Tagged With "Elevate Montana"
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Wellness group warns of danger surrounding Adverse Childhood Experiences [KTVH.com]
HELENA – Many people look fondly on their childhood, but traumatic events that occur during youth can end up causing major problems down the line. On Monday, organizers with Elevate Montana, a children and family wellness group, hosted a screening of the documentary “Resilience” at the Helena Middle School auditorium. The film looks at the effects of what researchers have deemed Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) which are events during childhood like mental and physical abuse or having an...
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Why be "trauma-informed?" - a training for churches by Chaplain Chris Haughee, DMin
As I wrap up my doctoral studies, I am excited to see how the concept of becoming “trauma-informed” in ministry is starting to pick up steam across the country. A large part of the credit for furthering that conversation goes to you--my friends and colleagues here on ACEsConnection! It's been humbling to see how our relatively small ministry in Montana has something to add to the conversation. In fact, far from being behind the curve here in Montana, we are on the cutting edge in terms of...
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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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A Healthier Bottom Line: Panelists Assert ACEs Science Is Good for Business
Somer Gauthier knew the ACE training had worked when one of her general managers told her about an irate customer. Gauthier, owner of two McDonald’s franchises in Helena, Montana , experienced her own “aha” moment during a community meeting hosted by Elevate Montana. “I had never heard of ACEs,” she told attendees at the 2017 Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities (MARC) National Summit. “All I could think about was: My employees need this information.” Gauthier connected with Tina...
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ACES conference focuses on consequences of child abuse, neglect [RivalliRepublic.com]
The Bitterroot Cares for Kids Network is presenting “ACES in the Bitterroot,’’ a day-long conference on identifying, preventing and alleviating the consequences of childhood abuse and neglect. Todd Garrison, director of the ChildWise Institute, will be the guest speaker at the Aug. 17 event, which also will feature the film “Paper Tiger.’’ The focus will be on the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, which has identified childhood trauma as a major public health issue. According to the...
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ACEs program to start in Bitterroot
The Bitterroot Cares For Kids Network is the "backbone organization" of the newly established Elevate Montana Bitterroot Affiliate , and they are on the run! The Bitterroot Cares for Kids Network is starting support programming as a follow-up to their August conference on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) “ACEs in the Bitterroot.” The conference was on identifying, preventing and alleviating the consequences of childhood abuse and neglect. The first support programming is a book-club type...
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Addiction: Balancing treatment, punishment [GreatFallsTribune.com]
David Belcher reported to the Cascade County Courthouse in November 2013 to be sentenced for drug possession and criminal endangerment. He thought he was going to prison for nine years. Instead, he was given a second chance, thanks to his military record, through a spot in the newly established Montana 8th Judicial District Veterans Treatment Court. “I could blame it on my head injury. I could blame it on my PTSD,” Belcher said of his criminal case. “I did have those things — I do have those...
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Adverse Childhood Experiences Training [falloncountyextra.com]
Eastern Montana Residents - Take note of an upcoming ACEs training! This training looks to be perfectly timed following recent reports that Montana ranks 4th in the nation for toxic childhoods. Adverse Childhood Experiences Training will be held on Friday, March 17 at 8:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. at the Plevna School Childhood experiences, both positive and negative, have a tremendous impact on future violence victimization and perpetration, and lifelong health and opportunity. As such, early...
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Adversity Is Not Destiny
Childhood adversity can activate the human stress response system, which is primarily made up of the hormones/chemicals cortisol and adrenaline. In the developing brain of a child, prolonged activation of the stress response system can cause these chemicals to actually become toxic. Think of that – a child’s brain being bathed in toxic chemicals due to abuse, neglect, or chaotic household dysfunction. It’s called toxic stress. It’s real, not imagined, and it’s physiological, potentially...
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Anxiety, Depression and the Modern Adolescent - Kids are overexposed!
Intermountain (the founding organization of ChildWise Institute that started the movement, Elevate Montana ) was honored to be a source for a TIME cover story this week: "Anxiety, Depression, and the Modern Adolescent." From the article: "Daniel Champer, the director of school-based services for Intermountain in Helena, Mont., says the one word he'd use to describe the kids in his state is overexposed. Montana's kids may be in a big, sparsely populated state, but they are not isolated...
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"Be Child Wise" Conference in Bozeman, MT (May 2018)
Raising a child to be loving, resilient and respectful is a tough endeavor in the best of circumstances. But what if the child is emotionally scarred from early experiences of loss, betrayal or harm? This workshop will introduce the audience to the principals of successfully connecting with and raising a child who is emotionally distressed. It provides real-life examples and exercises in the 3 principles of the handbook Be Child Wise, namely, know yourself; know your child; and always work...
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Building Resilience for Better Lives - from HelenaIR.com
Life is hard. “In this world you WILL have trouble,” Jesus said. The ability to successfully face the hardships that will inevitably come to us will determine our level of satisfaction, joy, and peace. Resilience isn’t just a desirable trait, it’s absolutely essential. And, it turns out that scripture has a lot to say about this essential quality for successful living. There are many passages we could examine to illustrate the point, but the letter from James is one of my favorites. Eugene...
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Confronting Adverse Childhood Experiences to Improve Rural Kids’ Lifelong Health
According to the 2010 U.S. Census , Montana ranks 5th in the nation for the percentage of population living in a rural area (44.1%), eclipsed only by Mississippi, West Virginia, Vermont, and Maine. And as you may know, Montana is the 4th largest state in the nation! There are so many great things about being such a rural state — the charm of small towns, the beauty of farms and ranches, the wide-open spaces, our majestic mountains, rivers, streams, and creeks; and of course, let’s not forget...
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Connecting the Dots, Finding the Do-ers: Montana MARC Update
When Tina Eblen and Todd Garrison led an ACE training at the Fort Peck Reservation, home to the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, they heard stories of “gut-wrenching” trauma so pervasive it seemed commonplace. “Some people told us, when they were taking the ACE questionnaire, ‘Gosh, I thought these things were just normal,’” says Eblen, MARC coordinator for Elevate Montana , an ACE-informed statewide initiative launched in 2013 by the ChildWise Institute , a non-profit that focuses on child...
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Everything is NOT fine...
Everything is NOT fine… Has your church heard about ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences)? If not, I am sure you have seen the effects in your communities and your worshipping communities. Those in our congregations, as well as those in our neighborhoods, are struggling under the weight of unresolved trauma, persistent toxic stress, and the dysfunction that results from broken relationships. No matter what we might want to tell one another, “Everything is NOT fine.” In our home state—where...
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Failed by Montana’s foster care, man succeeds despite long odds [BozemanDailyChronicle.com]
Schylar Canfield Baber remembers everything about the moment he was taken away from his family. “I can remember the police raid on our trailer,” Schylar said. “I can remember my footie pajamas, the feel of my feet along the ground as I walked to the police car. I can remember my mother being placed over another police car and being handcuffed, and she got smaller as the car pulled away.” He was 6 years old. One of his few photos from that period, showing him and his little brother smiling...
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Grassroots resilience: Rural communities tackle ACEs
Rt to left—Adrienne Coopey, DO, Billings Clinic, MT, Lorenzo Lewis, The Confess Project, Little Rock, Ark, and Mendy Spohn, MPH, public health administrator in several counties in Oklahoma ________________________________________________ The three presenters for the “Grassroots Resilience: Rural Communities Tackle ACEs” workshop brought to life the unique challenges of addressing ACEs and trauma in rural communities and shared some valuable lessons for communities of any size. Mendy Spohn, a...
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Intermountain Video Podcast: How Kids Navigate a Pandemic
Meegan Bryce, MSW, began her work at Intermountain with children and families as a Direct Care Counselor in 2004. She has since been a Cottage Supervisor, Child and Family Therapist, the Residential Manager and now serves as the Residential Director. Meegan is a Montana native and enjoys all the outdoor activities that Montana has to offer, especially river rafting. In this video podcast, she speaks with Development Officer Tyler Zimmer about how the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting the...
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ITRC calls for Universal Resilience Education and Skills Training for Climate Trauma
Sneak Preview for ITRC ACEs Connection Members! Next Tuesday, Jan. 8, the ITRC will release a major report Preparing People on the West Coast for Climate Change. The media release about the report is below (and attached). It includes a link to the webpage for the report, where people can download the full report, and find a link to the webpage with examples of resilience programs across the west coast. You can connect with the ITRC CA and PNW Facebook page:...
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Jim Sporleder coming back to Montana!
ChildWise Institute is really excited to announce Jim Sporleder as our featured expert at our May conference! You all know Jim as the former principal of Lincoln High School, which the documentary film, Paper Tiger's, is all about. ChildWise works closely with Jim, and he will be presenting and teaching his new guidebook, The Trauma-Informed School: A Step-by-Step Implementation Guide for Administrators and School Personnel . Unlike a typical ChildWise educational event, conference or...
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Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities (MARC) Represented at California ACEs Conference
(L to R) Teri Barila from Children's Resilience Initiative in Walla Walla, WA along with Dr. Ariane Marie-Mitchell from San Bernardino County, CA ACEs Task Force share their ACEs journey in their communities Representatives from several MARC communities were among the 450 people who attended the 2016 Adverse Childhood Experiences Conference in San Francisco, CA on October 19th and 20th. This is the third CA ACEs conference sponsored by the Center for Youth Wellness (CYW), and it was also the...
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Montana Lawmakers Work On Suicide Prevention Legislation (mtpr.org)
During his State of the State address Tuesday, Gov. Steve Bullock said that he "cannot tolerate that Montana leads the nation in youth suicide." The youth suicide rate is particularly concerning for legislators. Rep. Mary Ann Dunwell, D-Helena, is sponsoring House Bill 265 , a bill that would provide a limited number of grants to schools to help them implement suicide prevention programs. Dunwell also introduced House Bill 176 , which would require primary care physicians to give depression...
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Montana making a little headway to address ACEs in adults!
Recently, ChildWise Institute had worked hard with bi-partisan legislative leaders on a Bill to promote a pilot project based on the science of ACEs, toxic stress, and resilience . Unfortunately, it was tabled (read: failed). ChildWise has been working with legislators for 6 years now (3 legislative sessions) that have wanted to use ACEs as a public policy issue and a legislative Bill. Those efforts have been unsuccessful so far. It's something every state needs to accomplish -- but I think...
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Montana prison program that helps women recover from trauma, change lives is expanding [HelenAir.com]
In a campus near the river here, a program that focuses on helping women who have suffered trauma is seeing success a year and a half after its inception. Riverside Recovery and Reentry Program, operated by the state Department of Corrections along with private contractors, aims to provide a safe, secure and trauma-informed program for women who have been sentenced to time with the department. [For more of this story, witten by Holly K. Michels, go to ...
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Moving toward the ACEs tipping point: Communities, their ACEs initiatives and ACEs billboards
David Bornstein, a columnist for the New York Times , posted the third of a three-part series ( Putting the power of self-knowledge to work ) about communities that are integrating trauma-informed and resilience-building practices based on ACEs science. (Part one — Tapping a troubled neighborhood’s inner strength , and part two — How community networks stem childhood traumas .) It’s a terrific series, with information that we can all use, and I highly recommend reading them all. Some members...
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Opinion: Butte CARES supports partnerships to fight drug abuse [MTStandard.com]
On Friday, August 11, a headline in The Montana Standard read "Drugs, Obesity Top Concerns.” The article was prompted by the reveal of the recent Community Needs Assessment conducted by St. James Healthcare and the Butte-Silver Bow Health Department. In examining these two issues of most concern, both have a definite impact on the health and wellbeing of our community. Studies have shown that both drug use and obesity can shorten the average life span of an individual. There is also...
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Our own Board member, Dr. Arzubi, is changing Montana for good!
Billings Clinic aiming to get psych patients out of emergency rooms All too often, patients in psychiatric crisis end up in a hospital emergency room where they have to wait sometimes for hours to receive care. Once there, they get checked out by doctors and nurses and often wait to either receive treatment, sometimes resulting in admission to psychiatric department, or get discharged to go home. With that in mind, Billings Clinic announced Monday that its Clinic Classic fundraiser would go...
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Shared Military Background Helps Community Health Workers Connect with Patients in Rural Montana
Kyle McClure,* a community health worker (CHW) for Adult Resource Alliance, which contracts with Mountain-Pacific Quality Health in Billings, Montana, served for five years in the U.S. Army’s airborne division. While there, he learned to be patient, observant, and a good listener — critical skills for a CHW. His army background also helps him engage with military veterans, an often under-served and medically complex group. Montana has the second highest rate of veterans per capita in the...
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Sharing the Word: ACE Knowledge is “Secular Gospel” for Montana Pastor
When Reverend Tyler Amundson first read the 1998 ACE study, he realized that this landmark science could become a common language: a way to talk about adversity and healing with clinicians and government officials, devout churchgoers and people who would never step inside a place of worship. “I call this the secular gospel,” he says. “It was easy to describe the ACE study to people. It opened a door for us to name how people face trauma and adversity and how positive relationships can help...
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States Produce a Bumper Crop of ACEs bills in 2017—nearly 40 bills in 18 states
A scan done in March by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) through StateNet of bills introduced in 2017 that specifically include adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in the text produced a surprising volume of bills (close of 40) in a large number of states (18). A scan done a year ago produced less than a handful. NCSL is a bipartisan organization that serves both state legislators and their staffs. The shear volume of bills in so many states represents a promising...
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Suicide Prevention Bill Includes ACEs!
"These types of demographics and statistics are unacceptable." That's what Senator Windy Boy, sponsor of Montana Legislative House Bill 118 , said in regards to suicide rates in Montana. “We’re ranked among the highest in suicide nationwide,” said Windy Boy. “Indian Country is ranked the highest in Montana." He continued, "This is the first step in reducing that,” adding that he wants to thank the governor and the Legislature for their support in “making sure this was a priority in this...
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Supporting Graduation Initiatives Across Montana ( Philanthropy Northwest)
Jan 30, 2020 Trends in Northwest Giving began as a project of Philanthropy Northwest in 2002 and has been published every two years as an aggregation and analysis of grantmaking trends that shape our region — Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. Much of our sector’s growth, as well as the deep roots that strengthen our communities, is reflected throughout each report. Data alone doesn’t capture the human impact of philanthropy. That’s why this year, we’ve added regional...
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The Public's Health: A look at US policy's effect on children [MTStandard.com]
Had you asked me two years ago whether U.S. policy would ever promote toxic stress in children, I would have looked at you as if you had two horns growing out of your head. After all, the U.S. government philosophically for decades has served as a global patriarch — and matriarch! — working to ensure that populations — especially children — have at least a rudimentary standard of living, and that all humans have basic rights. This column will not serve to inform about what’s currently...
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The Public's Health: County aligns strategy with state health goals [MTStandard.com]
The proposed priorities listed in the State Health Improvement Plan, which will drive health improvement processes in Montana from 2018 through 2022, largely mirror the priorities developed from the recent 2017 Butte-Silver Bow Community Health Needs Assessment and other health improvement work occurring in Butte-Silver Bow. The proposed priorities in the state plan include cardiovascular disease and diabetes prevention and control; cancer control, with a focus on tobacco use prevention and...
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Re: Our own Board member, Dr. Arzubi, is changing Montana for good!
Great news for Montana! Thanks for sharing, Todd.
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Local Affiliates Accelerate ACEs-and-Resilience Movement in Montana
In Toole County, Montana, deputy sheriffs call a school counselor, from their patrol cars, after responding to a traumatic incident—a domestic abuse call, an overdose, an arrest—that involves a child. “Handle with care,” they tell the counselor, and they give the child’s name. The counselor passes that information to teachers: a quiet heads-up that the student might be hungry or sleepy, tearful, angry or distracted by whatever happened at home. “My teachers love it,” says Mary Miller, chair...
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"Our Children in Anxious Times" by Jen Kunka
[NOTE: This article was the result of an interview that I did with Jen Kunka of Northern Rockies Institute of Theology, a ministry of the Montana Synod ELCA, shared with permission] For Parents and Caregivers: When Pastor JP Carlson drove four middle school students to confirmation camp at Christikon this summer, he noticed something. It was obvious how much they had missed being with kids their own age. “They instantly lit up in the car and were so excited. The chatter never stopped,” he...
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Positive Childhood Experiences in Ojibwe Culture [positiveexperience.org/blog]
By Zhawin Gonzalez (compiled by Chloe Yang), 9/30/20, positiveexperience.org/blog HOPE knows that all families, communities, and cultures have inherent strengths. In recent webinars with The Montana Institute , we’ve learned real world examples of this from co-presenters at the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center (MIWRC) . Z hawin Gonzalez, or Wasegabo, is the MIWRC Education and Resource Coordinator. In this blog post, Zhawin shares his insight on the long tradition of positive...
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Guest view: Prioritizing our children’s mental health during stressful times (Montana Standard)
By Lauren Leslie, Jan 1, 2021, Guest View: Montana Standard. Stressful. Unusual. Unexpected. Historic. Troubled. Pick your synonym for 2020, it all adds up to a year that pushed most of us out of our comfort zone and into anxiety. And, if you think this only affects adults, think again. Many of Montana’s children are struggling with fear, anxiety and stress. The ongoing social distancing, an unusual school year and family concerns have all created a situation where many feel lost and out of...
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Snowbird Fund: Assistance available to support community searches
Montana Community Foundation (from their website). The Snowbird Fund directly supports Montana Native families conducting community searches in urban and reservation areas by providing direct assistance to individuals leading the search for their missing loved ones. Direct payments of $500 will be made to individuals to help provide the resources required to conduct a thorough community search such as: Gas money, meals, and hotel stays as they search across the state Cell phone payments...
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RSVP Now! Transform Community Norms & Narratives with the Science of the Positive
2021 Montana Virtual Summer Institute EVENT & AGENDA & SPEAKERS (Click on blue text to open documents) It's time to tell a new story about community health. One that focuses on community strengths and protective factors. One that promotes health instead of risk, and communicates hope instead of fear. One that's guided by what we want to grow instead of what we want to prevent. Join us this summer to learn how to improve health, increase engagement, and transform community norms. You...
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