Tagged With "Creative Expression to Help Kids Facing"
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2018 Policymaker Education Day on Childhood Adversity - REGISTER NOW!
The California Campaign to Counter Childhood Adversity (4CA) invites you to participate in our 2018 Policymaker Education Day on Childhood Adversity. Last year, we had over 100 4CA representatives who participated in the day-long event. Policymaker Education Day is an opportunity to come together as advocates to educate policymakers about childhood adversity, the long-term consequences of childhood adversity on communities, and garner support for 4CA endorsed legislation. Please register...
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2019 Economics of Child Abuse in Mendocino County
Mendocino recently shared 2019 data related to the economic impacts of child abuse. The attached documents are in a printable format.
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28,000 LA preschoolers are learning how to be better humans [scpr.org]
I don’t want to be your friend. Stay away. I’m not going to share with you. These harsh statements are "very normal to hear at the beginning of the school year," for preschool teachers like Rafaela Campos. To push past those moments of mean, she and more than a thousand other early educators in the Los Angeles Unified School District now have a new tool. This school year, all 86 of the early childhood centers in the district started using a program called Sanford Harmony, which provides...
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5 Key Elements to Trauma-Informed Care [relias.com]
Unfortunately, implementing a trauma-informed framework at your organization is not as simple as bringing in experts, gathering staff for training and then riding the wave of motivation and excitement into the sunset. It involves a cultural shift at your organization, ongoing focus and training, and a commitment from leadership.
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5 Ways Trauma-Informed Care Supports Children's Development
Happy Friday! Below is an excerpt from an article by Child Trends about how trauma-informed care supports children's development. I think it's a nice overview for the trauma-informed work that you're doing - why it's so important, and how it connects to the broader initiative. To see the full article click here . TIC helps service providers, parents, and systems recognize and respond to the needs of children who experience trauma. Each child reacts to trauma differently, but experiencing...
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7 Ways to Help a Child Deal with Traumatic Stress
Traumatic stress feels awful. Thankfully, there are small things we can all do to help relax a hyperaroused nervous system.
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A Guide to Creating “Safe Space” Policies for Early Childhood Programs [CLASP]
From the Center for Law and Social Policy Early childhood programs play an important role in the lives of young children and their families. But in our current immigration policy climate, families across the country are questioning whether it’s safe to attend or enroll. Providers can take steps to protect families’ safety and privacy by implementing policies that designate their facilities as a safe space from immigration enforcement. This guide explains federal agency guidance related to...
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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 Connection Webinar: The trauma toll on pediatric immigrants, refugees and their families
The trauma toll on pediatric immigrants, refugees and their families Date: Friday, December 14, 2018 Time: 10:30-11:30 am Pacific Time/1:30-2:30 Eastern Time Central American asylum seekers, including a Honduran girl, 2, and her mother, are taken into custody near the U.S.-Mexico border in June in McAllen, Texas. John Moore/Getty Images Please register here for this webinar. News accounts say it all: “Families Are Still Being Separated at the Border, Months After ‘Zero Tolerance’ Was...
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ACES Science 101 (FAQs)
What are ACEs? ACEs are adverse childhood experiences that harm children's developing brains so profoundly that the effects show up decades later; they cause much of chronic disease, most mental illness, and are at the root of most violence. ...
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Addressing historical and childhood trauma: Why native people across the country are gathering in San Diego in October
photo/ CCO Children, in what should be the safety of their homes, experience trauma, and it is ruining lives -- and perhaps entire ethnic groups. Childhood trauma actually alters the structure of the brain – a result of consistent toxic stress, which is why it’s so difficult to heal an individual and help them attain a healthy life. Dr. Anthony Pico The science that was the springboard for making those linkages began with a now famous Adverse Childhood Experiences study of over 17,000...
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Addressing Trauma in Early Childhood: (Issue Brief 61 - (CHDI) Child Health and Development Institute of Connecticut, Inc.)
ARC Supports Parents in Helping Young Children Recover from Trauma Through a five year SAMHSA grant awarded to CHDI as part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), the Early Childhood Trauma Collaborative (ECTC) is helping to address this gap by training clinicians to use Attachment, Self-Regulation and Competency (ARC), 5 an effective treatment for young children who have experienced trauma and their caregivers. ARC is a behavioral health treatment that supports parents (or...
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Book review: "Once I was very, very scared," a book on childhood trauma
The past few years have brought a wealth of evidence for the impact of childhood trauma on lifelong health. The AAP has recognized the importance of childhood trauma with conferences (2015 Violence, Abuse and Toxic Stress: An Update on Trauma-informed Care in Children and Youth) and resources ( AAP Trauma Toolbox for Primary Care .) Like many pediatricians, I have been grateful for the attention to and evidence base for an area of pediatrics I see on a daily basis but for which I have felt...
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Building Resilience Grant
https://www.magnetmail.net/actions/email_web_version.cfm?ep=yGCdD8CRbHY3xIKXk_NtCs4FUb3AniOPEXihaJv83LFH6mhv-5acjUuQ2dFLxdZdUIp4INv-ZMN0tuPTQCEGSpqzR0gFmOgvH_d2IXxSjFvv-b5v1SHK2GNT6ddniIjq
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CA to reimburse for only one of three ACEs screeners
California health care providers will soon begin to learn how many of the 13.2 million California children and adults in the state’s MediCal program have been exposed to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). But the state’s proposed decision to reimburse only one of three recommended options for screening children has drawn mixed reactions from pediatricians. “If we have mandated legislation that only looks at one screening tool, it really limits the opportunity to improve that screening...
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California gets boost from federal government to expand early learning [edsource.org]
Though California has been at odds with the federal government on many fronts, the state is getting a boost from the Trump administration to lay the groundwork for expanding preschool and child care programs. California was one of 45 states to receive a Preschool Development Birth through Five Grant this year for improving access to child care and early learning for infants and children. California received $10.6 million. The grant will not create any new child care slots, but will help in...
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Calming Your Anxious Mind Through Rhythmic Movement
5 Rhythmic Movement Practices That Can Calm Our Anxious Mind
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Can mental health training for teachers reduce preschool suspensions? [The Hechinger Report]
California is trying to support young children by providing more mental health assistance to their teachers SAN JOSE, Calif. — Chally Grundwag, a mental health consultant, faced three teachers gathered around a pint-size preschool table. “What kind of kids really push your buttons?” she asked the group. The teachers at Kidango’s Dorsa Center in San Jose thought for a moment. “Crying ones,” one responded. “I want to say, ‘Stop crying; you’re going to be OK!’ But I can’t.” A crying toddler may...
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Capital Learning Community meetings
June 20, 12-3pm: Building Community Trust for Programs Learning Community participants will share with speakers promising programs and best practices to help mitigate the increased fear and anxiety among immigrant families. The Learning Community Session will begin with a panel of speakers involved in better understanding the growing issue and impacts of anti-immigrant climate in our communities. June 24, 1-4pm: County Collaborations to End Child Abuse Prevention and child welfare leaders...
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Care for Yourself, So You Can Care for Others
December can be a busy and stressful time for everyone. Please see the message below from the Office of Head Start, reminding you to take care of yourself and giving some helpful daily tips- Safe Foundations, Healthy Futures Campaign Care for Yourself, So You Can Care for Others December 2018 December can be a particularly hard time to take care of yourself. You may be busy, over-scheduled, stressed about finances, or worried about family. This month, the Safe Foundations, Healthy Futures...
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Consulting Position at Strategies 2.0
Are you ready to lead transformative change for children and families in California? Strategies 2.0, at the Child Abuse Prevention Center in Sacramento CA, is looking for a Senior Training and Technical Assistance Specialist who will help grow knowledge and networks for professionals working with families--through impactful consulting to collaborations and organizations, training to direct-service teams, and regional movement-building among family-building and community-building leaders.
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Control, Predictability Can Help Counter Students' Trauma, Research Finds [blogs.edweek.org]
Interventions that help students think flexibly and feel more control over their learning may help counter the effects of disadvantage and trauma, suggests emerging research at the International Mind-Brain Education conference here. More than 1 in 3 U.S. children have experienced at least one major trauma—from abuse or neglect to the loss of a family member to death, prison, or drugs—by the time they enter kindergarten. By the end of their school years, nearly half have had at least one...
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Counselors Needed: Schools Struggle With New Wave of Trauma 6 Months After Camp Fire [ KQED]
The trauma specialists working in Butte County schools knew they'd start seeing kids act out around six months after the deadly Camp Fire, since anniversaries are known to trigger survivors into reliving moments of the traumatic event. But there aren't enough counselors to help all of the students, teachers and staff dealing with this second wave of trauma. “We have six schools that have requested help, and we can't bring help to them,” said Roy Applegate, who helps coordinate Recovery...
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Data-for-Equity Research Brief [nichq.org]
Child care offers a safe space for children to grow and learn while their families are at work, making it a critical resource to support healthy development. However, child care is unaffordable for the majority of working parents, especially for low-income and black and Hispanic working parents. This research brief provides insight and analysis about the challenges families face in affording childcare, which can exacerbate inequities in early childhood health and development. [For more on...
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Dr. Marrow at Echo Changing the Paradigm Conference
I wanted to give the heads up to our ACESConnection friends about Dr. Monique Marrow who is one of the keynotes at Echo's March 21 & 22nd Frontiers of Resilience conference. Dr. Marrow will be speaking on “ Addressing Trauma in System-Involved Youth ," drawing on her extensive experience as a child psychologist in the juvenile justice system. She talks about the ' invisible suitcase ' that system-involved youth carry - a suitcase full of thoughts and perceptions about the world that have...
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Early childhood educators learn new ways to spot trauma triggers, build resilience in preschoolers
A hug may be comforting to many children, but for a child who has experienced trauma it may not feel safe.
That’s an example used by Julie Kurtz, co-director of trauma informed practices in early childhood education at the WestEd Center for Child & Family Studies (CCFS), as she begins a trauma training session. Her audience, preschool teachers and staff of the San Francisco-based Wu Yee Children’s Services at San Francisco’s Women’s Building, listen attentively.
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Early Childhood Is Critical to Health Equity [rwjf.org]
The first few years of life are crucial in establishing a child’s path toward—or away from—health and well-being across the entire lifespan. This report, produced in partnership with the University of California, San Francisco, examines some of the barriers to health equity that begin early in life, and promising strategies for overcoming them. Key Findings Poverty limits childrens’ and families’ options for healthy living conditions. Poverty can limit where children live, and can lead to...
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Educating the Whole Child: Improving School Climate to Support Student Success
Each year in the United States, 46 million children are exposed to violence, crime, abuse, homelessness, or food insecurity, as well as a range of other experiences that cause psychological trauma. These experiences create toxic stress that can affect children’s attention, learning, and behavior. Research on human development shows that the effects of such trauma can be mitigated when students learn in a positive school climate that offers long-term, secure relationships that supports...
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Emergency Child Care for Foster Families [saccounty.net]
By Sacramento County, SacCounty News, January 9, 2020 To recruit more loving families for children in foster care, Sacramento County is making it easier to find and afford childcare services for resource families. The Emergency Child Care Bridge Program’s goal is to increase the number of resource families for children in foster care by helping families find the right child care provider, connecting families to long-term child care subsidies, and by providing vouchers to pay for childcare...
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Five Ways Mindfulness Meditation Is Good for Your Health [greatergood.berkeley.edu]
According to thousands of years of tradition, Buddhists meditate to understand themselves and their connections to all beings. By doing so, they hope to be released from suffering and ultimately gain enlightenment. In recent decades, researchers have been gaining insight into the benefits of practicing this ancient tradition. By studying more secular versions of mindfulness meditation, they’ve found that learning to pay attention to our current experiences and accept them without judgment...
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Five Ways to Help Kids Manage Frustration [greatergood.berkeley.edu]
When parents hold their newborn infants, they naturally want what’s best for them. They want to protect them, nurture them, and give them all the opportunities to have a happy life. At the same time, however, children must learn to cope with frustrations and disappointments. Luckily, there are frustrations from the very beginning of life, such as when babies want a bottle and have to wait even a few minutes while you are preparing it. Later, as toddlers, they have to wait until they can get...
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For Low-Income Youth in California, Much is Promised But Little Received with Mental Health Services (chronicleofsocialchange.org)
Mental health disorders in childhood and adolescence are extremely common. Studies estimate between 13 and 20 percent of American children experience a mental disorder in a given year. National survey data indicates that one in five children and teens will suffer a mental disorder that severely impairs daily life. Common mental illnesses include anxiety disorder, depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Yet research also indicates that many children in need of mental...
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Free online training for Early Child Educators (English and Spanish): Watch Me! Celebrating Milestones and Sharing Concerns
This free, one-hour training offered by the CDC provides tools to help child care providers work with families to monitor children's development, share concerns with families, and help families get connected to services and support that can make a real difference. This training is available in English and Spanish, and is approved for continuing education credit. To learn more, visit: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/watchmetraining/index.html
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Free Trauma Webinar
Therapists can be challenged to know the right tools when working with families with trauma histories. Dr. Scott Sells, the author of Treating the Traumatized Child: A Step-by-Step Family Systems Approach , is offering a free webinar on using feedback loops. Webinar: Convert Trauma Undercurrents Into Feedback Loops: How to Draw Out “Before” and “After” Feedback Loops for Your Clients Date: Tuesday, July 24, 2018 Time: 1:00-2:00 pm, Eastern Standard Time Cost: Free To register, Click here...
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Free webinar from Chandra Ghosh Ippen, PhD on "When We Are Scared..."
In this excellent free webinar, Chandra Ghosh Ippen, PhD, Associate Director of the Child Trauma Research Program at University of California, San Francisco, and Director of Dissemination and Implementation for Child-Parent Psychotherapy, talks about how to use her picture story book Once I Was Very Very Scared to help children and families heal from acute and chronic trauma. The webinar will be available in Spanish soon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcAPbDpgoso
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[Free Webinar] Teaching personal safety in early childhood: Tools for preventing abuse
They say it takes a village to raise a child. This proverb could never be more true than now. To create safe villages for children, every responsible adult—from parents & caregivers, to teachers, staff, aides, specialists, and administrators—needs to work together to understand and teach children the principles of personal safety within the context of developmentally appropriate practice. Join this powerful webinar to learn practical, actionable information, strategies and skills to...
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FREE WEBINAR: Trauma-Informed Advocacy: Practical Tools for Working with Vulnerable Populations
Working at the intersection of trauma, health equity, and law, attorney Sarah Hess will join the Illinois ACEs Response Collaborative in this free webinar to talk about ways advocates from all disciplines can use a trauma-informed approach to help their clients thrive...
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From Compassion Fatigue to Healing Centered Engagement: Turning Trauma Informed Values into Action
To pave the way for a truly strengths-based approach to full healing and recovery for both service users and burned out staff, we must educate them on (1) the central role of primal body responses to trauma (past and present), and (2) the early development of adaptive thoughts and behaviors in response to
traumatic experience.
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Growing Resilient Kids
Resiliency is defined as the ability to bounce back from stressful events we encounter in life. When something we encounter is so overwhelming to us that we become stuck in it, that is one definition of trauma. Resiliency can be viewed as the antidote to trauma. In fact, when we effectively process trauma we have experienced, we often come out the other side far more resilient than before. Our nervous systems have a higher stretch capacity, so to speak. How do we help our kids stretch and...
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Help public radio with a story: How did separation from your parents as a child impact you?
Please see the post below from Laura Klivans of KQED: KQED is the National Public Radio affiliate in San Francisco, CA. We’d like to hear from adults (18+) who were separated from their parents when they were children. Perhaps the separation was due to economic reasons, war and conflict, incarceration, foster care, or something else. How did that period of separation impact you in the long-run? How has it impacted your connection to others and how you build relationships? If you're a parent,...
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Helping Parents Develop Positive Relationships with their infants to toddlers (National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence,NPEIV).
Zero to Three Resource- extracted from website and with discussion text by Karin Hecht (September 14, 2018) Bonding activities between parent and child can be a great way to help a child’s development and strengthen the relationship. The Zero to Three website has great resources for child-centered activities to help little ones learn and grow. One particularly useful resource for parents and care providers are a collection of stage-by-stage age-based tips and what to expect as your baby...
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Hey, am I alone here? NO we are here to help!
Do you ever think, wow .... Am I the only one doing this work? And, how come it is so hard to find the resources I need to do my job? And, isn't there a better way to share and collaborate? YOU are not alone - and YES there are amazing people and communities that want to collaborate and share what they've learned! Where do I find these people? On ( clickable ) ACEs Connectio n ! Sign up for ACEs Connection and start collaborating with parents, professionals, well known researchers, and many...
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How Collaboration Fosters Safer Communities for Kids [RWJF.org]
Oct 3, 2018, 11:00 AM, Posted by Martha Davis Collaborative approaches can help ensure kids grow up with a solid foundation of safety and with a support system for those who are affected by violence. As the executive director of Philadelphia Physicians for Social Responsibility in the late 1990s, I worked closely with the local police department, the Women’s Law Project , and the district attorney. At the time, these forward-thinking professionals were frustrated. They were arresting the...
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“I Like to Move It, Move It!” – How Dance and Rhythm Can Reduce the Impact of ACEs (stresshealth.org)
As it is, more and more researchers studying the healing power of rhythmic movement on people who’ve experienced trauma from Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), such as abuse, neglect, or parental mental illness or substance abuse issues. Among these researchers is Dr. Bruce Perry, a psychiatrist and senior fellow at the Child Trauma Academy in Houston who advocates dance, drumming, walking and other rhythm-based movements to help kids with trauma. In a book about trauma and the power of...
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Marin Community Clinics in California screen babies for ACEs, provide support in effort to prevent trauma
When Marin Community Clinics (MCC) first considered screening their patients for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) they already had decided that if they were going to prevent children from acquiring ACEs, they had to take a radical approach.
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Maternal Depression and Intimate Partner Violence: Impacts on Children [aappublications.org]
Among the many adverse childhood experiences, one must consider are the effects of maternal depression and of mothers being the victim of physical or sexual violence. What is the toll of these on children? Neamah et al. ( 10.1542/peds.2017-3457 ) decided to evaluate this by looking at the strength of such an association on the cognitive development as well as physical growth of over a thousand toddlers between 18 to 36 months living in Tanzania. These children underwent developmental testing...
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Mental Health and Resilience Month Part 1: Self-Care
Hello, everyone! Since June is Mental Health and Resilience Month, I'll be posting weekly resilience tips or resources. Hopefully these are helpful not only as you begin work in trauma-informed care, but in creating balance for your life in general. I thought I'd start us off with some information on self-care - you've probably all heard of it, and it's gotten a lot of attention recently, but what exactly does it mean? (Even if this is all familiar to you, reminders are always helpful!) See...
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Mental Health and Resilience Month Part 3: Declutter Your Mind
Happy Friday! For this week's mental health and resilience tip, I wanted to give resources on ways to declutter your mind. Some of them are more literal (#6 - declutter your workspace), but most of them are figurative ways to help you feel less stressed and more centered. My personal favorite is #5 - breathe. Taking a slow, deep breath actually lowers your heart rate and blood pressure, which signals to your brain that you're calm, which then makes you feel calmer! You can read the list...
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Mindfulness Stress Reduction Techniques for Healing
Whether you're healing from illness, trauma, or other difficult times, these mindfulness stress reduction techniques can support your healing.
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Modeling prosocial behavior increases helping in 16-month-olds [sciencedaily.com]
Shortly after they turn 1, most babies begin to help others, whether by handing their mother an object out of her reach or giving a sibling a toy that has fallen. Researchers have long studied how this helping behavior develops, but why it develops has been examined less. A new study looked at the role of imitation to find that when 16-month-olds observe others' helping behavior, they're more likely to be helpful themselves. The findings come from researchers at the University of Münster and...