Blog

The Office of Child Abuse Prevention (OCAP ) oversees California’s three Citizen Review Panels (CRPs). Each one focuses on a specific topic: child and family services, the prevention of child abuse and neglect, and critical incidents. The responsibilities of the CRPs involve evaluating child welfare policies, practices, and procedures, assessing systemic barriers, and making recommendations to improve and remove barriers. The CRPs can make recommendations that will improve the lives of...

By Laura Mucha, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), January 2021 Why is love so important in childhood? In this ground-breaking new series by UNICEF, Laura Mucha – author, poet and children’s advocate – interviews some of the world’s leading experts to find out. The series sets out to cover how adversity impacts us as children and the adults we become, what we can do to protect and improve young people’s mental health, and why safe and loving relationships are so vital for children’s...

From Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, January 5, 2021 Purpose Research shows that the earliest years of life are a critical period of human development. Young children’s earliest relationships and experiences have a strong influence on brain development and future health and well-being (Harvard University Center on the Developing Child 2016). Young children’s foundational relationships and experiences occur in the context of families and communities. Yet, some families do not have access to...

By Jane C. Hu, Outside Online, December 3, 2020 When Aimee Gray woke up on a Sunday morning in October 2017, she decided she was finally going to get a new pair of shoes. She’d worn holes in her favorite Skechers, so when she and her husband headed into town for groceries, she stopped in the shoe store and treated herself to two new pairs. As they drove back to the home they rented on Bennett Ridge Road, in the hills southeast of Santa Rosa, California, her husband remarked on the strange,...

We're excited to share this behind-the-scenes story of how the Ready4K team collaborated with First 5 Del Norte to create the country's first trauma-informed text message support program! Hear directly from Angela Glore, executive director of First 5 Del Norte, about how she and her partner organizations worked together to connect the dots between community health goals and early learning opportunities. It's a fascinating story of how this rural community set out a big, hairy, audacious goal...

Northern California ACEs Aware is a network of community leaders in health, education, and trauma-informed care. We’re working to share resources and communications, as well as to provide ACEs training for your teams. Please help us get the word out about our training activities. SIGN UP AT - www.norcalaces.org UPCOMING TRAINING ACTIVITIES Trauma Informed Care 101 (two times available) January 20th – 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM January 30th – 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM Led by Nick Dalton of Hanna Institute,...

The Community of Practice (C of P) is an interdisciplinary, online platform for adults who are important to children. Among other topics, we explore how systems, environments, and documentation shape early childhood learning and wellness. We grow our ability to be curious about children's full-being, inherent wisdom by being curious about our own ways of knowing and inquiring. We are peer accompaniment with each other - support for the supporters of children, families, and communities. Join...

By Ali Tadayon and Sydney Johnson, EdSource, January 4, 2021 C alifornia school districts and cities that are grappling with unequal internet access among their students during the pandemic are taking it upon themselves to solve the problem. Early on, schools often gave individual hotspots to students who don’t have the means to access the internet at home. But service can be patchy and expensive. So, some communities — San Jose, West Contra Costa County, Kings County and Oakland among...

By Karen D'Souza, EdSource, January 5, 2021 Throwing a tantrum, crying inconsolably, hitting or biting, and refusing to follow the rules are challenging behaviors that many preschoolers experience on the playground and in the classroom. For many children, these tear-stained incidents are quickly forgiven and forgotten, dismissed by caregivers as yet another tumultuous developmental stage to be weathered. But for some youngsters, the incidents have repercussions that resonate throughout their...

(l to r) Elaine Miller Karas co-developer of CRM; Jim Sporleder, former principal of Walla Walla High School; and Edwin Weaver at the 2018 ACEs Conference & Pediatric Symposium in San Francisco. After watching the late Jamie Redford’s 2015 film, “ Paper Tigers ,” about a Washington state high school where ACEs integration transformed graduation rates, Edwin Weaver knew he had to take action. Weaver is the executive director of Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley , providing social services...

I would like to invite you a special live event from Paradigm Shift Education through he Trauma Informed Educators Network Podcast on January 28, 2021 at 6pm CST. Podcast host and trauma-informed principal, Mathew Portell, will engage three experts in the field a special live podcast which will be streamed on Facebook ( Paradigm Shift Education , Trauma Informed Educators Network , and Trauma Informed Educators Network Podcast) , YouTube ( Paradigm Shift Education ), and Periscope! Dr. Lori...

By Jarod Kawasaki, EdSource, January 4, 2021 California requires 600 hours of student teaching, nearly double the requirement of other states. Student teachers are not paid and student teaching typically lasts for an entire academic year. Thus, most teacher candidates cannot work and student teach at the same time (or it is very difficult to do so). Taking a year off of work is a barrier for potential teachers, especially teachers of color, wanting to enter the teaching profession. Every...