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From Pediatric Brain Health Summit, February 2020 The 2020 Pediatric Brain Health (PBH) Summit is being held March 23-24 at the AT&T Executive Conference Center in Austin, Texas. The purpose of the Summit is to bring together community-based organizations and health care professionals from around the state to discuss and learn about strategies for promoting PBH. Thanks to generous support from the conference partners, registration is free and includes breakfast, lunch, conference...

By Keri Blakinger, The Marshall Project, February 25, 2020 Beto O’Rourke lost Texas in 2018. But his unsuccessful Senate bid led to a big change in the state’s largest city: a major overhaul of the criminal-justice system. The candidacy of O’Rourke, a young and charismatic congressman, energized Democratic voters in this red state and added momentum to a slowly-building blue wave in Harris County. The victorious Houston-area Democrats—including 59 judges and the county’s top executive—have...

By TCR Staff, The Crime Report, February 7, 2020 Thousands of Texas schoolchildren—many of them African Americans— are victimized by “zero tolerance” school discipline policies that land them in the criminal justice system, says the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition (TCJC). In a new report, the TCJC found that the over-reliance on police to impose discipline inside classrooms resulted in 144, 432 students from Pre-Kindergarden to 5th grade receiving in-school suspensions between 2015 and...

Stay current with ACEs Connection -- and easily share stories via social media and email -- by accessing ACEs Connection and/or your community’s home page on your phone. Adding an ACEs Connection shortcut to your phone works for iPhone and Android systems and makes staying logged in, checking in, and sharing out quick and easy, on-the-go! Community managers: Share this post with community members, as using the shortcut is a great way to help your members stay abreast of what’s going on! On...

CTIPP (Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice) today announced the launch of the National Trauma Campaign , calling for federal action to prevent and address childhood trauma and build resilience through educating and engaging Congress. Its widely circulated communication invited people from around the country to join the new grassroots initiative. The campaign provides ways for everyone to get involved by joining the effort, becoming a Local Liaison to take the lead in every state...

More than a decade ago, I was diagnosed with several autoimmune diseases, one after another, including Guillain-Barré syndrome , which left me paralyzed twice while raising two young children. All told I spent six years in and out of bed and hospitals, learning, between crises, to use a cane or walker to navigate life as a working-mother-with-chronic-illness. My immune system was repeatedly and mistakenly attacking my body, causing the nerves in my arms, legs, and those I needed to swallow...

(retrieved from https://www.expressnews.com/news/education/article/UT-San-Antonio-researchers-pilot-ways-to-help-15015016.php#photo-18954339 ) Before 12-year-old Rihanna Briseño started taking classes at Good Samaritan Community Services, she was quick to dislike people and get angry. The Rhodes Middle School sixth-grader didn’t know why, but sometimes her brain told her the right thing was to beat another kid up. “I would say those things that I’m not going to say now,” Rihanna told the...

SAN FRANCISCO , Jan. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ The Center for Youth Wellness announces the release of an in-depth study on the health-related cost of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in the state of California . A number of studies have investigated the cost of child maltreatment, but the current study, entitled " Adult health burden and costs in California during 2013 associated with prior adverse childhood experiences ," is the first to examine the cost associated with adult health...

Photo credit: Texasarchitects.org An updated map of laws and resolutions addressing ACEs science and trauma-informed policies is now available in the “Laws and Resolutions” section of Map the Movement (you can also find "Map the Movement" on the navigation bar on the ACEs Connection home page). The earliest law on the map was passed in the state of Washington in 2011, creating an ACEs science public-private partnership. The data base of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) is...

We are proud to celebrate the 71 community initiatives that joined the ACEs Connection network in 2019. They are listed below, and can be found along with all existing ACEs Connection communities via the ACEs Connection map. Communities in the United States: Midwest ACEs Indiana Coalition Ardmore (OK) Behavioral Health Collaborative: Chisago County (MN) ACEs Initiative Franciscan Health ACEs Connection FH–Jasper & Newton Counties (IN ) FH–LaPorte County (IN) FH–Lake County (IN)...

By Renee Ryberg, Nadia Orfali Hall, Claire Kelley, Jessica Warren, and Kristen Harper, Child Trends, January 2020 In 2015, an average 15-year-old could expect to live to age 79. However, teens living in the 1 percent of neighborhoods with the lowest life expectancies could expect to live to 70—a lifespan nine years shorter. Educational attainment, a key social determinant of health, is one of the most powerful predictors of life expectancy. This association has strengthened over the past 20...

By Anastasiya Bolton, KENS5, December 9, 2019 By now, we all know what happens after a mass shooting: The breaking news alerts, social media updates, body counts, thoughts and prayers and the public moves on. The victims, survivors, families, people who witnessed the carnage don’t get to. At least not right away. All need some form of immediate help: Counseling, money, someone to talk to who’s already “been there.” A person to provide insight as to what’s to come emotionally, financially and...