Tagged With "Peace Bags"
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Being homeless during coronavirus adds hardship for California college student [edsource.org]
By Marisa Martinez, EdSource, April 17, 2020 Mornings for student Cristina Zetino at California State University, Los Angeles are as normal as they can be. Before she packs up her things, she checks in with the family that offers her an occasional place to lay her head for the night. The self-described “couch surfer” alternates between three different homes throughout the week while juggling work and classes. Always in her possession are three bags: “One bag for school, one for clothes and a...
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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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Sheltering in Place: ACEs-Informed Tips for Self-Care During a Pandemic
Millions of lives have been affected in unprecedented ways by the Coronavirus (COVID-19). We are all grappling with uncertainty—our daily routines interrupted, not knowing what is to come. For those of us who have Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), these times can be particularly distressing. At the Center for Youth Wellness (CYW), we know that childhood trauma can have a significant impact on an individual’s health and well-being – both physiologically and psychologically. Since the...
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Free Meals During COVID-19 Closure (Oakland, CA) [ousd.org]
From Oakland Unified School District, March 16, 2020 During the COVID-19 closure, our Nutrition Services Department will open twelve schools throughout the city where “Grab and Go” breakfast and lunch meals will be available for all OUSD students or families and any Oakland child under 18. To ensure the least amount of contact, students do not need to be present to pick up food. The sites listed below will be open on Mondays and Thursdays from 8:00am to 12:00pm. Multiple days worth of food...
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MARC Brown Bag Webinar Series: September Sessions & Archives
Join Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities (MARC) for a series of free, short (45-minute) webinars with national leaders who will share some of their expertise and engage in dialogue with you on key strategies for creating just, healthy and resilient communities. Seats are limited, but recordings will be available after each session. Register at MARC.HealthFederation.org/BrownBag for the following sessions: Thursday, September 7 @ 1pm ET Melissa Merrick, PhD —Preventing Child Abuse and...
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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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Child Well-Being a Mixed-Bag in Still-Rocky Economic Climate, Says Casey Report [JJIE.org]
The lives of children improved by some measures during recent years, but their opportunities still are constrained by persistent family and neighborhood poverty, says the 2016 Kids Count Data Book . The annual report by The Annie E. Casey Foundation looks at measures of child well-being at the state and national level in four categories. Broadly, this year’s findings show gains in education and health — but some setbacks in measures of economic well-being and family and community, according...
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CYW releases "Children Can Thrive: A Vision for California's Response to ACEs"
The Center for Youth Wellness released a new report “Children Can Thrive: A Vision for California’s Response to ACEs”. This report is a follow up to the November 2014 Children Can Thrive Summit. Based on the ideas shared by participants at the Children Can Thrive summit, the report sets forth the beginnings of a multi-sector, multi-strategy approach to respond effectively to the impacts of ACEs in California. The report is attached to...
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In ACEs Connection webinar, physicians talk trauma, offer tips for helping pediatric immigrant patients
Dr. Raul Gutierrez, a pediatrician in the San Francisco Bay Area, said he and his fellow clinicians see constant fear and its health consequences every single day among the largely immigrant and Latino population they serve. It’s all the result of anti-immigrant policies and the news cycle that feeds the fear. Dr. Raul Gutierrez “It is almost inescapable with the repercussions of immigration policy on the radio, television, social media and from friends and family,” Gutierrez told the 69...
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In Small Farming Town, Making a Case for Restorative Justice (KQED's CA Report)
When Yazmin Ortiz came inside from cross-country practice last fall, she saw an open locker. Inside was a pricey designer backpack that one of her classmates owned. “There was nobody [around] and I saw her bag,” says the Reedley High School senior. “I don’t know what I was thinking that made me turn around to grab her backpack.” Yazmin kept it at home for months. Then, at the beginning of January, she wore it to school. The owner called her out. Soon they were both in the office. Yazmin knew...
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Resilience for Educators (free webinar series)
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Resilience for Parents (free webinar series)
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Resilience for Educators (free webinar series)
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Resilience for Parents (free webinar series)
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Resilience for Parents (free webinar series)
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Brown Bag Lunch Series for Educators: Resilience in Action
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How Colleges Are Supporting Students Leaving Abusive Relationships [calhealthreport.org]
By Claudia Boyd-Barrett, California Health Report, July 27, 2020 Ana Blanco looked up from her hospital bed at the police officer. Her legs were bandaged, and stung with pain. She tried to focus on what he was saying. Did she want to file a restraining order against her husband? Blanco had just told the officer how, on the way home from her college psychology class, her husband had ordered her out of the truck and then begun driving away as she tried to remove her school bag. She had been...
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Sebastopol Peace Bag concept has spread to Southern California
Local Sebastopol non-profit Peacetown is spreading joy and community engagement through the Family Village's project called Peace Bags. Every week for 13 weeks a different local organization "sponsors" a week by providing printed resources and an activity that supports community connection, family engagement, and some fun. The bags are distributed for FREE in collaboration with a local toy store. I happen to come across a conversation on one of the posts I made regarding Peace Bags. The post...
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How Health Departments Can Address Police Violence As a Public Health Issue [humanimpact.org]
September 2020 The health impacts of policing and incarceration are well documented. On average, 1,000 people are killed by police in the US each year, with Black and Indigenous people being 2 to 3 times more likely to be killed by police than White people. Even in the absence of physical violence, stops by police — or the constant threat of stops by police — are associated with adverse mental health outcomes , including anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, especially for...
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Elizabeth Smith knits together families and communities through her own healing journey
(l to r) Elizabeth Smith and Peacetown board of directors: David, Amitiel, Jim aka Mr. Music, and Jasmine. Only eight years ago, Elizabeth Smith was experiencing severe chronic stress. Raising a young son on her own, she was employed as a technician at a county hospital in Northern California that had downsized staff and increased her workload , as well that of other staff. She was helping to raise the morale of her fellow workers and served as a liaison between staff and the administration,...
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The Voices Of Youth Locked In San Francisco's Soon-To-Be-Shuttered Juvenile Hall
By Taylor Walker, WitnessLA, February 22, 2021 On Tuesday, June 4, 2019, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted in favor of legislation to shutter the local juvenile hall by December 2021. The ordinance, which SF supes authored in partnership with the Young Women’s Freedom Center (YWFC), made SF the first major urban jurisdiction to choose to abolish juvenile incarceration. The city-county’s lone 150-bed youth lockup is already so close to empty — on August 15, 2020, there were 13...
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Youth Detention Facility finds culture of kindness more effective than punishment
A corner of the Multi-Sensory De-escalation Room, All MSDR photos courtesy of Valerie Clark When a young person enters the de-escalation room in the Sacramento County Youth Detention Facility , they’ll find dimmed lights, bottles of lavender, orange and other essential oils, an audio menu featuring the rush of ocean waves and other calming sounds, along with squeeze balls, TheraPutty, jigsaw puzzles, and an exercise ball to bounce on. TheraPutty, squeeze balls and more Sometimes, with a...
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Drained
I can agree with that when it comes to life and especially to life with cancer. But I keep wondering what is hardship anyway? What’s hard? What’s easy? It’s so subjective and varies by person and circumstance. What I do know is I was uncomfortable and unprepared for my PleurX surgery procedure even though it was done at my request. A PleurX is a type of chest tube that can be used at home, allowing me to drain the malignant fluid that keeps accumulating in my right lung due to...
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The Pandemic Spurred a Domestic Violence Epidemic. It's Not Over Yet. [calhealthreport.org]
By Claudia Boyd-Barrett, California Health Report, July 29, 2021 For Lydia, 40, of southeast Los Angeles County, there was nothing safe about staying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Being home meant being stuck with her abusive husband who beat her and tried to control her every move. The abuse predated the pandemic – her three children went to live with a family member in 2018 because of it. But when Lydia’s husband lost his job because of the shutdown, he became angry and bored, and...
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Who Keeps Us Safe? [motherjones.com]
By Madison Pauly, Mother Jones, October 14, 2021 Early on a Saturday morning in June 2015, a passerby notices a silver BMW stopped at an off-ramp in Oakland, California. The car’s turn signal is on, and the motor is running, but it doesn’t move as the traffic light cycles. Through the tinted windows, the driver appears passed out in the front seat. So the bystander calls 911 to report a medical emergency. Soon, armed police officers swarm the scene. If they are concerned the driver might...
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Students had nowhere to sleep, so a San Francisco school opened the gym: ‘How could we not?’ [theguardian.com]
By Gail Cornwall, Photo: Marissa Leshnov/the Hechinger Report, The Guardian, March 17, 2022 On a Friday evening in the fall of 2019, Maria Flores stood waiting with her “crazy heavy” duffel bag and her teenage son outside the office of a man whose home she cleaned. After being evicted, “every single day I was looking for a place to live”, Flores said. The man had offered two air mattresses, keys to his office, and permission to sleep there on weekends. But on this Friday, someone was working...
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How do we empower youth in face of the climate crisis?
Whether you are a parent or a guardian, a teacher or a school administrator, if you have children in your life, you might hear them talking about climate change. Whether it’s wildfires or floods or tsunamis and tornados, these events are happening with increasing frequency all around us. Climate change may once have been an abstract concept or foreign idea, but it is now our reality. Young people are more aware than ever of the threats to the planet’s future and are getting involved...
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Gifting Yourself Peace after Childhood Adversity: After Painful Memories Are Confronted, Healing Continues
Wounds of the heart may persist after troubling memories from childhood adversity have been rewired. Fortunately, pain from childhood adversities can spur us to create a peaceful heart of forgiving, kindness, calm, and purpose.