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From Oakland Unified School District, March 16, 2020 During the COVID-19 closure, our Nutrition Services Department will open twelve schools throughout the city where “Grab and Go” breakfast and lunch meals will be available for all OUSD students or families and any Oakland child under 18. To ensure the least amount of contact, students do not need to be present to pick up food. The sites listed below will be open on Mondays and Thursdays from 8:00am to 12:00pm. Multiple days worth of food...

On Sunday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom asked people over the age of 65 and people with chronic conditions to isolate themselves at home to reduce the risk of becoming infected, asked bars, wineries, night clubs and brew pubs to close, and called for restaurants to reduce their occupancy by half . In his Sunday mid-day press conference, Gov. Newsom gave updates on CA COVID-19 cases, preparations of state hospitals and ventilator capacity and a new partnership with Verily to offer a pilot...

reposted from https://positiveexperience.org/ This has been quite a week, and we are now facing major disruptions in our own family lives. There is no doubt that the events of this winter and spring will be memorable for children. In that spirit, here are a few ideas to help make those memories (at least somewhat) happy. Addressing Children’s Fears Parents can do a lot to answer children’s fears. Here are the facts as we know them: although COVID-19 is certainly frightening, it is very...

By Blaine Corren, California Courts Newsroom, March 4, 2020 A two-day event organized by the Judicial Council recently brought together teams from 10 counties to focus awareness on student suspension rates and chronic absenteeism in rural communities. The event, held Feb. 27–28 in Sacramento, enabled rural county representatives to learn about the work of the Chief Justice's Keeping Kids in School and Out of Court initiative. "We know that since 2013 chronic truancy and absenteeism, at least...

By The Times Editorial Board, Los Angeles Times, March 8, 2020 Imagine a woman named Monica. She trudges up the steps toward the courthouse door but stops short, overcome by a feeling of dread. Each time she’d walked through that door in the past she’d had to leave behind something of value before she could walk out again. Once it was the money for next month’s rent, because she had to pay a traffic fine. And then it was her apartment itself, because she was too many months in arrears. And,...

In January, California took a historic leap forward to promote universal ACEs screening of the state’s 13 million adults and children in the Medi-Cal program. The eventual goal is to promote ACEs screening for all patients, but this is a first step in dealing with a major issue that ACEs science has identified: that many children will develop serious health problems later in life because the healthcare system is not currently set up to detect the roots of those problems. The term ACEs, which...

The California Office of the Surgeon General (OSG) is creating a report to be published in the summer of 2020. The report will feature the public health response to preventing and mitigating Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress—tentatively titled “ Halving the Burden of ACEs and Toxic Stress in a Generation—California’s Blueprint for an ACEs-Aware Public Health Movement .” An important portion of the report will be dedicated to outlining primary, secondary, and tertiary...

ACEs Aware is excited to share the news that Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed 2020-2021 budget includes a proposed $10 million expenditure for the development of cross-sector trainings and a public awareness campaign. This allocation is intended to further support the goal of cutting ACEs and toxic stress in half in a generation through raising awareness and strengthening response networks. As an extension of the ACEs Aware initiative, the California Surgeon General will engage leading...

Budget committees in the California Legislature are currently considering the proposals in the Governor’s January budget and receiving input from advocates and stakeholders. TOMORROW, March 12, the Senate Budget Subcommittee on Health & Human Services will hold a hearing starting at 9:30am (or upon adjournment of the floor session) in room 4203 of the State Capitol. The agenda can be found here . Starting on page 8 of the agenda, you’ll see discussion of the Office of the Surgeon...

Thank you to all those who joined us on Thursday February 27, 2020 for the third of our 4-part SoCal Learning Community series: Re-visioning Prevention: Exploring Systems Innovation and Best Practices in the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect Visit this link to access the recording, resources and materials, https://conta.cc/2TFqmdR Shawndi Johnson, Dads Matter Program Manager, shared with us the critical importance of engaging fathers in the process of sharing services, family healing,...

Santa Rosa, CA, resident Lisa Marden watches her 15-month-old baby gleefully play with magic markers and relays how she’s been coping with feeling anxious. (We're using a pseudonym to protect the family's privacy.) “I’m just super stressed out with everything, and as soon as I eat anything, I get nauseous, so I’ve been eating snacks instead of meals,” she explains to Liz George, a field nurse with the Maternal/Child Field Nursing team of Sonoma County, CA, who has been seeing Marden on home...

From Pasadena Now, March 9, 2020 As upwards of 18,000 children now move through the LA County Foster Care system, it has long meant that those young people may continually bounce from home to home, with an ever-dwindling number of care providers among the County’s 88 cities. But now the State is almost three years into implementing a new system with one simple goal—to move foster children into “forever families,” or long-term homes, more swiftly. The lofty aim requires a massive budget, a...