Dear John, Watching Marriage Story on New Year’s Eve was the ending I needed to witness in order to understand our own. Like Charlie and Nicole, we have history, we share a child, and we both want our child to be raised in an environment where she can thrive. While our similarities don’t stop there, the difference in how their ending started inspired me to follow suit. A mediator encouraged them to write a note of positivity to remember why they got married (together) in the first place.

Strategies 2.0 presents The Pair of ACEs: Building Community Resilience on July 19, 2019 from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm in Glenn County. This training will guide participants through the relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adverse Community Environments. To register, visit: https://strategiesca.asentialms.com/catalog/Default.aspx?id=76&type=course Strategies 2.0 will also host Trauma-Informed Care on July 30, 2019 from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm in Sacramento. This training enables...

Have you seen the “Raising of America”? Funded by organizations such as the California Endowment, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation, the docuseries, The Raising of America: Early Childhood and the Future of Nation sheds light on how a strong start for children not only leads to better individual health outcomes, but also a healthier, safer, more prosperous and equitable America. See more in this five-part...

Physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, child life professionals, and other patient service providers are invited and encouraged to join a webinar entitled: "Crossroads of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Developmental Disabilities" Increased levels of toxic stress, which can be caused by recurrent or chronic exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), can impair neurodevelopment, behavior, and overall health of a child (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services...

The California Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative , a collaborative project between the California Department of Public Health, Safe and Active Communities Branch (CDPH/SACB) and the California Department of Social Services, Office of Child Abuse Prevention (CDSS/OCAP) has received funding to continue efforts through August of 2023 to decrease child maltreatment risk factors and increase protective factors to provide safe, stable, nurturing relationships, and environments (SSNR&E)...

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...

By Ellen Galinsky, Brookings Institute, October 23, 2019 The focus on “toxic stress,” ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences), and trauma-informed care have been game-changers in the field of early childhood development. They have helped us recognize the symptoms of trauma, provide appropriate assistance to children, and understand that prolonged adversity in the absence of nurturing relationships can derail a child’s healthy development. Just look at the media’s and the public’s reaction to...

A nationally renowned Bay Area physician, known for his impassioned belief that childhood poverty leads to disease, is bringing that message to the Hanna Boys Center in Sonoma next month as part of an ongoing networking series. Bertram Lubin, associate dean of Children’s Health at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland, will speak from 7:30-9 a.m. June 8 alongside Barbie Robinson, Sonoma County’s director of health services and Dayna Long, another physician from UCSF Benioff Children’s...

Maryland Essentials for Childhood, a statewide initiative educating policy makers and communities on the science of ACEs, developing brains, and how we can build resilience for children, families and communities in Maryland, is poised to meet with Maryland elected officials this coming Thursday, ,February 7th, 9-1 pm. We will educate legislators on the science and policies that reduce or mitigate ACEs and other childhood trauma. Key policies being considered by the General Assembly are:...

Melissa Merrick PhD and Robert Sege MD, PhD wrote this timely and interesting article for CNN online. We encourage you to check it out! Also, please visit and join our Balancing ACES with HOPE community . Just as prior generations were deeply affected by the Great Depression, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and the Kennedys and the horrors of 9/11, the COVID -19 pandemic may well be the defining moment in the lives of today's children. That's why we owe it to our children to focus...

By Christina Bethell, Jennifer Jones, Narangerel Gombojav, et al., JAMA Pediatrics, September 9, 2019 Question : Are positive childhood experiences (PCEs) associated with adult depression and/or poor mental health (D/PMH) and adult-reported social and emotional support (ARSES) independent from adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)? Findings : In this cross-sectional study, adults reporting higher PCEs had lower odds of D/PMH and greater ARSES after accounting for ACEs. The associations of...

Traumatic stress feels awful. Thankfully, there are small things we can all do to help relax a hyperaroused nervous system.

A wonder story of the impact of ACEs and how community services, such as Parent Child Interactive Therapy (PCIT), which was funded through First 5, provided the help one mom needed to break the cycle of ACEs. This story also provides a great overview of ACEs and some initiatives in California that are working to address ACEs and build resilience. http://www.first5la.org/index.php?r=site/article&id=3682

Not only are ACEs differentially distributed, the cumulative impact of multiple early childhood traumas has been shown to have a life-long and direct impact on both behavior and disease. There is consistent dose response relationship between number of ACEs and risky health behaviors, mental health disorders, health conditions, and disease.

California Governor Gavin Newsom enhances the state’s focus on addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and trauma beginning January 1, 2020. Pediatricians will utilize a screening tool developed by the Center for Youth Wellness, founded by California’s first Surgeon General, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, to screen children for traumatic experiences. The results will help doctors determine whether children need mental health counseling or other preventative treatments to help them avoid...

By David Finkelhor, Child Abuse & Neglect, July 30, 2020 Abstract Background: It is important for those called upon to discuss major social determinants of health such as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) to have accurate knowledge about generational trends in their prevalence. Objective: To review available trend data on major forms of ACEs. Methods: A search of academic data bases was conducted by combining the term “trend” with a variety of terms referring to childhood adversities.

ACEs Aware Seeking Applicants to Support Clinical Work Apply by September 15, 2020 ACEs Aware , led by the Office of the California Surgeon General (CA-OSG) and the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), is hiring for three new positions to further the mission of supporting Medi-Cal providers across California with training, clinical protocols, and payment for screening children and adults for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Aurrera Health Group is the project management...

While this article is interesting, Finkelhor uses out of data data acquisition. Contemporary trends in family dysfunction, morbidity, and mortality have been teased apart on a much more detailed level by the economist Angus Deaton using techniques for which he won the Nobel prize. A more intimate understanding contemporary USA family stress will be found in the book he wrote with his wife Anne Case "Deaths of Despair." In brief they document the stresses of social alienation unemployment and...

A mother, frantic with worry, brought her newborn in for a checkup at the pediatric clinic at San Francisco General Hospital. But there wasn’t anything wrong with the baby. And over the next several months, no amount of reassurance could convince the mom that her child was eating, sleeping and growing just fine. If anything, the mother’s worry led to behavior that raised alarm bells for her health care providers. Dr. Kate Margolis “[The family] wasn’t returning calls from the provider, and...

Please join us for our new series entitled: Trauma-Informed Criminal Justice. This monthly virtual Zoom series will feature conversations facilitated by Dr. Porter Jennings-McGarity, PhD/LCSW, PACEs Connection’s criminal justice consultant, with special guests to discuss the need for trauma-informed criminal justice system reform. Using a PACEs-science lens, this series will examine the relationship between trauma and the criminal justice system, what needs changing, and strategies being...

As we head into our full CRC curriculum this January, we invite current and future CRC Accelerator participants to join us with collective care and self care in mind.

In an effort to keep our free programs accessible to California during a critical time in the PACEs movement, we'd like to learn more about the role PACEs Connection programs have played in your California PACEs initiatives and the impact of your programs.

As we’ve recently announced, the CRC Accelerator is taking an indefinite hiatus, but this moment of growth is anything but goodbye. Two years into this unique program, we are aware of the incredible impact access can have on PACEs initiatives and we now have a CRC Fellowship that grows with each CRC graduate.