Blog

I want to share this important documentary from Humboldt County with you and encourage you to make the time to watch it and share it with others in your organizations and spheres of influence. It is 52 minutes long, but well worth your time. The associate producer of the video, James Faulk - one of the central interviewees of the film - attended First 5 Humboldt's Town Hall on Adverse Childhood Experiences where the connection between early childhood adversity, mental health struggles,...

By Kristina Houck, Patch, October 7, 2019 Mental health services for military veterans in Marin County have increased to four days a week with the addition of Veterans Administration-funded mental health provider Dr. Jesse Wade. Wade, a former U.S. Air Force staff sergeant, Iraq War combat veteran and clinical psychologist, was based in the Veterans' Center in San Francisco. He will be available four days a week at the Marin County Veterans Service Office at 10 North San Pedro Road in San...

An ACEs Connection webinar co-sponsored with 4 CA In 2017, California became the first state in the country to pass a law supporting universal screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in the 5.3 million children in the state’s Medicaid program. As clinicians around California await the state’s announcement of what this new policy will entail, many are wondering what it takes to integrate ACEs science in a pediatric practice. Meet Drs. Deirdre Bernard-Pearl, R.J. Gillespie and...

NOTE: Have you posted a 'Resilience' screening or ACEs Science conference? Attended a great trauma-informed training? Participated in a community discussion related to ACEs science? Presented about ACEs science? If so, WE WANT YOU - to write about it in a Blog Post. When you share your accomplishments, big and small with your community it documents your successes, inspires others to get involved and do more and ignites ideas in other communities! See below for tips on how to blog and a guide...

WASHINGTON, D.C . – Today, Congressman Andy Biggs introduced the Native American Education Opportunity Act , which establishes a five-year pilot program to allow Tribes to create an education savings account (ESA) for Tribal enrolled students who currently attend Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools. The Native American Education Opportunity Program would be funded through Title II of the Every Students Succeeds Act , of which $8,000 would be deposited into a student’s ESA . ESA funds...

Cal State LA’s Prison Graduation Initiative is the state’s only public bachelor’s degree program sending professors to teach behind bars. College programs like it were once far more common, and today advocates are hopeful the political winds have shifted enough to bring public dollars back to prison education. Federal legislation that would make grant aid available has bipartisan support, and in California, a bill to open the state’s financial aid program to incarcerated students is headed...

“A trauma-informed, culturally responsive lens must be a part of everything we do.” This statement by Laura Norton-Cruz, Director of the Alaska Resilience Initiative, sums up the key message of last week’s Senate Afterschool Caucus briefing for Congressional staff which focused on “Afterschool Programs and a Trauma-Informed Approach.” On Wednesday, Sept. 11, the Senate Afterschool Caucus* — in partnership with the Afterschool Alliance, Alaska Children’s Trust – Alaska Afterschool Network,...

"The reality of my own “adverse childhood experiences” is just catching up with me at age 73. My guess is I’m not alone."

By Jeremy Loudenback, Chronicle of Social Change, September 19, 2019 Soon after being appointed California’s first-ever surgeon general, Nadine Burke Harris took off on a barnstorming tour across the state to talk about adverse childhood experiences and toxic stress, an issue she calls “the biggest public health crisis facing California today.” Before the pediatrician was appointed to her position in January by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), Harris had founded and led the Center for Youth Wellness,...

Carolyn Curtis, Ph.D. announces an addition to Mind Matters: Overcoming Adversity and Building Resilience curriculum for uses in one on one settings. She discovered that people had many different desires for using this material. Some people wanted to use Mind Matters in their home visiting program; others wanted to add parts of it to the parenting classes. Some people were meeting with their clients one on one and wanted some structure to their meetings. Based on these requests, Dr. Curtis...

Sonoma County ACEs Connection members Allen Nishikawa and Lena Hoffman at California Policymaker Education Day, 2018 Allen Nishikawa, a sansei, or third-generation Japanese American, majored in political science and American history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he participated in antiwar (Vietnam) marches. But it was his experience as a military brat — moving from school to school across the U.S. and even to Japan as a child — that shaped his own childhood experiences and...

Staff reports, Sept 5, 2019 for The Sentinel " Under SB 436 , California would place into statute “family resources centers,” while formally recognizing their involvement in programmatic activities already underway within the Office of Child Abuse Prevention ." Senator Melissa Hurtado’s bill heads to Governor’s desk SACRAMENTO — Senator Melissa Hurtado’s (D-Sanger) legislation, Senate Bill 436, which would help prevent child abuse and neglect, is headed to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk. The...