The 2018 Building Strong Brains Tennessee ACEs Summit took place last week in Nashville, TN. The theme of this year’s summit was “Celebrating Successes and Imagining Possibilities” and there is plenty to celebrate. Tennessee is one of the most innovative states when it comes to ACEs awareness. Tennessee understands that childhood trauma is the root cause of its poor health outcomes, high rates of addiction and other ailments. And Tennessee is doing something about it. Tennessee’s leadership...

If you need help, call the 1-800-FARM-AID hotline. In the weeks after flooding drowned the livelihoods of families who’ve farmed along the Missouri River for generations, rural advocates in the Midwest began gearing up for another crisis. The devastating floods increased concerns about the mental health and well-being of farmers who already were struggling with yearslong economic uncertainty. Groups in flood-affected states such as Nebraska say they are preparing to provide mental and...

In 2011, a youth needs assessment of the Kansas City metro area included surveys of pediatricians and school nurses, mental health providers and teenagers, pre-school teachers and parents. No matter what discipline was represented, trauma and toxic stress kept coming up, said Marsha Morgan, Chief Operating Officer of Truman Medical Centers Department of Behavioral Health. It was clear that we had to do something. We had to make this a community issue. The needs assessment showed that more...

Hello Missouri ACEs Action! As your Regional Community Facilitator, I am excited to work together. I have an affinity for homegrown movements. I, myself, am a part of a thriving collective impact in Nashville, TN called ACE Nashville. I have extensive experience creating a local movement and I hope I can be a resource for you, not just on ACEs Connection but also with your efforts within your cities and communities. I have a wealth of knowledge when it comes to collective impact and...

On October 28, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) today announced the eight winners (selected from more than 340 applicants) of the 2015 RWJF Culture of Health Prize , honored for working to ensure that everyone in their community has the...

Adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, may lead to poor outcomes later in life. When a child is shot or beaten, for instance, it increases the likelihood that he or she might develop substance-use or eating disorders in adulthood. With that in mind, leaders in the Kansas City area have banded together to launch an initiative called Resilient KC, which has brought community members together to help battle childhood trauma and prevent those long-term health issues that can arise from such...

Hello Missouri ACEs Action group, I am writing to connect with educators and TIC advocates in St. Louis. I have recently setup a local trauma-informed practices reading and development group and welcome your potential connection. Send me a DM on ACESConnection and/or reach out at https://www.goodreads.com/event/list_group/191490-reading-for-trauma-informed-practice if you are able to constructively participate in the group. The group is set to private and you can read the group outline...

JENNINGS, Mo.  — School districts don’t usually operate homeless shelters for their students. Nor do they often run food banks or have a system in place to provide whatever clothes kids need. Few offer regular access to pediatricians and mental health counselors, or make washers and dryers available to families desperate to get clean. But the Jennings School District — serving about 3,000 students in a low-income, predominantly African American jurisdiction just north...

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...

Jeff, Best wishes on your move. Missouri is very active in developing "trauma informed care" across systems. Alive and Well in St. Louis is a nonprofit actively working with the St. Louis community and schools there. Additionally, Dr. Patsy Carter is the lead on Trauma Informed Care in Missouri with the Department of Mental Health and would also be an excellent resource. Both Dr. Carter and Alive and Well do training and working with training collaboratives across the state on becoming...

Emancipation Day, Richmond, Virginia, circa 1905 (Photo source: Library of Congress) To read more of Antwann Lamont Johnson's article, please click here. We use the holiday to reflect on the resilience of our Black ancestors. I didn’t learn about Juneteenth until after I came to prison. Being incarcerated made me want to learn more about the history of slavery in this country. Most of what I’ve learned is sad, but it’s helping me understand the present better. Juneteenth celebrates the...

Photo: Southeast Missouri State University To read more of Bill Browning's article, please click here. Southeast Missouri State University administrators have announced the school will reopen an LGBTQ+ resource center after students across campus demanded it. The center was closed without warning due to lack of staffing and low student usage, according to the administration. “There wasn’t really much communication on the university’s behalf, so we were kind of like what is going on, why is...

“It’s peaceful and tranquil with them swimming around,” says Richard McCool, watching fish swim in one of two housing wings of the Dynamo program, where offenders with good behavior live independently at Northeast Correctional Center in Bowling Green, Mo., on Monday, Nov. 13, 2023. McCool, 65, is serving time for rape and first-degree murder convictions. “One day, God willing, we’re going to get out of here.” Robert Cohen, Post-Dispatch By Jesse Bogan, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 26,...