Tagged With "prevent mass shootings"
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A Public School That Not Only Keeps Children Safe, But Heals [nonprofitquarterly.org]
After the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida earlier this year, schools are at the epicenter of national debates on gun violence and mental health. How can teachers and administrators deal with troubled students? And how can they make schools safer for all? It’s not the first time that schools have been asked to address social problems that originate far outside their hallways. In a nation where more than 40 percent of kids are from low-income families, school teachers and...
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Back to Our Roots: Catalyzing Community Action for Mental Health and Wellbeing [preventioninstitute.org]
Mental health is at the heart many of the challenges we face, including trauma and adverse childhood experiences, social isolation, institutionalized bias and discrimination, and ‘diseases of despair’ that manifest in depression, suicide, and substance misuse. Addressing social determinants of health is key to helping communities navigate adversity, heal, and flourish. PI’s new report, Back to Our Roots: Catalyzing Community Action for Mental Health and Wellbeing , illustrates how improving...
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Bankruptcy and privatization will not lead us to recovery. [preventioninstitute.org]
By Rachel A. Davis, Prevention Institute, May 7, 2020 My father, a farmer, called me a few weeks ago to share that he had just stopped picking mid-harvest because of disruptions in produce distribution lines due to the coronavirus pandemic. I felt concerned for my family, for other farmers, and for families across the country that were struggling to feed their children. In the meantime, my sister, the ranch manager, spent days personally handpicking and boxing 1,600 pounds of the unpicked...
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Big Ideas - Center for Violence Prevention Research [bigideas.ucdavis.edu]
From Big Ideas, University of California at Davis, May 2020 Dr. Garen Wintemute is a leading expert on gun violence as well as a practicing emergency medicine physician and the director of the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program. He and his colleagues will discuss the latest findings in developing evidence-based, non-partisan solutions to violence that will enable us to build safer communities. Date of event: May 27, 2020 12:00 PM [ Please click here to register .]
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Bill On Governor’s Desk Aims To Reduce Childhood Trauma By Diverting Parents Into Treatment, Instead Of Prison [witnessla.com]
By Taylor Walker, Witness LA, September 13, 2019 An estimated 10 million US children have parents who are currently locked up, or who have previously been incarcerated. A bill currently on Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk, SB 394, seeks to reduce the number of parents and children separated by incarceration by boosting diversion. Children arguably suffer the worst consequences of mass incarceration. In 2014, a UC Irvine study found that having a parent behind bars can be more damaging to a kid’s...
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Borderline Task Force Identifies Steps Aimed at Stopping Mass Shootings [vcstar.com]
By Kathleen Wilson, Ventura County Star, November 5, 2019 A Ventura County task force formed to prevent mass shootings has identified changes to be made in safety measures and mental health treatment in the wake of the Borderline attack. Possibilities include the opening of outpatient psychiatric centers by both private and public hospitals and a pilot program to streamline the process for seizing guns from people legally barred from having them. Officials also are looking at an awareness...
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"Building Violence Free Schools & Communities " ONE DAY CONFERENCE!
Tulare County CAPC is proud to provide this ONE DAY conference on "Building Violence Free Schools & Communities" featuring 3 nationally know speakers with first hand experience and expertise in the field of violence prevention. Dr. Melissa Reeves (Columbine, CO shooting) Scarlett Lewis (Parent of a child lost in Sandy Hook shooting) and Clayton Douglas (former student who planned a shooting) will provide us with critical knowledge and skills in violence prevention. **** FLYER AND...
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Built Environment Policy Advocacy Fund (BEPAF) Program Overview [preventioninstitute.org]
By Prevention Institute, January 2020 The BEPAF Request for Proposals was released on January 8, 2020 and can be accessed in the list of Resources on this page. The BEPAF Informational Webinar for Applicants will be held on January 13, 2020, from 10:00-11:00am. Register at www.tinyurl.com/BEPAFLOIWebinar . A recording of the webinar will be posted here on January 14. Please contact BEPAF@preventioninstitute.org for additional information. Built Environment Policy Advocacy Fund (BEPAF)...
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Access the California Department of Social Services, Office of Child Abuse Prevention’s Data Dashboard!
The California Department of Social Services, Office of Child Abuse Prevention (CDSS/OCAP), has developed a new County Prevention Data Dashboard to identify areas of strength and need pertaining to the prevention of child maltreatment across California. This tool presents relevant data in one location for primary and secondary prevention planning purposes and shares indicators of major risk and protective factors for child abuse and neglect, social determinants of health, and early stages of...
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Cal WORKs Training Academy: Compassion Fatigue
Front-line and case workers for the TANF program (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) are at high risk for compassion fatigue. They hear approximately 30 stories of trauma, abuse and hardship each day. Complaints from workers vary from “How many stories of torture will have to I hear.” “It feels like I am spitting at a forest fire.” “After 12 years in the field, I am now on blood pressure medication.” This year the Cal WORKs Training Academy featured a workshop on compassion fatigue...
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California considers prohibiting immigration enforcement at public schools and hospitals (latimes.com)
California would create "safe zones" prohibiting immigration enforcement on public schools, hospital and courthouse grounds under a new bill by state Senate leader Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) that is sure to clash with the tough enforcement plans of President-elect Donald Trump . By also proposing to bar state and local law enforcement from enforcing immigration laws, De León is doubling down on the issue at a time when Trump has threatened to withhold federal funding from “sanctuary...
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California Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative’s “Enhancing the Collective Vision” Slides Are Available and Opportunity to Participate in an Orientation Webinar
The California Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative convened more than 65 stakeholders on Friday, July 12, 2019 to assess the current state of collective action around adverse childhood experiences (ACEs); align EfC Initiative goals and project interventions with existing efforts; identify mutually reinforcing activities; and establish a collective agreement on how to strategically promote Safe, Stable, Nurturing Relationships, and Environments (SSNR&E), to prevent and reduce child...
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Update: Stand Up for Immigrant Families in California [The Children's Movement in CA]
Two weeks ago, the President announced that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would begin the process of deporting millions of undocumented immigrants across the country. While these raids were temporarily halted, new information suggests that ICE may begin conducting enforcement actions in 10 cities, including San Francisco, as early as this Sunday, July 14. In California, where many kids are growing up in “mixed status” families (where some members are citizens and others are...
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Updated Community Health Assessment now available [Humboldtgov.org]
The Community Health Assessment (CHA), a comprehensive overview of the health of the Humboldt County community, was presented at the Board of Supervisors meeting this afternoon. The Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) Public Health report looks at traditional public health measures of illness, mortality, nutrition and physical activity in the community. The CHA also includes data about income, housing status, community safety and access to care, as underlying...
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WEBINAR: Preventing Child Neglect by Building Protective Factors on 2/14
Join Strengthening Families for a webinar on Thursday, February 14, 12-1pm. Explore ways that it is "Everyone's Responsibility" to help prevent child neglect and how building protective factors at all levels of the social ecology can be an effective strategy to prevent child neglect. The session will include segments from one of the training sequences from the National Alliance of Children's Trust and Prevention Funds' new four-part training, "Let's Talk About . . . Preventing Child...
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Webinar recording available: Making Meaningful Change—Addressing ACEs through Public Policy
On February 18, 2020, nationally recognized experts discussed policy and advocacy strategies on local, state, and national levels using evidence from studies they have conducted with legislators and the general public. Speakers shared advocacy and messaging "how to’s" including communicating the effects of structural racism as an ACE, fostering equity as an essential component of resilience, and leveraging the power of community-based ACE, trauma and resilience networks to inform policy.
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Webinar Slides and Recording: Transformational Resilience for Climate Change Traumas and Toxic Stresses with Bob Doppelt
Recorded live October 28, 2019. Find the slides attached below. The webinar recording: You will learn: how climate change creates personal, family, and community traumas and toxic stresses; how those traumatic stressors trigger feedbacks that expand and aggravate ACEs and many other person, social, community, and societal maladies; why current approaches are woefully inadequate to address what is already occurring and rapidly steaming toward us and why prevention is the only realistic...
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Youth Of Merced Use The Power Of Writing To Illuminate The Human Cost Of Incarceration…& Other Urgent Issues [WitnessLA.com]
Earlier this month, an innovative youth program called We’Ced Youth Media, located in Merced, California, co-hosted an event called #SchoolsnotPrisons Merced. The event’s stated purpose was “to educate the Merced community about the impact of the school-to-prison pipeline and mass incarceration.” A portion of the event included poetry that expressed the pain of incarceration, both for the one who is locked-up, and for those who lose a family member to jail or prison. What is particularly...
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Sonoma County ranks among top 5 healthiest in California [Pressdemocrat.com]
For years, local politicians, county health officials and health care professionals have been talking about making Sonoma County the healthiest county in the state by 2020, a goal that is at the heart of numerous local health, education and socio-economic initiatives. In 2011, Sonoma County ranked 12th among 56 California counties surveyed in the first County Health Rankings by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It took three years for the county to break into the top 10, reaching eighth.
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RYSE Center's Listening Campaign: Young people in Richmond, CA help adults understand trauma, violence, coping, and healing
"My experience with violence is very brutal...I grew up with violence as if it were my sibling." - LC participant (youth) "We know we can't run the city- it's too complex- but our experience and our voices should count, especially because we're the most effected ." - LC participant (youth) "Our city's problems are shared by us all; we are all part of the problem AND the solution. Listening is a key component to healing." - LC Share Out partici pant (adult) Three years ago, RYSE Center in...
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RYSE gathering: To promote healing from trauma, institutions need to stop seeing youth as the problem
A young man told clinical therapist Marissa Snoddy recently that when she calls him a leader, she got it all wrong. “He said, ‘I just came from Juvenile Hall,’ I’m not a leader.” But, she said, “We just kept giving him love. And we said, ‘You’re courageous for showing up and being here,’” The very fact that he was there, she explained, showed he was a leader. Snoddy related the anecdote recently for 80 people attending the Trauma and Learning Series launch led by Rising Youth for Social...
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Saint Joseph Health Hospice Offers Gentle Reminders on Self Care
In the midst of the devastating fires that continue to threaten our county, we at St. Joseph Health Hospice Grief Services would like to offer a few gentle grief reminders for anyone touched by these events . Whether you personally have experienced a loss, you are supporting others, or even witnessing the events remember: We all grieve differently, and ALL grief is valid. Extreme Self Care While chaos is swirling we must try to drink plenty of water , eat whenever possible, sleep even if...
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San Francisco Declares the N.R.A. a ‘Domestic Terrorist Organization’ [nytimes.com]
By Mariel Padilla, The New York Times, September 4, 2019 Unsettled by recent mass shootings across the nation, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution this week declaring the National Rifle Association a domestic terrorist organization. The resolution was introduced by Supervisor Catherine Stefani on July 30, two days after a shooting at a garlic festival in Gilroy, Calif., in which three people were killed and more than a dozen others injured. Before the...
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Santa Clara Supes put $200K Toward Pilot Program for Attempted Strangling Victims [mv-voice.com]
By Bay City News and Mountain View Voice Staff, Mountain View Voice, December 11, 2019 Santa Clara County Supervisors Tuesday allocated $200,000 to a new pilot program to help domestic violence victims whose partner tried to strangle them. The county will partner with the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office and the Santa Clara Police Department to respond to victims who are 12 years old and older. Law enforcement officers will ask victims if they consent to a hospital visit, and will be...
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Save the Life of Your Child
Some of my colleagues and I have developed a process and program called, "Design Thinking Suicide Prevention," that we have been presenting at mental health conferences . The reason for it is that we have discovered that certain words scare too many people who don't have to deal with mental issues in their family (although that number is becoming smaller and smaller). In fact, just the word "mental" causes people to run for the hills unless it directly affects them or a family member. Design...
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The 14th Annual Cynthia Lockhart-Mummery Conference: Building Violence-Free Schools and Communities
The 14th Annual Cynthia Lockhart-Mummery Conference hosted by Tulare County Child Abuse Prevention Council (CAPC) began with a 2 hour presentation by Alissa Parker, co-founder of Safe and Sound Schools and the mother of a young child lost during the Sandy Hook school mass shooting. The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, United States, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people, including 20 children between six and seven...
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Time, money and a ‘culture shift:’ How three California police departments overhauled their policies [sacbee.com]
In Los Angeles, police can’t always shoot at moving vehicles. San Francisco banned choke holds. Stockton officers are required to intervene if their colleagues use excessive force. They are among the California police departments that cracked down on deadly force policies following controversies similar to Stephon Clark’s death in Sacramento in March 2018. Two officers shot and killed Clark, a 22-year-old unarmed black man, after chasing him into his grandmother’s backyard and mistaking his...
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Toxic stress from El Paso, Dayton, Gilroy shootings addressed in Thursday Community Resiliency Model Webinar
An ACEs Connection webinar will offer helpful self-regulation tools to those rocked by recent shootings in Gilroy, CA, El Paso, TX , and Dayton, OH. The Building Resilient Communities webinar is offered by ACEs Connection this Thursday, August 9, at 10:00 AM PDT / 1 :00 PM E D and will last approximately 1 hour. Elaine Miller-Karas will teach her Community Resilienc y Mode l. Find registration details below. This webinar is free and open to the public. It serves professionals and community...
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UC Davis to Launch Gun Violence Research Center [California Health Online]
University of California officials Monday announced that UC Davis will establish the West Coast’s first research center dedicated to preventing gun violence. UC President Janet Napolitano said the center will be led by Dr. Garen Wintemute, an internationally known epidemiologist and emergency room physician who gathers and analyzes gun violence data with an eye toward prevention. The new California Firearm Violence Research Center will be funded by $5 million in taxpayer funds allocated over...
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Undocumented students react with fear and anger to election results [EdSource.org]
Marcos Mohammad, a senior at Berkeley High School, had a question the morning after Donald J. Trump was elected president of the United States: “How will he find me?” asked Mohammad, an undocumented immigrant from Peru. He walked along a wooded path on the UC Berkeley campus with six of his high school friends, all of them undocumented immigrants, all members of the small Newcomers Program for immigrants at Berkeley High and all of them anxious. They carried signs — “Love still trumps hate”...
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Disaster Days: How Megafires, Guns and Other 21st Century Crises are Disrupting CA Schools [capradio.org]
By Ricardo Cano, CalMatters, September 17, 2019 Each year, millions of Californians send their children to public K-12 classrooms, assuming that, from around Labor Day to early summer, there will be one given: A school day on a district’s calendar will mean a day of instruction in school. But that fixed point is changing, according to a CalMatters analysis of public school closures. From massive wildfires to mass shooting threats to dilapidated classrooms, the 21st century is disrupting...
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Early Discount 20th Annual Families & Fathers Conference
Call to action- Fathers and Families Coalition of America is nearing the 20th Annual Families and Fathers Conference, March 4-7, 2019 in Los Angeles, California with a comprehensive program that hosts presenters from the United Kingdom, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Bolivia and throughout the United States. We are providing the conference information for your consideration to participate. We are asking you to share this conference information with your community...
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Ella Baker Truth and Reinvestment Justice Teams underway in 8 CA Counties
There are various forms of emergency preparedness for natural disasters. From an early age, one learns how to put out a fire, board up their home if a hurricane or tornado is coming, or drop under a desk if an earthquake hits—but low-income communities of color have little to no response to more frequent incidences of state violence in the streets and inside of jails. The Justice Teams for Truth and Reinvestment will be the local rapid response networks inside of eight different counties...
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Leaders in SF public housing deal with their own and community trauma head on
Sengthong Sithounnolat, Jeris Woodson, Donald Greene, Ashley Blanco On a recent Saturday, 10 people gather around a table at the offices of Trauma Transformed in Oakland, Calif., where quotes from figures like Frederick Douglas, Nelson Mandela, and Coretta Scott King grace one wall as light streams in from a skylight above. The group is known as the Resident Warriors, which meets weekly. One participant talks of her recovery from addiction and her mother’s murder. Another mentions being...
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National Child Abuse Prevention Month website
The National Child Abuse Prevention Month (NCAPM) website is now live! Check it out and get started planning your April activities. https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/preventing/preventionmonth/
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New Prevention Institute Report Offers Framework for Preventing Community Trauma, Building Resilience
A new Prevention Institute report, featured Wednesday in USA Today , offers a groundbreaking framework for understanding the relationship between community trauma and violence. In doing so, the report provides insight into how we can overcome the inequities that contribute to a cycle of inner-city gun violence, poverty, unemployment, and poor health in communities of color. As additional treatment models are developed for individual trauma, there is a growing need for addressing trauma as a...
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NPPC shares lessons learned and results from ACEs screening pilot sites
For Dr. Mercie Digangi, a pediatrician at Kaiser Southern California in Downey, CA, ACEs screening provided a crystal clear before-and-after in how she changed treatment plans for her pediatric patients, she explained to attendees of a December 2 webinar organized by the National Pediatric Practice Community on ACEs (NPPC) and cosponsored by ACEs Connection. Dr. Mercie Digangi One case that turned ACEs screening into a never-go-back moment for her was a three-year-old who was speech-delayed.
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OCAP Buzz: Child Abuse Prevention Month Materials
The California Department of Social Services, Office of Child Abuse Prevention (OCAP) just released their newsletter with information about the upcoming Child Abuse Prevention month in April 2017. Please check out the attached PDF for more information on materials to help #unite4kids to prevent child abuse and neglect for all California children and families.
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OCAP has a new strategic plan! [cdss.ca.gov]
From Office of Child Abuse Prevention, California Department of Social Services, May 12, 2020 The OCAP Strategic Plan The OCAP would like to announce the release of our 2020 – 2025 Strategic Plan. This plan details the OCAP’s goals and objectives for the next five years. The vision for this plan is for public systems, private citizens, business and communities to work together in unity to improve programs and services throughout the state to strengthen children and families. The OCAP will...
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One year after release of PI framework, communities use it to address community trauma, promote resilience (PreventionInstitute.org)
In San Diego, a group is using the ACE|R framework as part of PI’s Making Connections for Mental Health and Wellbeing among Men and Boys initiative , funded by the Movember Foundation. Jama Mohamed, Program Coordinator for the San Diego initiative, describes how community environments can produce and exacerbate trauma among refugees: “When you look at a community that has actually experienced trauma, and you put them in an environment like this, it’s not for us to question their behaviors,”...
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Opinion: Let's Listen to Survivors and Prevent Domestic Violence in Future Generations [calhealthreport.org]
By Krista Niemczyk, California Health Report, January 3, 2020 Survivors often tell us that they want to prevent anyone else from experiencing the pain they went through. “Bring in guest speakers to high schools on domestic violence,” one survivor requested, when asked about how we can move toward a future free from domestic violence. “Chances are, there are students, like my children, who are going through it with their mom and they don’t know what it is that they’re going through.” Domestic...
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Opinion: Screenings Alone Won’t Prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences—We Must Address Community Trauma [calhealthreport.org]
By Rachel A. Davis and Howard Pinderhughes, California Health Report, December 19, 2019 Earlier this month, California’s Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris launched an ambitious campaign to reduce adverse childhood experiences, which can cause lifelong health problems. With more than 60 percent of Californians saying they were exposed to a traumatic childhood event, adverse childhood experiences are at crisis levels in the state. The ACEs Aware campaign will train and pay health care...
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Opinion: Suicide Prevention Requires Caring Neighbors and Friends [eastbaytimes.com]
By Narges Zohoury Dillon, East Bay Times, September 25, 2019 I find that I have some of the most meaningful conversations with near strangers when I tell them that I work in the field of suicide prevention. So often, people share that they have lost a loved one to suicide or that they have struggled with their own mental health challenges. On an Uber ride from the airport, a driver shared with me a history of trauma and suicidal thinking and her hope to go back to school so she could help...
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Orange County Human Relations Campaign Provides a 'Toolkit' for Schools to Prevent Hate Crimes [latimes.com]
By Ben Brazil, Los Angeles Times, November 14, 2019 In response to increasing hate crimes and incidents, Orange County Human Relations is rolling out its first statewide anti-hate program to equip schools with the resources to launch their own educational and awareness campaigns. The nonprofit will provide schools with a “toolkit” that contains the necessary components for an anti-hate campaign, including templates, documents, posters and digital content. O.C. Human Relations staff will hold...
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Overview of the 2016 Project on Behavioral Health Services For Children and Youth in California [dhcs.ca.gov]
The California Behavioral Health Planning Council (Council) is under federal and state mandate to advocate on behalf of adults with severe mental illness and children with severe emotional disturbance and their families. The Council is also statutorily required to advise the Legislature on behavioral health issues, policies and priorities in California. The Council advocates for an accountable system of seamless, responsive services that are strength-based, consumer and family member driven,...
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Paradise students get substance abuse, disaster trauma help [chicoer.com]
By Natalie Hanson, Chico Enterprise-Record, May 9, 2020 Butte County’s Office of Education has gotten a $1 million grant to help students on the Paradise ridge get services for substance abuse and disaster-related trauma. The Office of Education applied for the 18-month grant, targeted specifically for areas that have experienced disaster, to continue the support process of recovery for ridge schools, students and families. It will focus on four areas for services: Substance abuse services...
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Pelosi, Speier talk gun control at a San Francisco town hall [San Francisco Chronicle]
(From left to right) State Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris, Rep. Jackie Speier, and Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, participate in a town hall meeting on gun violence at Lincoln High School in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, August 27 Photo: Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle Editor's note: In her role as state surgeon general, Dr. Harris addressed gun violence as preventable and important to treat as a public health issue. She said that in 2017, there were...
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Personal stories from witnesses, U.S. representatives provided an emotional wallop to House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on childhood trauma
Room erupts in applause for the grandmother of witness William Kellibrew during July 11 House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing. The power of personal stories from witnesses and committee members fueled the July 11 hearing on childhood trauma in the House Oversight and Reform Committee* throughout the nearly four hours of often emotional and searing testimony and member questions and statements (Click here for 3:47 hour video). The hearing was organized into a two panels—testimony from...
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Preventing Violence in Our Homes [preventioninstitute.org]
By Prevention Institute, April 2020 Children, youth, and families are experiencing intensified stresses and new traumas as our country and the entire world work to contain the novel coronavirus and save lives. With more and more families experiencing unemployment, housing insecurity, and hunger—and many people restricted to their homes and limited in their social interactions, risks for violence and abuse in the home are likely to be on the rise. In this web conference, speakers will talk...
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Prevention: Bringing Baby Home Training of Faciliators
A friend of mine recently referred her grandchild and his pregnant wife to a Bringing Baby Home class, because she noticed that the wife had a horrible background of abuse and at times had difficulty functioning. What the grandmother noticed with this couple was a change in the family dynamics. the couple knows how to get along, the father is engaged in parenting, and the baby thriving. This is really starting at the root of the problem. 20 years ago, Drs. John and Julie Gottman worked with...