Tagged With "Frontlines for Survivors"
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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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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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Become an Echo Trauma Trainer
I wanted to tell you about our SUMMER ACADEMY - TRAIN THE TRAINER - your opportunity to become a facilitator for Echo's Trauma & Resilience training. In June, we will be holding a 3-day intensive to train future Echo trainers and others who want to become facilitators in our 6-hour Trauma & Resilience training. Covering the basics, such as the Adverse Childhood Experience Study, the triune brain, the impact of trauma on the nervous system, trauma responses and trauma-informed care,...
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Bipartisan trauma resolution passes the House unanimously
In the late afternoon on Feb. 26, the House of Representatives unanimously passed H. Res. 443 , a resolution recognizing the importance and effectiveness of trauma-informed care and calling for a national trauma awareness month and trauma-informed awareness day. The impetus for the resolution resides with the First Lady of Wisconsin, Tonette Walker, who has taken a strong leadership role in advancing trauma-informed policy and practice statewide through Fostering Futures , and has elevated...
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Webinar Slides and Recording: The Human Impact of Climate Change
Recorded live November 13, 2019. Find the slides attached below. Speaker: Elaine Miller-Karas, MSW, LCSW, Executive Director and Co-founder, Trauma Resource Institute. Guest: Kelly Doty, MA, Strengthening Families Program Manager, Youth for Change Host: Carey Sipp, Southeast Community Facilitator, ACEs Connection. Climate change emergencies are real and the human toll during and in the aftermath impact children, teens and adults. This webinar will hear from Kelly Doty, a survivor, who lost...
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Webinar: The Human Impact of Climate Change
The Community Resiliency Model Disaster Relief Program Climate change emergencies are real and the human toll during and in the aftermath impact children, teens and adults. This webinar will hear from Kelly Doty, a survivor, who lost her home in Paradise and is working in a community-based program to help the children and their parents in the aftermath. Elaine Miller-Karas, the key developer of the Community Resiliency Model Disaster Relief Program, will explain the program and how it helps...
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When Being Trauma-Informed Is Not Enough
Trauma-informed care is the new gold standard. For the last several years, Echo has been providing professional development in trauma-informed care but we’re beginning to notice a worrying aspect of the new push to train staff and transform systems. Some human service professionals are seeing ‘trauma-informed care’ as another skill to add to their resume or a box to check off on a grant proposal. But if the information stays with the professionals and is not used to empower survivors, then...
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Why not share information on trauma and resilience directly with survivors?
The Echo conference is known for shining a light on new developments in the trauma field, and this year, our "And Still We Rise" conference will be no different. Only the difference this year is that we will be doing something revolutionary in our field - providing information on trauma and resilience DIRECTLY TO SURVIVORS . Historically, the conference audience has been service providers and - as any trauma survivor will tell you - it is imperative that our services, systems, and...
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You Can't Be Trauma-Informed If You Can't See the Trauma
Trauma-informed care should be like universal precautions – in the same way you wouldn’t clean up a blood spill without wearing gloves, you should always assume that someone has experienced trauma and treat them accordingly. Only it doesn’t happen that way. Once our indignation or any other parts of our wounded selves come into play, that usually goes out of the window unless you have been conditioned to wear a trauma-informed lens. And even then, there will be times we fail. Let me give you...
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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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Speaking and training services from a first-hand, tenaciously resilient experience
My name is Rebekah Couch and I am a former teen mother of five children, the youngest child being my only clean & sober pregnancy allowed to remain in my care. I am a survivor of multiple sexual assaults and was afflicted with untreated mental health issues as an adolescent. My destructive journey began with self-medicating and illegal activities in Jr. High and a daily cocaine addiction by the age of fifteen that eventually advanced to methamphetamine abuse. My addiction and criminal...
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Spirituality in Post-Traumatic Growth
One of the five domains of post-traumatic growth is spirituality. Helping us understand the role of spirituality in recovering from trauma at the Echo Frontiers of Resilience conference is Shaun Tomson . If you think the name and face look familiar then perhaps you know him from his days as a world champion surfer. Shaun needed every single one of the lessons he had learned about facing challenges in the form of towering waves and overcoming wipe-outs when he lost his 15-year-old son to a...
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Survivor Stories to Build Partnerships: Tools for Domestic Violence Service Providers [jsi.com]
By John Snow, Inc., April 2020 The connection between domestic violence (DV), social determinants of health, and other pressing issues may not always be clear to potential partners who do not work in the DV/trauma prevention fields. JSI developed a set of tools for domestic violence service providers—in the form of stories—to address this gap. The first three stories depict the connection between DV and a key social issue (housing instability, economic insecurity, or childhood adversity).
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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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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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Echo Conference March 11-12, 2020: And Still We Rise! — Early Bird Pricing Ends Friday
EARLY BIRD PRICING ENDS FRIDAY, FEB 28! $90 /individuals; $150/ professionals* . *Professionals are those attending on behalf of their organization, and Individuals are those attending of their own accord.* The Echo conference, which is being held in Los Angeles next month, is known for shining a light on new developments in the trauma field, and this year, our "And Still We Rise" conference will be no different. Only the difference this year is that we will be doing something revolutionary...
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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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Equity on the Mall
On behalf of the San Joaquin Valley Health Fund (SJVHF), we invite you to join state legislative and community leaders in a day of advocacy entitled Equity on the Mall, taking place on February 9 at our state capitol in Sacramento. Thursday, February 9 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. California State Capitol 1315 10th Street, Sacramento The day will include a powerful program at the West Steps of the Capitol on the movement being built in the San Joaquin Valley. Highlights will include remarks by elected...
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Event at Sacramento State: A Trauma-Informed Response to Human Trafficking Victims
Mark your calendars: On January 16, 2018 My Sister's House hosts event at Sac State, on trauma informed interventions for human trafficking victims.
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FREE Resilience Workshop (8/16/19) on How to Support Someone Who Has Experienced Trauma
Join us at Berkeley City College for a free workshop, How To Support Someone Who Has Experienced Trauma. Event flyer attached.
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From One Survivor to Another, Helping Survivors of Human Trafficking Escape and Stay Safe [sandiegotribune.com]
By Lisa Deaderick, The San Diego Tribune, December 22, 2019 Marjorie Saylor remembers a woman who was looking for help leaving her trafficker. The woman was pregnant and waiting for a bed at a shelter to open up, but she had to wait on the street, alone and in the cold. Her trafficker found her and took her with him. “I never heard from her again. She only had a week left to go before her bed opened up, but the two weeks she toughed it out waiting on the street kept her in harm’s reach,”...
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FUTURES on the Frontlines for Survivors, Families - and You [futureswithoutviolence.org]
From FUTURES Without Violence, April 2020 The FUTURES policy team in Washington D.C. helped secure direct support for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and for children who experience trauma and abuse, and for the nonprofit advocates who support them, including: $45 million in Family Violence Prevention and Services grants that prevent and respond to family and domestic violence, and $2 million for the National Domestic Violence Hotline $45 million in Child Welfare Services, for...
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Need 45 Trauma-Informed Practitioners or Clinicians For Study on Using a Brain Regulation Headband-Bellabee Designed To Help Trauma Survivors Regulate Their Brains.
Need 45 Trauma-Informed Practitioners or Clinicians For Study on Using a Brain Regulation Headband-Bellabee Designed To Help Trauma Survivors Regulate Their Brains. All trauma informed practitioners who are suffering with or who work with adults or children suffering with C-PTSD, PTSD, Developmental Trauma, Depression, Anxiety, ADHD & Sleep Disorders are welcome to apply to be considered for this study. The deadline to request and submit your application is: March 20, 2020 As a trauma...
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Need 45 Trauma-Informed Practitioners or Clinicians For Study on Using a Brain Regulation Headband-Bellabee Designed To Help Trauma Survivors Regulate Their Brains.
Need 45 Trauma-Informed Practitioners or Clinicians For Study on Using a Brain Regulation Headband-Bellabee Designed To Help Trauma Survivors Regulate Their Brains. All trauma informed practitioners who are suffering with or who work with adults or children suffering with C-PTSD, PTSD, Developmental Trauma, Depression, Anxiety, ADHD & Sleep Disorders are welcome to apply to be considered for this study. We currently have 41 applicants, and applicantions are approved on a first come first...
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Northern ACEs Collaborative Weekly Resource Newsletter
New Date September 17, 2020 Redding, CA With Keynote Speaker Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, California's First Surgeon General Join the Public Health Institute's Population Health Innovation Lab (PHIL) and its division Northern ACEs Collaborative (NAC) to welcome Californiaʼs first Surgeon General, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris as a keynote, along with other notable speakers at the first ever North State Adverse Childhood Experience (ACEs) Summit. If you had purchased a summit ticket before the date...
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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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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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Colusa County FREE training: CSEC 102 engagement skills training
Nola Brantley Speaks has partnered with the California Department of Social Services to offer a 2-day Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) 102 engagement skills training. If you are working directly with youth, it will equip you with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to better engage youth at-risk of becoming involved in CSEC, and help you learn strategies for helping CSEC survivors see themselves as more than a survivor. If you are not working directly with youth, this...
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California Protective Parents Association Spring conference, April 8 in Davis, CA
California Protective Parents Association (CPPA) is celebrating our 20 th Anniversary at a Spring conference. Domestic Violence and the Battle for Custody: Moving Towards Child Safety will take place on April 8, 2018 from 2:00 pm to 5:30 pm at the Brunelle Performing Arts Center, 315 West 14 th Street, Davis CA 95616. The program includes: Rachel Meyrick’s excellent documentary What Doesn’t Kill Me A panel discussion including Kathleen Russell from the Center for Judicial Excellence Retired...
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Capital Public Radio interview by a psychologist who is a survivor of sexual abuse
Dear Friends, Please see the link below to my interview last Thursday on Insight with Beth Ruyak. I discuss my book The Gifts of Adversity and my experience of sexual abuse by a priest. I hope my book and interview can be a resource for you and others you know. https://www.capradio.org/news/insight/2020/04/30/local-author-carolee-tran-and-her-new-memoir-the-gifts-of-adversity/ Take good care friends and be well. Warmly, Carolee
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How do these pediatricians do ACEs screening? Early adopters tell all.
Last week, three pediatricians — with a combined experience of 15 years integrating ACEs science into their practices — reflected on the urgency they felt several years ago that prompted them to begin screening patients for childhood adversity and resilience when there was practically no guidance at all. Along their journey , they accumulated a list of lessons learned for other pediatricians and family clinics to use. The three pediatricians participated in the ACEs Connection webinar,...
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How Naming the Alleged Abusers in the Catholic Church Scandal in California Helps Survivors Overcome Their Trauma [psmag.com]
When Dan McNevin was nine years old, he served as an altar boy to Father James Clark in Corpus Christi Church in Fremont, California. There he worshipped alongside generations of his Irish Catholic family, attending mass and answering phones for the parish office. At first, says McNevin, now 60, Clark was "grooming him." But soon the priest began to abuse him both physically and emotionally, undressing, touching, and assaulting him. He didn't tell anyone, including his parents, for more than...
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“If you think the system works, you’re dead wrong:” a discussion on mental health in California (calmatters.org)
A physician, an advocate, a public health specialist, a suicide-attempt survivor and a California state lawmaker gathered in downtown Sacramento today to offer their diagnosis of the state’s mental health system. The consensus was summed up by Sen. Jim Beall: “We need to start from scratch.” The panel discussion, hosted by CALmatters and the California Health Care Foundation, builds off an ongoing CALmatters reporting project by Jocelyn Wiener and Byrhonda Lyons on the state’s fragmented,...
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Mental Health Awareness: When Suffering Is Not an Illness
When I was an adolescent and young adult, I struggled with depression. As I reflect back on that time, so much of what I was experiencing was deeply tied to coming to terms with my sexuality. Growing up in the 1980’s in a relatively conservative town, I was closeted (even to myself) until I was a young adult. The pain and fear of being different, of not belonging, of being judged or rejected for who I was more than my adolescent brain could wrap its conscious head around.
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Survivor Stories to Build Partnerships: Tools for Domestic Violence Service Providers [jsi.com]
From John Snow, Inc., June 2020 The connection between domestic violence (DV), social determinants of health, and other pressing issues may not always be clear to potential partners who do not work in the DV/trauma prevention fields. JSI developed a set of tools for domestic violence service providers—in the form of stories—to address this gap. The first three stories depict the connection between DV and a key social issue (housing instability, economic insecurity, or childhood adversity).
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'I was ready to die': A coronavirus survivor's diary [sfchronicle.com]
By Matthias Gafni, San Francisco Chronicle, June 17, 2020 Surely, Rafael Arias thought, it must have been the spicy fish and rice he’d eaten the day before. The 42-year-old Oakland restaurant worker could think of no other reason for suddenly feeling ill. It was late March, and the novel coronavirus had begun to take hold in the Bay Area. On March 22, the day after Arias felt those first symptoms, California postponed jury trials, Hayward opened a free drive-by testing site, and Alameda...
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TODAY! Cracked Up, The Evolving Conversation: Generational Trauma - Breaking the Cycle [crackedupmovie.com]
CRACKED UP THE EVOLVING CONVERSATION Episode 4: Generational Trauma - Breaking the Cycle with Darrell Hammond, Comedian, actor, SNL Legend Michelle Esrick, Filmmaker, activist Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Author of The Body Keeps the Score Jane Stevens, Founder of ACES Connection and special guest Jane Fonda Academy Award-winning actor, producer, author and activist Thursday June 25th at 1pm PDT / 2p MT / 3p CT / 4pm EDT Hosted by ACEs Connection THE PRICE OF THIS LIVE EVENT IS $12.50 We have...
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Re: Blue Shield of California Foundation awards $500,000 grant to ACEs Connection
Wow!!!! Congratulations to Jane Stevens and the entire team at ACEsconnection.com for this wonderful grant! I love that this grant will help to extend the reach of all of the amazing work you are doing to prevent and heal childhood trauma as well as build resilience. As an adult survivor who only recently discovered I had trauma in 2017, ACEsconnection.com has been a literal God send as a safe space, full of amazing people and a treasure trove of resources which has been key in enabling me...
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"A Better Normal" Community Discussion: Suicide Awareness and Community Cafes
Join us on Friday November 6, 2020 from noon to 1:00 PST as we come together and join Satya Chandragiri MD, Bonnie O’Hern RN, Denise PNP, & Michael Polacek RN for a discussion around the tender issue of suicide. Together we will discuss ways people and providers can support each other and encourage communities to take action to support one another around suicide prevention, crisis intervention, and the layers of culture and structural barriers to care. A special emphasis will be on...
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Road Map for Ending Domestic Violence in California: A Life Course Approach to Prevention
Futures Without Violence (FUTURES) is excited to share A Road Map for Ending Domestic Violence in California: A Life Course Approach to Prevention with the ACEs Connection community. The Road Map , a policy paper supported by Blue Shield of California Foundation, draws upon our work at FUTURES as well as research and study on best practices for preventing violence. It presents four evidenced-based prevention and intervention strategies to prevent and end domestic violence in California:...
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ACEs Champion: Dr. Tasneem Ismailji finds her niche in promoting ACEs as scientific evidence for health effects of violence and abuse
Pediatrician Tasneem Ismailji is a cofounder and former president of the Academy on Violence and Abuse (AVA). Her Pakistani heritage and love of children have informed not only her career choices but also her decades-long commitment to the prevention of the health effects of violence and abuse. Born in the ancient city of Karachi, Pakistan, Ismailji was one of seven siblings — four girls and three boys — growing up in a loving Muslim family, where she spoke both Urdu and English. In the...
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The Power of Preventing ACEs
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as child abuse and neglect, can lead to negative psychological, social and physical outcomes later in life – and can even affect future generations. New and exacerbated stressors during the pandemic underscore concern for the risks and long-term health effects of ACEs, particularly for groups already disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Certain interventions can help mitigate negative outcomes from ACEs and prevent them from occurring in the...
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My WHY I show up to do this work
I recently read a quote that @Christine Cissy White (ACEsConnection) shared that says, "Trauma informed care isn't trauma informed, without the trauma survivor." No matter what degree, training, or book you acquire you can never really know how it feels to experience trauma unless you go through it. I remember when I first discovered I had an ACE score of 7; I had been serving the community by teaching resiliency, self-healing, and breaking stigmas around mental health. I came across the...
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Criticizing ACEs in Peer Reviewed Professional Journals Impairs Child Abuse Treatment
Criticizing ACEs in Peer Reviewed Professional Journals Impairs Child Abuse Treatment Jeoffry B. Gordon, MD, MPH May 23, 2021 As a family doc practicing in San Diego I was privileged to hear Dr. Vincent Felitti talk about his inspired development of the ACEs questionnaire and its association with many adult mental and physical diseases directly from him only a few years after his original insight. Yet, although I had a lively clinic and learned how to manage a vast array of medical...
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October Edition of Education Upended: Talking Out of Turn- Reframing Mental Health: Moving from a disease to wellness, with special guest Yesmina Luchsinger
Please join us for our new series Education Upended: Talking Out of Turn . This monthly series will feature a conversation facilitated by Lara Kain, PACEsConnection Education Consultant , with special guests on education related current events and hot topics. We will use a trauma-informed and PACEs science aware lens to examine what is going on K-12 education, what needs changing, and strategies being used in the field to disrupt harmful policies and make positive changes in the system.
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October Edition of Education Upended: Talking Out of Turn- Reframing Mental Health: Moving from a disease to wellness, with special guest Yesmina Luchsinger
Please join us for our new series Education Upended: Talking Out of Turn . This monthly series will feature a conversation facilitated by Lara Kain, PACEsConnection Education Consultant , with special guests on education related current events and hot topics. We will use a trauma-informed and PACEs science aware lens to examine what is going on K-12 education, what needs changing, and strategies being used in the field to disrupt harmful policies and make positive changes in the system.
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How Grateful Are You?
November is a month of Thanksgiving and it’s a time to literally “give thanks” for the bounty in our life. We rejoice in the major highlights but in reality it’s the little micro-moments of joy that give us the strength to carry on. These precious, seemingly insignificant moments can be stored as a resource for us to draw on when times are tough. Life isn’t easy, and this is true for all of us. The immutable value we focus on in the Choose Love Movement is love, but there is another one that...
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The myth of survivor solidarity: Why it’s so hard for us to all just get along (culturico.com)
As a Weinstein survivor, I’ve noticed that journalists love to explore the presumed solidarity among “sister survivors” – in our case, the over 100 women who came forward about Weinstein’s sexual predation. But what journalists don’t write about are the challenges in preventing any group of trauma survivors from imploding. Only when we survivors understand the impact of trauma can we overcome the underlying forces that threaten to pull us apart and stand together against injustice and abuse.
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Historical Trauma in the American Southwest Event Recap
On March 17, 2022, PACEs Connection hosted our fifth event in our Historical Trauma in America series . The event was facilitated by PACEs Connection staff members Dana Brown (organizational liaison), Donielle Prince (director of state initiatives), John Dovales Flores (community arts consultant), and Natalie Audage (family and community resources lead). The event featured guest speaker Gabriel Nuñez-Soria, an educator, PhD Student, and Director of the Trauma-Resilient Educational...