Hello everyone!

Although we had a rather small attendance at our meeting last Thursday, we moved forward on our stated goal of defining an achievable goal to be accomplished within the Alpena Public School System within the coming school year.

The goals we articulated is the following: "Every teacher and administrator within APS will understand the neurobiology of childhood trauma and how it affects a child's academic performance and ability to function in a school environment."

We also came up with a list of important and significant personnel within the system who will be necessary to be on board for us to achieve this goal:

 

1. Major Administrators

2. All Elementary and Secondary Principles

3. All teachers, school success workers and all staff and parents associated with the school system in any capacity. 

 

 

Brenda Rost and Jean Kowalski will develop a plan to get the support of these persons and present it at our next meeting.

Also:

1. Everyone is encouraged to purchase and read two excellent resources related to our goal for the year:  Helping Traumatized Children Learn and A Guide to Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools.  Both are available for $13 each from massadvocates.org or can be downloaded (if you have the right computer equipment). If you need assistance, contact Tina Hahn and she will assist as best she can.  

2. We learned of Bob Thompson's continuing efforts to set up an Emotions Anonymous chapter.  He has made an appeal to St Paul Lutheran Church.  The pastor is taking the request to the church council.  If the council approves, Bob will give us a date for establishing the chapter.  He already has a good number of interested individuals.  He also emphasized that EA is a supplement, not a replacement for professional counseling or other therapy. 

3. We decided we would like to get the movie Paper Tigers, about a model of a trauma-informed school in Washington, and show it in mid-October.  John Musick will follow through to determine if that is possible, and also if there will be a charge.  

4. Doris Feys is heading a group of teachers at Wilson School who are attempting to improve services to children at that school.  Carlene Przykucki will work with Doris to document their work so that if can be replicated in other settings and the information can be evaluated for quality improvement and funding applications as needed.   

5. Carlene Przykucki represented Greg's Promise at the meeting.  They are going to start publishing a newsletter, and will feature our work, among other things including their own work highlighting early childhood education on toxic stress to the 0 - 3 community.  

Our next meeting will be on Friday, 9/11, at 4 pm.

 Miscellaneous: Dr. Hahn will be presenting to the Roger's City Kiwanas on ACEs and at ACC school of nursing.  She will also be setting up a series of power point presentations to be used by other members of the group and we will together set up a set of individuals who can give presentations on ACEs, toxic stress and the importance of trauma-informed community systems to others in our community.