Building individual and community resilience is a cornerstone to most community coalition efforts - whether you are working to prevent substance use and abuse, addressing social and health disparities, or creating healthy environments for people to live, work, play, and pray. In this month's installment of their monthly Kansas Prevention TalKS podcast, our friends and partners at the Kansas Prevention Collaborative kindly invited me to talk more about what "resilience" means and what it...

We were very blessed to receive the following: Resilience Reno County, $5,840 x 3 years – Resilience Reno County 3.0 : First year of a three-year grant for an AmeriCorps Volunteers In Service to America (VISTA) position to strengthen this collaborative effort to equip community members and organizations with resources on healing from Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Ultimately, Resilience Reno County aims to create a trauma-informed community that is more empathetic and able to connect...

Thirty-seven Reno County community members took the first step in the commitment of becoming a trauma-informed community. District 308 and ESSDACK drew people towards the pioneering conversation of building a resilient and trauma-informed Hutchinson. This all stems from the district bringing in two national trauma-informed leaders, Heather T. Forbes, author of Help for Billy and Jim Sporleder, the principal in the documentary Paper Tigers, to Hutchinson to help the district begin the journey...

Last month, I had the pleasure of attending the annual National Council for Behavioral Health Conference. I have been to my fair share of conferences but #NatCon19 was one of the best. First, I'm biased. It took place in my city, Nashville, TN . And the venue was the world renowned Opryland Hotel's Gaylord Convention Center . And, I love, love, love the Opryland Hotel ! As any seasoned conference goer, I had a strategy when it came to which sessions and events I wanted to attend. My game...

This month we had the privilege to hear from Seth Dewey and Sara McHaley. They shared their personal stories and also how the local Oxford houses changed their lives. We also handed out books our new study of "The Deepest Well".

The first session of the Starting & Growing Resilient Communities: Online & IRL (In Real Life) was a success. Over 100 ACEs Connection members tuned in despite some issues with registration. I have embedded the video in this post. You have also find the video on the ACEs Connection site here . If you have any questions about the series, please contact Ingrid Cockhren , TN & Midwest Community Facilitator.

I am not even sure where to start. But, I know I need to write about this. I need to give this to the world. Perhaps to another mother who is facing the darkness and can’t see her way out. Perhaps she is watching her children caught in the cyclone that is her life. I think she is who I am writing this for. And maybe for me too. I am doing some amazing work with a community that is fast becoming dear to my heart. I look at the people who keep showing up that are trying to wrap their heads...

Words like trauma-informed and resiliency get thrown around a lot these days. And for many, the visions they call up are a bit too glossy. You see resiliency and trauma-informed aren’t always pretty. Resiliency can look like closing the bathroom door and collapsing in tears… but then washing your face and going back into the world, carrying the belief that you can survive and the hope that things will get better. It looks like begrudgingly going on that walk with a friend, when the little...

This is TRUE evidence of self-healing communities. So grateful to be a witness today to the power of shared stories and the transformation is gives us all. Healing for All- With All

Thanks for posting, Rebecca! Congratulations, Hutchinson and Reno County!!

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