Blog

STORYCATCHERS HELPS JUSTICE-INVOLVED YOUTH FIND THEIR VOICES AND RESOLVE OLD TRAUMAS BY MAKING THEM THE STARS OF THE SHOW. Storycatchers Theatre — also known as Storycatchers — is a nonprofit musical theater group that works with justice-involved youth in Chicago. Through programming both inside and outside of the justice centers, children and young adults turn their life stories into musicals. [For more on this story, written by Nation Swell, go to:...

By Daily Local News, July 5, 2019. Legislation to implement trauma-informed education in Pennsylvania schools has been signed into law by Gov. Tom Wolf, largely thanks to a bill authored by state Rep. Christina Sappey, D-158th Dist. Earlier this year H.B. 1415 and S.B. 200, which would implement approaches to student learning that recognizes the signs and symptoms of trauma and integrates that knowledge into education-based policies, learning, procedures and practices, was introduced by...

BY SIMON ROMERO, ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, MANNY FERNANDEZ, DANIEL BORUNDA, AARON MONTES and CAITLIN DICKERSON, NEW YORK TIMES, JULY 6, 2019. CLINT, Tex. — Since the Border Patrol opened its station in Clint, Tex., in 2013, it was a fixture in this West Texas farm town. Separated from the surrounding cotton fields and cattle pastures by a razor-wire fence, the station stood on the town’s main road, near a feed store, the Good News Apostolic Church and La Indita Tortillería. Most people around...

While Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can potentially increase a company’s profit over time, CSR is best demonstrated with dramatic improvement in the lives of employees who have suffered from Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).

Domestic violence survivors commonly suffer repeated blows to the head and strangulation, trauma that has lasting effects that should be widely recognized by advocates, health care providers, law enforcement and others who are in a position to help, according to the authors of a new study. In the first community-based study of its kind, researchers from The Ohio State University and the Ohio Domestic Violence Network found that 81 percent of women who have been abused at the hands of their...

Programs, organizations, and systems that make a commitment to implementation will differ in many ways–from the service context, to the motivation for change, to hoped-for outcomes, and resources available. Nonetheless, in a developmental way, implementation moves through a number of common steps that we’ve tried to reflect in the Road Map below. The Trauma Informed Care Screening Tool (found below the Road Map) builds on the Road Map by delving into each phase and offering a series of...

By Lauren Smith, FSG, June 26, 2019. Everything I have learned in my almost three decades as a pediatrician and public health advocate caring for children and families tells me that what we are doing to migrant children at the border is morally and medically wrong. It goes against all that we know about how children should be treated. It is also not who we aspire to be as a nation. We are and must be better than this. Recent detailed reports of the appalling conditions in the detention...

Even when we feel like God doesn’t hear us, he can guide our path to people and ideas that will resonate with our spirits and bring healing... The process of becoming trauma-informed can help us to develop compassion. We can overcome personal barriers that prevent us from reaching out to others in loving ways. We will be able to feel and share more of God’s love.

How do our experiences as children shape our health as adults? What does it mean to be trauma-informed, and what does trauma-informed care look like in a health care setting? Two videos, “What is Trauma-Informed Care?” and “Trauma-Informed Care: From Treaters to Healers,” developed by the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS), seek to answer these questions and shed light on why health care providers across the nation are embracing a trauma-informed approach to care. The 3-4 minute videos...

The agenda and minutes for the June 2019 ACEs Task Force Meeting.

Playing Teen Sports May Protect From Some Damages Of Childhood Trauma May 28, 2019 4:43 PM ET SUSIE NEILSON Participation in team sports as a teen may help protect against the long-term mental health effects of childhood trauma. Hero Images/Getty Images As a child, Molly Easterlin loved playing sports. She started soccer at age 4, and then in high school, she played tennis and ran track. Sports, Easterlin believes, underlie most of her greatest successes. They taught her discipline and...

There's a fantastic five-part series, Whole People , done by PBS, " spotlighting the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) through personal and community stories. It explores the long-term costs to personal well-being and our society. While much work needs to be done, there are many innovative developments to prevent and treat ACES. We all play a role in becoming a whole people." It's amazing. The five topics covered are as follows: Childhood Trauma Healing Communities A New...