Blog

ACEs MD Connection is thrilled to share that on Sunday, February 9, 2020, the Elijah Cummings Healing City Act was signed into law. This was truly a community effort, and we’re thankful for your support throughout this process. You can see more about this story by Fox45 News that captures the work being done. Many attended the bill signing. Thank you for your support,

You are invited to attend the Nature Nurtures Symposium designed for formal and informal educators, childcare providers, and health professionals. Our hope is to foster cross-sector communication and share the wealth of information that educators, childcare providers, and health experts each bring to the table in helping Baltimore's children thrive. Attendees will: Receive trauma-informed care training Choose from hands-on sessions led by environmental educators, outdoor recreation experts,...

Please join this ACEs Connection co-sponsored webinar "Making Meaningful Change: Addressing ACEs through Public Policy" on Feb. 18 (11:30 am-1:00 pm ET) presented by the Health Federation of Philadelphia and MARC (Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities). In this webinar, three nationally recognized experts will discuss policy and advocacy strategies on a local, state, and national level using evidence from studies they have conducted with legislators and the general public. Speakers...

New and returning lawmakers take the oath of office on day one of Washington state's 2017 legislative session. — Jeanie Lindsay/Northwest News Network As advocates prepare to see how ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) science, trauma, and resilience play out in the 2020 state legislative sessions — many beginning in January — they are undoubtedly asking: “What does a legislator want?" It may be a stretch to play on Freud’s question: “What does a women want?", but the query captures how...

By Associated Press, The Washington Post, January 7, 2020 Maryland’s Health Department has received $3.6 million in federal funding to address opioid use among pregnant and new mothers. The department launched the initiative, called the “Maternal Opioid Model,” this month, according to a statement released by the agency on Monday. The initiative focuses on improving substance abuse treatment for pregnant and postpartum mothers on Medicaid by providing them with additional resources during...

By Amy Steward, Dorchester Banner, December 25, 2019 Along with Maryland’s ACE Interface Cohort, For All Seasons and CASA of the Mid-Shore are partnering to train residents on the Mid Shore about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in hopes of helping communities to understand how trauma in young children may affect their physical, emotional, and mental health later in life. The trainings also bring awareness to how to build resiliency in children to help mitigate the trauma that they may...

While members of the Maryland General Assembly did not dominate the Dec. 13th “MGA ACEs Roundtable” in numbers, they commanded the room and enlivened a focus on how ACEs science can inform current and future policies considered by elected officials.

Photo caption and credit: Frank Kros, President of the Kros Learning Group, explains The N.E.A.R. Science to the group. The Maryland General Assembly held an event to inform them about how to make trauma informed policy decisions, and informing them about the consequences of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES). (Paul W. Gillespie) ____________________________________________________________ If adverse childhood experiences were eliminated entirely, rates of depression could plummet, heart...

Photo caption and credit: Frank Kros, President of the Kros Learning Group, explains The N.E.A.R. Science to the group. The Maryland General Assembly held an event to inform them about how to make trauma informed policy decisions, and informing them about the consequences of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES). (Paul W. Gillespie) ____________________________________________________________ If adverse childhood experiences were eliminated entirely, rates of depression could plummet, heart...

By Phil Davis, The Baltimore Sun, December 2, 2019 Growing up in a Cecil County trailer park, Ray Lynn has been shaped by tragedy. Lynn went from seeing drug addiction firsthand in his neighborhood as a child to tackling the problem as a police officer decades later. “I can name you friends that are dead because of it," he said. Lynn, 44, also saw his brother and sister burn to death in a house fire when he was 19, he said. It’s what led him to become a volunteer firefighter and, later, a...

I want to turn your attention to the special issue of Child Maltreatment that was just released, on Understanding Neurobiological Implications of Maltreatment: From Preschool to Emerging Adulthood. Not so long ago, we began to understand the connections between child abuse and psychological and behavioral outcomes. Now, as the authors note, we are beginning to “unravel the neurobiological process that underlies the effect of adverse rearing environments on human development across the life span.

We developed ACEs Connection's Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Tool — called the Inclusion Tool, for short — to ensure that ACEs initiatives across the world focus on being inclusive when forming a steering committee, recruiting leaders, providing education about ACEs science, recruiting members, or providing resources and services within their communities. The more inclusive your ACEs initiative is, the more diverse it will be, giving your initiative a real shot at achieving equity and...