ACEs, and the overall framing & approach to this work.
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Healing our Relatives: Webinar on Trauma-Informed Approaches in Indian Country
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Tribal Technical Assistance (TTA) Center is hosting a series of webinars on the impact of trauma and trauma-informed approaches in the American Indian and Native Alaskan cultural...
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Homework: Moving Toward Compassionate, Trauma-Informed Schools
It was the little red trauma-informed schoolhouse. Katherine Wickersham-Wade, the Nay’dini’aa Na’ Kayax (Chickaloon Village) clan grandmother who started the Ya Ne Dah Ah School , Alaska’s first Tribally operated school in 1992, might not have used that language. But she did envision a school that would wrap its students in Native ancestral traditions and Ahtna language, instill self-confidence and repair some of the damage inflicted by historical trauma—the disruptions to culture and...
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Investigating historical trauma endured by Native Americans, Alaska Natives [AlaskaPublic.org]
An Ojibwe woman and independent journalist Mary Annette Pember recently visited Alaska for a series of stories on historical trauma and Native American mental health practices. Pember says the troubled lives of Native Americans reflect their troubled...
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MARC Booklet 2016: Features Alaska
Please find attached the 2016 booklet for the Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities (MARC) project, including Alaska and the other 13 communities that have been selected to participate in this 2 year learning collaborative. This is a great summary of the work happening in all 14 communities across the country. I look forward to working with you all in Alaska!
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National article on Rose Domnick of Bethel, AK -- brilliant Yup'ik trauma prevention and healing expert
"[Domnick] owes her progress to learning traditional Yup’ik ways of healing and dealing with life. 'Our ancestors gave us tools to navigate through the tough times of life. They taught us to take bad experiences and turn them inside out, examine them, talk about them and understand how they have affected us.' In her work with Calricaraq, she and her team help guide others through this process and gain more insight into their own lives. 'We are also finding that our elders are recalling old...
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Native American Children’s Safety Act (NACSA)
President Obama signed a new act to amend the Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act by enacting certain requirements for foster care placements in Indian Country. Known as the Native American Children’s Safety Act [ LINK HERE ], the new law places some stringent requirements that may actually harm tribal efforts to implement the Indian Child Welfare Act. It’s tough to argue against efforts to protect our children, and the imposition of tough requirements for that...
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New Alaskan training on healthcare and domestic violence available online for 3.25 free CME/CEs!
An engaging, multimedia training series on healthcare and domestic violence eligible for 3.25 free CME/CEs is now available online! The title of the training series is “Domestic and Sexual Violence (DV/SV), The Impact on...
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New Alaskan Youth Healthy Relationships Community Toolkit
A Step-by-Step Guide to Using the ANTHC Healthy Youth Relationships Community Toolkit The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium has collaborated with rural and urban communities to make locally and culturally-relevant resources...
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"Paper Tigers" April 5th, 6-9PM, University of Alaska Anchorage
As part of National Public Health week there will be a public showing of "Paper Tigers" at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Admission is free. Light refreshments will be provided. Thank you to Kate Wright, ACEs Connection member, for creating this opportunity for students and other community members to see this important film.
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Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield donates to Alaska Children’s Trust [newsminer.com]
By Erin Granger egranger@newsminer.com FAIRBANKS — Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield, Alaska’s only individual health care company, announced will donate a grant of $220,000 to Alaska Children’s Trust, a state nonprofit program working to prevent issues related to child abuse in Alaska. The grant was part of eight donations Premera gave to eight total organizations across Alaska and Washington, finishing its first year of donations directed toward organizations that support behavioral health...
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Principal Progress: Trauma-Informed Efforts at One Alaska Elementary School
Before Deanna Beck had ever heard of the 1998 ACE study, before she became principal of Northwood ABC Elementary School in Anchorage, she was a special education teacher who saw the ways trauma scrawled through her students’ lives.
On the one-minute reading tests Beck administered, she would notice steady progress—40 words a minute, then 50—followed by dramatic drops; a child would suddenly be stumbling along at three or four words a minute.
She began to ask the kids what had happened.
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Program increases awareness of effects of childhood trauma [JuneauEmpire.com]
Posted January 14, 2018 06:24 am - Updated January 14, 2018 05:44 pm By ALEX McCARTHY Those running CLEAR hope to help students who have suffered from trauma to perform better in school and society. As Natalie Turner walked into a fourth-grade classroom at Glacier Valley Elementary on Friday, the fingers started wiggling. The fourth-graders greeted her silently, holding up their index fingers and bending them up and down. Turner returned the gesture, which they call the “one-finger wave,”...
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Sen. Heitkamp Discusses the Need for a Commission on Native Children [Indian Country Today]
In this interview published February 5, Senator Heitkamp (D-ND) specifically addressed trauma in the Native American community—both historical and individual—and says that the proposed Commission on Native Children must develop...
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"Stalking the Bogeyman" at UAA April 1 - April 24
"Every year, approximately 8,000 Alaskan children are physically or sexually abused. More often than not, that abuse isn’t at the hands of some stranger on the street in a trench coat, but someone the victim already knows and is familiar with." David Holthouse's play "Stalking the Bogeyman" confronts this situation through his Holthouse's own powerful story. The play, produced by UAA, runs Friday, Apr. 1 – Sunday, Apr. 24 at Harper Studio Theatre in the UAA Fine Arts Building (3700 Alumni...
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Stemming the tide of childhood trauma [ADN.com]
As parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, neighbors and community members, we all know children and care about their well-being. Likely all of us know at least one child who struggles in school, who acts out in class or shuts down and withdraws, who often goes to the nurse or goes home sick, and who shows up at school late many days — if at all. Perhaps we find ourselves wondering what is the most likely cause of all these different problems and what we can possibly do to help. The good...
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Story about the Aleut Community of St. Paul in The Guardian
This story, told compellingly for The Guardian by Alaskan journalists Jill Burke and Ash Adams , shows the power that communities, tribes, and individuals hold for healing from child maltreatment and intergenerational trauma, and the importance of funding community-led solutions. This story was made possible in part through travel support from the Alaska Resilience Initiative , via funding from the Health Federation of Philadelphia Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities project. ...
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Suicide Rates Rise in the U.S.
I became extremely interested in suicide prevention after two of my young cousins committed suicide within six months of each other. I began to study the current state of suicide prevention in 2008 and began to envision what I refer to as a future state in about 2009. I wrote a very quick paper summarizing my research because two of my dear friends were deeply engaged in suicide prevention, one as chair of a prevention task force and the other as a teacher, coach and mentor. I gave three...
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Superhero Dreams to Statewide network: My Story of the Alaska Resilience Initiative
I wanted to share with all of you the blog post I wrote about the Alaska Resilience Initiative for the Alaska Children's Trust blog. It's part personal story, part history of this Initiative, part updates on our work and guiding values. https://blog.alaskachildrenstrust.org/2017/06/14/superhero-dreams-to-statewide-network-my-story-of-the-alaska-resilience-initiative/
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Support needed for HCR 21 (ACEs Bill) -- incl. testimony THIS Saturday
1.) Write a letter of support for HCR 21. Please email them to Rep. Tarr's office as soon as possible so we can add them to the bill packet.
2.) If there’s an opportunity to give public testimony, please send Rep. Tarr's aide your name and contact number before Wednesday, March 30th.
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Taking the Next First Step to Healing Communities in Alaska
On the heels of a state policy victory , grassroots advocacy led by the Alaska Resilience Initiative continues to move toward the goal of systemic change by publishing a brief for people who occupy strategic positions across the state. While Alaska Senate Bill 105 builds a framework for changing the system, that's only a beginning. A new document, “ Toward a Trauma-Informed, Resilient, and Culturally-Responsive Alaska ,” authored by Andrea Blanch, is designed to help elected officials,...
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Thoughts on Trauma Work as I Say Farewell to the Alaska Resilience Initiative
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.
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U.S. Senator Heitkamp spreads the word about trauma to Senate colleagues and urges advocates to do more
At a March 8 breakfast meeting in Washington, D.C., the featured speakers—U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota (left) and Judith Sandalow, Executive Director of the DC Children’s Law Center (CLC)—used the vivid image of children growing up with “black mold climbing the walls,” referring to unsafe physical and emotional environments at home and in communities, exacerbated by poverty but not limited to poor households. Heitkamp described how the science now explains what we already...
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Addictive Behaviors, Childhood & Trauma Experiences Impact on Suicide
September 8, 2016 - Anchorage, AK September 9, 2016 – Fairbanks, AK Alaska Federal Health Care Partnership will be hosting a workshop focused on the impacts of addictive behaviors and childhood trauma on suicide. Dr. Donald Warne comes from a long line of traditional Lakota healers. Dr. Warne holds an MD from Stanford University and a Master of Public Health from Harvard University. He is also a Diplomate of both the American Board of Family Practice and the American Board of Medical...
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Re: Expansion of ACEs in Alaska
Thanks Will for sharing this great news. Look forward to learning more about what the additional resources will mean for the movement in Alaska. Elizabeth
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Re: ACTcosts_brief.pdf
Thanks so much, Laura! Great timing as I was going to e-mail you to ask about accessing PDFs which we will include in our community education toolkit for domestic violence advocates!
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Re: Alaska Native & Native American gathering on trauma and resilience in AK
Thanks for posting this, Laura. I'm looking forward to reading the detailed proceedings. Cheers, Jane
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Re: Taking the Next First Step to Healing Communities in Alaska
@Elizabeth Prewitt PACEsConnection writer