Glass’s mission has always been to protect and foster the practice of nurturing children. That’s because she herself experienced at least five types of adverse childhood experiences, as measured in the original CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study). If the scale could account for childhood adversity such as structural racism and community violence that’s more likely to occur in communities of color, her burden of ACEs is higher.

Resilient Georgia recently presented a roundtable discussion, featuring a distinguished panel of professionals, on the trauma associated with racism and racial discrimination, as part of the Mental Fitness for Resilience Campaign. The distinguished panel for this Georgia Public Broadcasting production included Dr. Patrice Harris, MD, MA, psychiatrist and the first African-American woman to be elected president of the American Medical Association; Dr. Terri McFadden, a General Pediatrician...

While we know that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can cause risk behaviors, research has told us that the presence of protective factors can help mitigate the effects of ACEs. Common risk behaviors such as smoking tobacco and alcohol misuse can be a result from the trauma of childhood disadvantage. In responding to ACEs, public health research proposes that protective factors such as safe, stable, nurturing relationships (SSNRs) with a caring adult can mitigate the long-term effects of...

Shortly after Resilient Georgia was founded in April 2019, our Board of Directors convened a Strategic Planning session which allowed us to identify our No. 1 priority–to learn from our peers. The stakeholders and partners at the table identified that, to be truly successful, Resilient Georgia needed to first look at what other states were doing–and how they were doing it. After many calls, internet searches and conversations, we completed the National Landscape Scan of Trauma Informed Care...

Southeastern ACEs Connection and national CTIPP leaders on the quarterly leader call welcomed guest speaker Rebecca Lewis-Pankratz (top left) for their quarterly call. Also among those present were (top row l-r) Carey Sipp, Jesse Kohler, Jesse Hardin, (second row, l-r) Patti Tiberi, Mebane Boyd, Jen Drake-Croft, Dan Press, (third row, l-r) Mimi Graham, Christopher Freeze, Margaret Stagmeier, (fourth row, l-r) Emily Marsh, Liz Peterson, Alyssa Koziarski and Janet Pozmantier. Also present was...

In 2019 and 2020, dozens of states enacted nearly 60 laws and resolutions that reference adverse childhood experiences or trauma. In this post, there's an interactive map that shows them all.

Aligning Resources Across Georgia To Support Resiliency To Our Resilient Georgia Partners and Stakeholders: Mark your calendars for our Lunch and Learn taking place July 21st from 12 to 12:45. We launched Resilient Georgia Lunch and Learn series this year to provide a place for our regional coalition partners, peers, and stakeholders to share opportunities for partnership across the state. Next month will feature Sewn Arts . Sewn Arts is a nonprofit organization working throughout Georgia...

“What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience and Healing” by renowned brain and trauma expert Bruce D. Perry, MD, PhD and Oprah Winfrey - a 2021 must read! We are so excited to announce that Georgia’s Essentials for Childhood Initiative, in partnership with Gwinnett County Public Libraries, will be launching a Georgia Reads Book Club of “What Happened to You?”. Attend the kickoff event on November 15th at 7 pm EST to learn more about the book and how Georgia is working towards...

Please register now at this link to reserve your spot. You’re invited to participate in Building the Movement with Coalitions, the first of eight remarkable workshops featured in the series, “ Building a National Movement to Prevent Trauma and Foster Resilience ”. The first half-day workshop will occur virtually on January 7th from 1-5pm ET/10am-2pm PT. It focuses on the history and future of the movement and building community-owned, trauma-informed, prevention-focused, and healing-centered...

Has the pandemic stressed you out? Want to learn the self-soothing skills of Mind Matters: Overcoming Adversity and Building Resilience directly from the author, Dr. Carolyn Curtis? Good news! The Dibble Institute has received generous funding for scholarships to the online, full 12-lesson series, Mind Matters Now . The course helps teachers, social workers, medical professionals, and others manage their stress by building resilience skills and practices for mental well-being. (CEUs are...

Since late 2021 and into 2022, the Georgia Essentials for Childhood Initiative has been encouraging parents, caregivers, professionals, all those who work with or around young people, and all those who may have experienced their own trauma to read the book "What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing" , coauthored by Oprah Winfrey and Bruce D. Perry, MD, PhD. The inaugural Georgia Reads initiative was launched in November 2021 with a webinar hosted by the Georgia...

By Ingrid M. Duva, Jordan R. Murphy, and Linda Grabbe, Photo: Unsplash, American Journal of Public Health, June 9, 2022 Abstract The wrath of COVID-19 includes a co-occurring global mental health pandemic, raising the urgency for our health care sector to implement strategies supporting public mental health. In Georgia, a successful nurse-led response to this crisis capitalized on statewide organizations’ existing efforts to bolster well-being and reduce trauma. Partnerships were formed and...

By Elaine Miller-Karas MSW, LCSW Building Resiliency to Trauma Psychology Today, September 30, 2022 Mental health can suffer after extreme climate events. KEY POINTS Mental health conditions exacerbated by natural disasters include post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. After a disaster, the number of people needing assistance from the mental health systems strains or exceeds community capacity. There are simple strategies helpers can use to help survivors restore...

In January, Resilient Georgia and the Center for Interrelational Science and Pediatrics received a Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning Community Transformation Grant to launch an Infant and Early Childhood Professional Development Course and Guidebook. Across Resilient Georgia’s 16 regional coalitions , there is a documented need to support the early childhood care and education (ECCE) workforce. Leveraging statewide support for training Georgia’s workforce in the Community...

To mark the anniversary of the passage of the landmark legislation of the Georgia Mental Health Parity Act, we are sharing a letter written a year ago by Roland Behm, Co-founder of the Georgia Mental Health Policy Partnership, Board Member and Former Board Chair, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) Georgia Chapter. The letter is to his son, Kyle, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2010 as a junior in college and died by suicide in August 2019.

PACEs Connection is excited to kick off our 2023 Creating Resilient Communities (CRC) Annual Accelerator Program.