Nadine Burke Harris, California’s Surgeon General, has a lot in common with the vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris—Jamaican heritage, surname, home state—and a commitment to addressing ACEs and toxic stress. As reported in the New Yorker article by Paul Tough, “The Poverty Clinic,” Dr. Harris told Kamala Harris, then San Francisco district attorney, about ACEs in 2008 and in response, she offered to help. District Attorney Harris then introduced her to professor of child and...

The desire to see other ACEs initiatives grow and flourish was evident at a recent meeting of the Resilient Columbus County (North Carolina) ACEs initiative when Mebane Boyd, executive director of the New Hanover Resiliency Task Force (also in North Carolina), shared with the Columbus County and neighboring Pender County groups how New Hanover created and works on its strategic plan. In the spirit of sharing, Boyd agreed to let ACEs Connection post the strategic plan and the video of the...

Plans to integrate practices and policies based on the science of adverse childhood experiences in North Carolina’s 4,000-person,100-county statewide judiciary were announced today. Jon David, district attorney for North Carolina’s 15th District, and District Court Judge Quintin McGee of the same district revealed plans to work with North Carolina Chief Justice Paul Newby and Administrative Office of the Courts Director Andrew Heath to create a statewide commission focusing on the science of...

UNCW has partnered with local school and community groups on a pilot program that uses art integration to help students develop resiliency skills. WCE professor Janna Robertson wrote the curriculum for “JUST US” in collaboration with WCE students Schala Harper and Kia Thompson as well as artist, Dare Coulter. The interdisciplinary curriculum incorporates North Carolina middle school standards for social emotional learning, language arts, social studies and visual arts. The program was...

(l-r) Judge Andrew Heath, Chief Justice Paul Newby, District Attorney Ben David Plans to integrate practices and policies based on the science of adverse childhood experiences in North Carolina’s 6,500-person,100-county statewide judiciary were announced today by Chief Justice Paul Newby. The announcement featured a presentation by Ben David, district attorney for North Carolina’s 13th District, that focused on building community health, the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs),...

In 2019 and 2020, dozens of states enacted nearly 60 laws and resolutions that reference adverse childhood experiences or trauma. In this post, there's an interactive map that shows them all.

Special NC Child Legislative Update: COVID Delta Variant & Children Presenters: Dr. Zack Moore, State Epidemiologist & Dr. Kelly Kimple, Women’s & Children’s Health Section Chief Friday, 9/10, 11:00 am All Friday updates will be provided live in both English and Spanish. Sign up here to attend. 2021 NC Statewide Virtual Policy Institute The NC Collaborative for Children, Youth, and Families and Prevent Child Abuse NC announce that registration for the 2021 Policy Institutes is...

By Ben Schachtman, WHQR, September 24, 2021 On the latest edition of The Newsroom, an in-depth conversation with District Attorney Ben David and Chief District Court Judge Jay Corpening. We discuss changing philosophical approaches to juvenile justice and changes to North Carolina's laws — plus, what could be in store now that New Hanover County has agreed to tap $350 million in hospital sale funds. On Monday, August 30, gunshots rang out in a crowded hallway at New Hanover High School. One...

Join us next Wednesday for two excellent CTIPP CAN presentations to begin our 2022 lineup. Baltimore Councilman Zeke Cohen will discuss the work, started by the late Congressman Elijah Cummings, that is making the city of Baltimore trauma-informed. Claudia Remington will describe new trauma informed initiatives by the State of Maryland, including legislation that created a Commission to develop a comprehensive strategy to make the State trauma informed. We will also report on the first...

This is the third of three stunning illustrations showing how PACEs (positive and adverse childhood experiences) affected the family of Cendie Stanford, graphic artist and founder of the nonprofit ACEs Matter. This one looks at her positive childhood experiences. The day before her 16th birthday, Cendie Stanford’s older brother was shot and killed by a young man who, just two years earlier, had been her boyfriend. “I was heartbroken that two people I loved were out of my life forever,” says...

Hello! Rural Opportunity Institute (ROI) just wrapped up our first cohort of the Resilient Leaders Initiative , a 9-month program that supported 5 local organizations to pilot trauma-informed practices. This was the first social accelerator program model to that is: -focused on public agencies (not startups) -rooted in a rural community -supporting orgs on piloting trauma-informed practices Click here for the in-depth press release. Click here for a 2-page summary of outcomes. Thank you to...

(l-r) Judge J. Corpening; Ben David, district attorney, New Hanover County; Chief Justice Paul Newby; Judge Andrew Heath, executive director, Administrative Office of the Courts of the Chief Justice's ACEs Informed Courts Task Force. David and Heath serve as Task Force co-chairs . “There is not any more important work going on in the State of North Carolina,” said Ben David, District Attorney for New Hanover County and co-chair of the Chief Justice’s ACEs-Informed Task Force . The Task force...

Information from Summit Brochure and registration site available here . North Carolina’s first Statewide Trauma Summit – a virtual and in-person summit – will beheld Thursday and Friday, April 27-28, in Raleigh, at The McKimmon Conference and Training Center, Summit leaders announced recently. “Momentum is growing in NC for building trauma-informed systems that strengthen resilience and weed out systemic and often intergenerational sources of child trauma. To advance this work, it is...

Ben David, co-chair of the North Carolina Chief Justice's Task Force on ACEs-Informed Courts, shares plans to sustain the work done during the two-year term of the Task Force, to "care for our own" speaking of North Carolina's children, youth, families, communities, victims of crimes, members of law enforcement, the judiciary and court officers and staffers. He also shared Chief Justice Paul Newby's hopes of "getting ACEs-informed courts" into the culture, and said a national conference for...

July is a time to celebrate all summer has to offer by building bridges and innovating with community to get to the heart of trauma-informed awareness and resilience building. This month, we’ve added new July dates to the summer 2023 *CRC* curriculum—but that’s only half of the good news. Last year, the CRC began as a pilot program. Now that it's evolved, what better time to bring accelerator participants together in a PACEs Connection CRC community than the summer? We are proud to announce...