Blog

Alva and Northwestern Oklahoma State University will host Oklahoma's First Lady Sarah Stitt on Feb. 13 at an event designed to educate community members about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE). Stitt and her office have joined forces with the Potts Family Foundation, Northwestern and Northwest Family Services to present a film screening and panel discussion on this important topic. The documentary film "Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope" will be shown at 11 a.m. in...

“The child may not remember but the body remembers.” That was the key saying behind the “Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope” film screening Thursday, Jan. 16 when First Lady Sarah Stitt brought the Hope Rising Tour to Duncan in an effort to educate and help prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) plaguing youth in the state. “Resilience” focuses on the concept of ACEs, which is now understood to be a leading cause of “everything from heart disease and cancer to...

The mental health of children was at the forefront of a discussion led by the First Lady of Oklahoma in Duncan today. The event started with a showing of the documentary Resilience, which focuses on studies into how experiencing trauma as a child could negatively impact you as an adult. Those studies centered around a test called the ACE Test, with ACE standing for adverse childhood experiences. That test asks you questions about your childhood, such as if you were ever abused, if you lived...

By Joe Dorman, The Duncan Banner, January 15, 2020 The latest report from America’s Health Rankings shows a slight improvement in Oklahoma on a critical child wellbeing area, Adverse Childhood Experiences also called ACEs. Sadly, Oklahoma is still the worst in the nation in the frequency of Adverse Childhood Experiences among our children, but awareness is making a difference. The study examined the percentage of children ages 0-17 who endured two or more of the following ACEs: economic...

There is hope for the future. That may seem like a broad statement, but it is true. If the future is our children and our children have potential, the future is in good hands. Let’s start with the bad news first. Toxic stress physically damages a child’s developing brain, according to neuroscientists and pediatricians. The good news - science has proven that through neuroplasticity, the brain has the capacity for resilience. One way to find out the risks for a child or community is through...

The Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office held their first meeting to talk about a program that would help children dealing with trauma in our school districts. Sheriff Vic Regalado says they met with the Healthy Minds organization Thursday discussing the program called Handle With Care. The Sheriff says Oklahoma has one of the highest rates of childhood trauma and unfortunately, he says there are studies that point to these children later on partaking in criminal behavior. He says the goal is to be...

ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) have made their way into the mainstream over the past couple of years, even showing up in a segment that Oprah did for 60 Minutes . And because ACEs have a profound effect on children, the concept has been taken up in the world of education. Approaching education with an understanding of the physiological, social, emotional, and academic impacts of trauma and adversity on our students is driving changes in our systems. However, these changes are not...

NORMAN — The story of a convict and his dog unfolded on a Norman stage Tuesday as playwright and producer Peter Zhmutski directed actors, moved props and rewrote lines for “Marvin’s Shining Star,” a teleplay aimed at helping children of incarcerated parents. Filming of the play wraps up this week and once production is finished, creators hope to distribute it throughout Oklahoma schools, along with the script, set design instructions, and follow-up questions for students so they can produce...

Our next stop on the Raising Resilient Oklahomans Hope Rising Tour with First Lady Sarah Stitt will be in Duncan on Thursday, January 16th with two viewing options - 11:00 - 1:00 - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/resilience-the-science-of-hope-tickets-86820489421?aff=ebdssbcitybrowse and 5:30 - 7:30 - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/resilience-the-science-of-hope-evening-showing-tickets-86835109149?aff=ebdssbdestsearch . Each showing will feature a panel of local professionals moderated by...

NORMAN — Jeremy Elledge thinks he can change Oklahoma. From where he sits, that’s a tall order. Elledge works in mental health services in a state that's top in the nation for childhood trauma. Oklahoma leads in female incarceration and heart disease mortality, and has high rates of child abuse and divorce, lending to the cycles of trauma that impact the state’s youngest residents, the Tulsa World reports. But Elledge wants to stop that cycle. For the last two years, he’s been traveling the...

As more and more schools adopt social and emotional learning standards and realize that students’ college and career success depends strongly on their social, emotional, and character development (SECD), teachers are looking for guidance as to how to bring SECD into their classrooms every day. Whether or not your class has a systematic curriculum, students benefit when SECD is part of academics and classroom conversations and procedures. Members of our Rutgers SECD Lab have the good fortune...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified child maltreatment as a major public health concern, and adult survivors of child maltreatment are at significant risk of chronic disease and premature mortality. This constant exposure to child maltreatment makes these health care practitioners uniquely vulnerable to stressors associated with burnout.