The Detroit school district is shutting off drinking water to all of its schools after test results found elevated levels of lead or copper in 16 out of 24 schools that were recently tested. "Although we have no evidence that there are elevated levels of copper or lead in our other schools where we are awaiting test results, out of an abundance of caution and concern for the safety of our students and employees, I am turning off all drinking water in our schools until a deeper and broader...

Hello Michigan 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...

The Michigan Association of Health Plans Foundation , thanks to funding from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund , created the Michigan ACE Initiative: Building Healing Communities . Their initiative is focused on expanding efforts toward a statewide awareness of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and creating a statewide coalition to recommend development of appropriate interventions and state policy; and to provide for the implementation of Medicaid policy for ACEs. The ACEs initiative in...

Alicia Guevara Warren says the budget reflects what’s important in the state. Guevara Warren, the Kids Count in Michigan Project Director for the Michigan League for Public Policy, says Michigan’s leaders have to decide what those priorities are. The League has released a report on improving Michigan’s ranking in the annual Kids Count report . Michigan was 31st nationally, and last in the Midwest in the most recent assessment of child well-being. Guevara Warren says two areas - economic well...

Hello, If you are a part of the Michigan ACE initiative and if you are working on spreading information about ACEs, Resilience, and Toxic Stress in our state, could you please take a little time to share what you are doing in the state so others here are aware. There are many of us who are very interested in what you are doing no matter what you do. We are interested in school - rural / urban, DHS, CMH, Great Start. We cannot learn from you if you don't share with the rest of us. Thanks for...

Reminder of tomorrow's ( Wednesday, January 10, 10am PST/1:00 PM EST) webinar on State Policy Approaches to Addressing Childhood Adversity Please join us for a three -part learning series hosted by the California Campaign to Counter Childhood Adversity and ACEs Connection . We'll hear from states that are making great strides towards adopting trauma-informed policies and practices. Three-Part Learning Series: Webinar 1: Overview of State Level Efforts to Address Childhood Adversity and...

Recently, my wife and I viewed the movie Seabiscuit for the umpteenth time—as it is a favorite. Each time I’ve watched the movie, I notice something I haven’t noticed before. This time, I focused on the message that was being repeated over and over again. To paraphrase that message: we all go through tough times, but we need to keep going in order to succeed and having a second chance is necessary. But is that true? Or does that have to be true? The answer to that question in the context of...

I cross-posted this blog by Holly White-Wolfe (From Sonoma County ACEs) here. I think we in Michigan have to think bigger. We have to get more done. So....... Several ACEs Connection members should be feeling proud about now. Karen Clemmer, Carla Denner, Jessica Hackwell, Nick Dalton, and several others joined the 4CA Campaign to educate legislators about ACEs and trauma. Our partners with First 5, Maternal Child Adolescent Health, and the County Board of Supervisors also wrote letters to...

The Michigan ACE Initiative is training individuals who work in fields that address trauma in children. Our Master Trainers bring excitement, energy and drive to this initiative and help make our efforts worthwhile—they will be the ones to make the difference and our job is to assist their efforts over the coming months and years. So far, we’ve trained 50 individuals– our first cohort trained in Gaylord last spring and our second cohort trained in Gull Lake in September. Talking about mental...

Malik Yakini is executive director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network , a coalition of people and groups that promotes urban agriculture, co-operative buying, and healthy eating . His organization is helping Black people in the city take matters into their own hands by creating their own grocery store, The Detroit People's Co-op. The grocery will sit in the city's North End neighborhood, where about 92 percent of residents are Black and nearly 40 percent have a household...

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...

“The damage that happens to kids from the infectious disease of toxic stress is as severe as the damage from meningitis or polio or pertussis,” says Dr. Tina Hahn, a pediatrician in rural Caro, Michigan. She says her No. 1 goal as a physician is to prevent toxic stress. Hahn routinely questions families about stresses at home, educates them about the risks and helps them find ways to manage. To see more by this article from Lindsey Tanner Please see the link here: ...