Tagged With "child abuse victims"
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2 Webinars from Strategies 2.0
Empower Latin American Communities to Prevent Sex Trafficking 10am to 11:30am on 6/13/19 A 90-minute webinar focusing on the scope and overview of sex trafficking of Mexico and Latin America and how it connects to the United States. This webinar will increase awareness of the vulnerabilities Spanish-speaking populations face, increase access to human trafficking victim and survivor services, and highlight resources/tools to educate Mexican and Latin American communities. Weaving in theory...
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2020 Child Health, Education, and Care Summit [apps.ccfc.ca.gov]
By First 5 of California, October 31, 2019 We invite you to join us for another outstanding Summit at the beautiful Hotel Irvine in Irvine, California, on February 3–5, 2020. The Summit theme, “Equity in Action: Elevating Children, Families, and California’s Workforce,” represents the natural evolution of this statewide event – from building partnerships, to promoting collective impact, to providing leadership around critical programs and investments designed to benefit young children and...
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37th Annual Child Abuse Prevention Symposium Recap
"Speak Out! Confronting the Culture of Child Sexual Abuse and Secrecy" was the theme of Santa Clara County's 37th Annual Child Abuse Prevention Symposium which featured a Keynote conversation with Olympic Gold Medal winning gymnast and current UCLA Assistant Gymnastics Coach Jordyn Wieber. Jordyn, and other athletes and survivors of former USA Gymnastics team doctor and serial child sex abuser Larry Nassar, earlier spoke to a U.S. Senate Subcommittee about a “culture of silence” more...
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40 New California Laws Just Signed By Gov. Brown
40 New California Laws Just Signed By Gov. Brown Gov. Jerry Brown signed several pieces of legislation into law on Sept. 1. Here they are. 0 By Renee Schiavone (Patch Staff) - Updated September 5, 2017 10:00 am ET Share Tweet Google Plus Reddit Email Comments 0 As we turned the page into September, California's governor got a head start on the month by signing more than three dozen bills into law on Friday. Among the 40 pieces of legislation that Jerry Brown approved was a bill aimed at...
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Bad childhood experiences can make us unhealthy [Sacbee.com]
Vincent Felitti, a Kaiser Permanente physician in San Diego in the 1990s, had a radical idea. Instead of just asking patients about their symptoms, what would happen if doctors asked them about their childhoods? His hypothesis, built on a hunch informed by experience, was that childhood trauma was connected to poor health later in life. Felitti helped lead an exhaustive study of 17,000 patients that seemed to confirm his theory. That was in 1998. But for years Felitti’s study and his...
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Black People Disproportionately Homeless in California [calmatters.org]
By Kate Cimini, Cal Matters, October 5, 2019 Just a few years ago, Yolanda Harraway was living in a tent on the streets of Chinatown in Salinas, an agricultural hub struggling with a growing homeless community. Harraway’s slide into homelessness began when her son was taken from her custody by Child Protective Services. She struggled with addiction and had several felonies on her record, which cut her off from various state and government-funded housing options. She also had a hard time...
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BRFSS ACEs Modules in California
In 2008 California was the first and only state to include the ACEs module in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey. The results were reported at a BRFSS conference in 2009. The state also included ACEs modules in...
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Briefs on current adverse childhood experiences in children in selected California cities
Attached are briefs on current ACEs in children in selected California cities, with comparison with state and county data. They were prepared by the Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health, a project of the Child and Adolescent...
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CA announces robust perinatal depression prevention for Medi-Cal recipients
Melinda Coates experienced a tumultuous pregnancy. “I was really mentally upset literally from day one (of the pregnancy),” she says. (Melinda Coates is a pseudonym. To protect her and her children’s privacy and safety, we are not using her real name.) Coates had hoped to get counseling last October, when she was seven months pregnant. That’s when she enrolled in the state’s Medi-Cal program, shortly after she and her abusive husband moved to California, “but nobody was able to get me in...
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CA pediatrician develops, tests, gets state OK for whole-child assessment tool that includes ACEs
Over the last dozen years or so, many pediatricians, astounded by the ramifications of the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on the children they care for, began integrating this science into their practices. The most common approach has been to ask parents about ACEs using a questionnaire, and to use this information to counsel parents and identify resources for the family. Different practices have been using different questionnaires: Some ask parents for their ACE scores...
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CA pediatrician develops, tests, gets state OK for whole-child assessment tool that includes ACEs
[Editor's note: This blog was first posted in April 2017. Dr. Marie-Mitchell updated the assessment by modifying a few of the questions, so we are republishing with the new assessment, one in Spanish and one in English.] Over the last dozen years or so, many pediatricians, astounded by the ramifications of the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on the children they care for, began integrating this science into their practices. The most common approach has been to ask parents...
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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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ACEs Champion Julie Kurtz Gives Every Child (and Adult) a Voice
Julie Kurtz hasn’t stopped creating ways to build and promote resilience in herself and others who have experienced trauma since she left her family home for college at age 18. Although she experienced four types of adversity during her childhood, the CEO of the Center for Optimal Brain Integration has traveled a complex journey to mitigate those adversities by recognizing her own internal resilience, building skills to buffer her toxic and traumatic stress, uncovering her voice through...
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ACEs Science Champion Series: Dr. Angela Bymaster: This Faith-Based Physician Integrates ACEs Science with Healing Arts
Dr. Angela Bymaster, a family physician at Washington Elementary School in San Jose, CA, operates her clinic in a portable unit on the school property.
Because the unit faces students as they are dropped off by their families, she gets to “pick up the kids” before they are sent to the clinic, practicing “upstream medicine.”
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ACEs Within Tribal Communities
Mechuksus, As I write this I am trying to overcome the taboo's within California Tribal Communities that come along with asking the ACE questions. Our traditional societies had very strict factors on what we talked about between male and female relationships as well as outside of the community unit. Unless you work within the wellness realm or you have pursued your own healing many Tribal Communities are unaware of what ACEs are. This is something that my family has pledged to change. My 15...
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Adversity and resiliency: The case for integrating ACEs and Strengthening Families approaches
Attached is the PowerPoint that was presented by Diane Kellegrew, Jane Stevens and Katie Albright in a webinar April 16. And below is the slide that ID's the presenters.
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ACEs Science Champions Series: Allen Nishikawa: ACEs Storyteller Helps People Develop Their Resilience
Sonoma County ACEs Connection members Allen Nishikawa and Lena Hoffman at California Policymaker Education Day, 2018 Allen Nishikawa, a sansei, or third-generation Japanese American, majored in political science and American history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he participated in antiwar (Vietnam) marches. But it was his experience as a military brat — moving from school to school across the U.S. and even to Japan as a child — that shaped his own childhood experiences and...
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Assistance dog trained to help witnesses, victims in Stanislaus County court [Modesto Bee]
The woman, a victim of an assault, sat in the courtrooms witness chair and started to talk. As she told a judge what happened and how it affected her giving whats called a victim impact statement the woman started...
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Cal OES Seeks Requests for Proposals for $2M in Domestic Violence Assistance Program
California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), Victim Services & Public Safety Branch, Domestic Violence Unit is soliciting proposals for the Domestic Violence Assistance (DH) Program for 2018-19. The DH Program provides local assistance to existing domestic violence service providers throughout the State for comprehensive support services , including emergency shelter to victims of domestic violence and their children. The Program also provides support for the development...
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California Funding Opportunity to Help Victims of Human Trafficking Recover
The California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), Victim Services and Public Safety Branch, is soliciting proposals for the Human Trafficking Victim Assistance (HV) Program for fiscal year 2016-17. The purpose of the HV Program is to help human trafficking victims recover from the trauma they experienced and assist with reintegration into society. This will be accomplished by providing safety and supportive services. Approximately $10,000,000 is available for 2016-17. It is...
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Thriving through the Inevitable Impact of Trauma
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Toward a Trauma-Informed Northern California, April 18th
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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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Updated scoring guide for the Whole Child Assessment
Calculating a Child-ACE score is not necessary for using the Whole Child Assessment to screen and counsel families. However, because we know some providers for different reasons may want to calculate a score, we have simplified and updated the scoring guide at the bottom of the WCA forms and provided scoring instructions. No changes to any questions were made. https://lluch.org/health-professionals/whole-child-assessment-wca
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WEBINAR: New data on state early care and education quality initiatives on 2/26
Wednesday, February 26 @ 12:00 - 1:00PM Join the BUILD Initiative and Child Trends to learn about updates to the Quality Compendium ( https://qualitycompendium.org/ ), including new data, features of the website, and how researchers are using the data. The Quality Compendium ( qualitycompendium.org ) is a catalog and comparison of quality initiatives including Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) to promote thoughtful design, analysis and ongoing improvement in early care and...
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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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What should trauma-informed cities and counties ask their states for?
The people who are doing most of the pioneering work to integrate trauma-informed, resilience-building practices based on ACEs research (writ large) are doing so in cities and counties across the U.S. Now that more state agencies are learning about ACEs, many people in local communities are wondering what they can ask states for to help grow local efforts. Karen Clemmer, the maternal child adolescent health coordinator for Sonoma County’s Department of Health Services, and I were...
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Wisconsin state agencies end year one of trauma-informed learning community; goal is to be first trauma-informed state
Here in California, many people think that it’s only liberal Democrats who have a corner on championing the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and putting it into practice. That might be because people who use ACEs science don’t expel or suspend students, even if they’re throwing chairs and hurling expletives at the teacher. They ask "What happened to you?" rather than "What's wrong with you?" as a frame when they create juvenile detention centers where kids don’t fight, reduce...
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Youth court banishes blame; leads with ACEs science
YMCA Marin County Youth Court in San Rafael, California In her opening statement, 17-year-old youth advocate Eva advises jurors how to proceed and summarizes her “client’s” good qualities. “As you will see, Julian is genuine, well-spoken and friendly. I recommend asking him about his friends and family, his future plans and his activities outside of school.” (First names only of all minors are used to protect their privacy.) Welcome to the YMCA Marin County (CA) Youth Court, one of 1,400...
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SFPD Trumpets Drop in Use-of-Force, Shooting Incidents [SFist]
The San Francisco Police Department is so committed to using less force that they are now putting little “Safety with Respect” stickers on some of their vehicles. If there were a sign at SFPD headquarters that said “X Days Since the Last Police Shooting,” that sign would today read “325 Days.” That’s the longest the department has gone without shooting a suspect in nearly 20 years, and the San Francisco Chronicle reports the department has seen a 30% decline in use-of-force incidents . Chief...
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Solano County launches its ACEs and resilience initiative inviting all to take action
Elizabeth Huntley recalls the day when her family’s life was turned upside down. “One day my mom woke up and she packed up all of our clothes, all five of us…and she took me and my younger sister who had the same father… down to my paternal grandmother’s house…and she left us there. She took my middle sister to a town near Birmingham, Ala., and left her there. She took my only brother and an older sister back to Huntsville and left them at a sister’s house. Then she went back to that housing...
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Solano County's (CA) ACEs initiative, a robust community effort, makes room for input from all
In a house called “Johanna’s House” on a tree-lined side street in Vallejo, Calif., four women are filling out the adverse childhood experiences (ACE) survey given to them by Maria Guevara, the founder of Vallejo Together, an organization that serves homeless residents in Vallejo. The house was named for Johanna Dilag, a homeless woman who was found dead along with her dog.
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State Dropping Ball in Dealing With Childhood Trauma, New Report Says [CaliforniaHealthline.org]
The lowest of 31 grades issued in the 2016 California Children's Report Card released on Wednesday was for dealing with the effects of childhood trauma. In Children Now's biennial assessment of the status of California kids, researchers gave the state a "D-" for how it deals with childhood trauma. The report contends that children who experience traumatic problems such as abuse, neglect and witnessing violence at home can suffer serious long-term consequences, including health...
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Stockton California The Cost of Gun Violence [nicjr.org]
From National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, February 2020 The City of Stockton has developed past its days as a small rural town in California’s Central Valley. Emerging from bankruptcy, the city is now experiencing population and economic growth with one of the most popular mayors in the country, whose innovative initiatives have garnered national attention. Although Stockton has long contended with stubbornly high rates of gun violence, the City is making progress on this front as...
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Revisiting California’s Continuum of Care Reform Initiative [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
By Jim Roberts, The Chronicle of Social Change, November 4, 2019 The goal of the Continuum of Care Reform (CCR) was to reduce group home placements by shifting foster youth to family-based services. There have been some modest accomplishments, but from my perspective, there is a long way to go to really achieve success. The reforms have had some positive outcomes. First, California has seen a reduction in group home placements by about one-third since 2011. Second, all private providers are...
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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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Sacramento County ACEs & Resilience Awareness and Action Day Proclamation
March 14, 2019 Dear Resilient Sacramento Members, The ACEs Connection Resilient Sacramento Community is working on a Proclamation for the Board of Supervisors/Chair’s approval and signature to designate May 22 nd as Adverse Childhood Experiences & Resilience Awareness and Action Day. As a member of this Community, I have been working on this effort and am thrilled to report there are similar efforts in progress or passed in cities, counties, and states across the country, including the...
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San Juan Capistrano Christian PTSD Drug Rehab Trauma Informed Care Launched [newswire.net]
By willian brown, Newswire, February 6, 2020 San Juan Capistrano Christian PTSD drug rehab center PTSD & Trauma Drug Rehab launched trauma informed care services and a special First Responder Drug Rehab Program in Orange County. These services are delivered by licensed counselors and therapists as residential or outpatient treatments. San Juan Capistrano Christian PTSD drug rehab center Christian Drug & Alcohol Treatment Centers (CDAT) dba PTSD & Trauma Drug Rehab has launched...
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Suisun Elementary (CA) makes ACEs science intrinsic to everyday life
Students start each day with meditation During her first year as principal of Suisun Elementary in Suisun City, Calif., in 2014 Ann Marie Neubert suspended 102 students — out of a student population of 550 —for disrupting their classes. It was a serious problem, but the school’s teachers didn’t know what to do. “[Teachers] felt like they were using all the tools in their toolbox and it wasn’t changing behavior,” she recalls. Ann Marie Neubert Too many students were spending too much time out...
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Survey: Healthcare providers, community organizations weigh in on California's ACEs screening program
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...
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‘Survivor strong’: Resilience follows trauma [Recordnet.com]
STOCKTON — Life goes on and you can have a positive impact on the world after a traumatic loss. That’s the message many survivors and family members of violent crime victims shared Monday at the Stockton waterfront as they walked or ran a 5-kilometer course to remember a loved one lost to homicide. Roshan Campos never misses the opportunity to support victims and family members. The mother of Carlitha Villalobos, who was 19 when she was shot to death with two other young people in north...
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Telling a more complete story about child welfare
A new study from Berkeley Media Studies Group found that coverage of the child welfare system omits important context and connections to other issues. Here are four steps practitioners can take to improve the news.
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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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The Brain Architects Podcast: COVID-19 Special Edition: Self-Care Isn't Selfish [developingchild.harvard.edu]
By Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University, April 29, 2020 In the midst of a global pandemic, pediatricians are serving a unique role. While the coronavirus is generally showing milder effects on babies and children than on adults, there are still health concerns and considerations for infants in need of scheduled vaccinations, and kids who are home all day with parents who may be facing stressful situations. In the second episode of our special COVID-19 series of The Brain...
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The Economics of Child Abuse: A Study of California
While the impact of maltreatment on a child and their family is devastating, child maltreatment also has serious effects far beyond those for the victim. Maltreatment results in ongoing costs to taxpayers, institutions, businesses, and society at large. Local communities bear the brunt of these costs in the form of medical, educational, and judicial costs, though more tragic signs are seen in homelessness, addiction, and teen pregnancy. To create a concrete understanding of the widespread...
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The man in charge of Sacramento's new anti-gun violence program was once a shooter himself (sacbee.com)
Thirty years before Julius Thibodeaux became the leader of Sacramento's controversial new anti-gun violence program, Advance Peace , he was a shooter himself. He pulled the trigger on his first victim when he was 15 — over a $5 dispute. Now, he has been hired by the city of Sacramento to run Advance Peace as it expands here . The program matches dangerous young people with elders who have lived similar lives. Often felons like Thibodeaux, these mentors have criminal infamy that still carries...
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The New Child Maltreatment Report Is Now Available
The Child Maltreatment Report 2018 is the most recent collection of child maltreatment data from across the country. Since 1991, this important resource breaks down the data at the national and state levels and shows trends in data. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ cb/resource/child- maltreatment-2018 Here are the key findings from the 2018 report: The national rounded number of children who received a child protective services investigation response or alternative response increased 8.4 percent,...
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