The two biggest myths about ACEs science are: MYTH #1 — That it’s just about the 10 ACEs in the ACE Study — the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study . It’s about sooooo much more than that. MYTH #2 — And that it’s just about ACEs…adverse childhood experiences. These two myths are intertwined. The ACE Study issued the first of its 70+ publications in 1998, and for many people it was the lightning bolt, the grand “aha” moment, the unexpected doorway into a blazing new...

As a follow up to last week's post from the Barton County Health Department, Shelly Schneider shares their journey to move the work into the community through RiseUP Barton County. "Barton County is experiencing an exciting opportunity with community members uniting together as a group of unusual voices meeting weekly to develop and launch an effort for not only building but executing a Trauma Informed Community of Resilience. Our efforts started 2 years ago when the Barton County Health...

One of the reasons that our team wanted to create this online community was so that we can share the stories of our amazing partners from across the state who are learning more about how traumatic stress impacts their organizations and the people who they work with and alongside. The team at the Barton County Health Department in Great Bend, KS started their journey back in 2016. Over the next couple of weeks, Health Department Administrator, Shelly Schneider, shares their experiences both...

As our communities struggle to do what is needed to keep people safe and families work to find a new a “normal” while caring for and educating children at home full time – it can be a lot to handle. Child psychologist and trauma expert, Dr. Bruce Perry offered 8 tips for helping children stay regulated in this recent article from Psychology Today . Dr. Perry was also a part of this video resource for parents, Staying sane while Parenting with Shelter-in-Place! For service providers who would...

Just in case you missed it, Jane Stevens has posted a great new article and infographic explaining the 12 Myths of the Science of ACEs . Reading it, I felt like Jane has been following our team around lately (in a good way!). We have these discussions on a regular basis within the communities and organizations we visit - and we are betting that you do too! For us, Jane's article reinforces (and validates!) what we try to share with others and gives us additional language to do that in a...

Before we can make progress on any issue that affects the health and well-being of those who live in our communities, people must be aware that an issue exists. In this installment, of our series dedicated to the CDC’s Essentials for Childhood Framework , we are going to highlight ways that some communities in Kansas are working toward achieving Goal #1: Raise awareness and commitment to promote safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments and prevent child abuse and neglect. In...

Tufts University medical professor Dr. Robert Sege directs the Center for Community-Engaged Medicine and is nationally known for his research on effective health systems approaches that address social determinants of health. He is also the principal investigator for the HOPE framework (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences).The HOPE framework is based on research that shows how positive childhood experiences can mitigate the effects of adverse childhood experiences. Sege and colleagues...

Safe, stable, nurturing relationships are key to a child’s cognitive, emotional, physical and social development. Their first exposure to these are through parents and caregivers, but these relationships don’t happen in a vacuum. The physical and social environment surrounding families have a significant impact – both positively and negatively – on the context in which relationships develop. One way to think about this context is through community norms. Norms are defined as a those values,...

Karen Clemmer, the Northwest community facilitator with ACEs Connection, was already deeply interested in the CDC/Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study when she and a colleague from the Child Parent Institute were invited to lunch by ACEs Connection founder and publisher Jane Stevens in 2012. But that lunch meeting changed everything. Karen Clemmer “Jane helped us see a bigger world,” says Clemmer. “She came with a much wider lens. She didn’t look only at Sonoma County, she...

A Kansas-licensed social worker, Vanessa Lohf was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas, where she still lives and works in public health by facilitating the Trauma-Informed Systems of Care Initiatives (TISC) team at the Wichita State University Community Engagement Institute. She also manages the Kansas ACEsConnection network , where she regularly posts about news and resources for communities and organizations throughout the state. Lohf says that Wichita is known as the “Aircraft Capital of...

This is a repost of information originally posted to PACEs Connection by Robbyn Petters Bennett, a Psychotherapist from Portland Oregon. Thanks to Robbyn for the resource! Putting the pieces together! Join an upstream approach to ending violence against children! This is an ACEs & Spanking INFOGRAPHIC that helps parents understand the connection between ACEs and the importance of not spanking and instead, using positive parenting techniques. For a free webinar series to support parents:...

Five years ago, I wrote a blog for this site to encourage readers to engage in a different type of cookie exchange to spread comfort and warmth during a time of year that isn’t always experienced as “merry” or “joyful”. I’d like to revisit that 2019 post with a “HOPE-ful” lens… In their book, Fostering Resilient Learners , Kristin Souers and Pete Hall introduce a concept called “the cookie jar” – the art of giving praise. It’s part of human nature to rely on external feedback to develop a...