Tagged With "Cherokee Nation Head Start"
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Summit: Oklahoma’s youngest, most vulnerable children suffer more trauma than those in any other state in the nation [tulsaworld.com]
State leaders in education, criminal justice and health came together Tuesday to begin to confront an alarming, new statistic: Oklahoma’s youngest, most vulnerable children suffer more trauma than those in any other state in the nation. A summit titled, “It Starts Here: Trauma-Informed Instruction,” brought thousands of educators from across the state to hear from national experts on childhood trauma and what brain science reveals about what teachers can do to help students both learn more...
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The Absence of Punishment in Our Schools
Where to begin... My heart is full of hope and joy as I watch the trauma-informed schools movement swell across our nation and planet. The science of ACEs is mind-bending to say the least and we are now able to open up a much deeper dialogue about human behavior and health. Ultimately this work is about healing… All. Of. Us. A new consciousness is taking root around ending the “us vs them” construct. The idea is growing that we’re all on this journey together and that no matter where our...
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The courageous fight to fix the NBA's mental health problem
Mental health in the NBA Our five-part series on mental health issues in the NBA: • The state of mental health in the NBA • Mental health in the NBA's black community • To medicate or not? A difficult decision • Behind the anxiety and anger of an NBA ref • The future of mental health in the NBA http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/24382693/jackie-macmullan-kevin-love-paul-pierce-state-mental-health-nba ACE's HIGHLIGHT Parham, a psychologist and director of Loyola Marymount's School of...
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The Power of We
Walking into the recent Oklahoma Department of Education conference It Starts Here: Trauma-Informed Instruction Summit , it was clear that this event would be different than so many symposiums during the corporate school reform era. Ordinarily, the hallway is full of breakfast foods and tables of deep-pocketed education consultants. During this time of austerity, the lack of pastries wasn’t that surprising. But the halls were full of tables of nonprofit social service providers. Even before...
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Trauma-Informed Care is Not a Program For Your Clients
Understanding the long-term impact of developmental trauma, how trauma impacts the brain, and the science of resiliency is a powerful first step toward change. It is exciting to watch people begin to let this knowledge soak in… and even more exciting when they begin to ask “Now what?” As I have worked with organizations across the state, I have found that often what they are really looking for is the curriculum or recipe book that they can follow for their clients or students. Even those...
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Trauma-Informed Social Justice: Q&A with Dr. Bukuloa Ogunkua
Cissy's Note: I work with people who challenge systems and policies, who reform or start non-profits, and who see hope and promise where others see despair or destruction. While some folks shake their heads or shrug indifferently in the face of injustice and suffering, others organize, mobilize, and channel their time and energy towards making a change. Maybe a physician hosts an annual conference bringing trauma-informed approaches to medical practice. Perhaps a woman shares ACEs 101...
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Virtual Screening of Cracked Up for ACEs Connection Members: June 9-10 - Register Now!
We are excited to offer an exclusive virtual screening to all ACEs Connection members of the new, acclaimed film, CRACKED UP . This documentary film is about the long term effects of childhood trauma, told through Saturday Night Live veteran Darrell Hammond’s journey in discovering adverse childhood experiences at the root of his lifelong battle with self-harm, addiction, and misdiagnosis. The film’s director, Michelle Esrick, and other special guests will join us after the screening window...
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What If I Told You?
What if I told you that I was a victim of child sex abuse? As a survivor of child sexual abuse , I have a clear understanding of the importance of addressing stigma and shame as it pertains to sexual abuse, sexual assault and rape. Victims, especially young children, often do not disclose sexual abuse. Those who are witnesses of child sexual abuse, or who are trusted by survivors enough that they confide in them, are often ill-equipped to handle the responsibility. And, many times, parents...
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Windows of Opportunity: Providing a Warm Handoff to Positive Services
As a follow-up to the " Are You OK? You Are Not Alone Anymore" Resource Poster , there have been important discussions in many local and statewide coalitions about "Windows of Opportunity" to build trust and provide a warm handoff to these critical services. However, as we know through research, individuals with untreated trauma may have difficulty trusting strangers, organizations or government agencies, even if they are wanting to help. Often times, these individuals are experiencing...
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Windows of Opportunity: Providing a Warm handoff to Services
As a follow-up to the " Are You OK? You Are Not Alone Anymore" Resource Poster , there have been important discussions in many local and statewide coalitions about "Windows of Opportunity" to build trust and provide a warm handoff to these critical services. However, as we know through research, individuals with untreated trauma may have difficulty trusting strangers, organizations or government agencies, even if they are wanting to help. Often times, these individuals are experiencing...
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Fogelman: ACEs test key part of Project AWARE
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...
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Grassroots resilience: Rural communities tackle ACEs
Rt to left—Adrienne Coopey, DO, Billings Clinic, MT, Lorenzo Lewis, The Confess Project, Little Rock, Ark, and Mendy Spohn, MPH, public health administrator in several counties in Oklahoma ________________________________________________ The three presenters for the “Grassroots Resilience: Rural Communities Tackle ACEs” workshop brought to life the unique challenges of addressing ACEs and trauma in rural communities and shared some valuable lessons for communities of any size. Mendy Spohn, a...
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Grimwood: 'Oklahoma kids are suffering the most': Nearly 1 in 3 go through multiple adverse experiences, trauma
Nearly one-third of Oklahoma children have had multiple adverse childhood experiences, an audience of advocates for children was told Thursday evening. The Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy, in conjunction with the Tulsa World and Tulsa Lawyers for Children, showcased the film “ Resilience: The Biology of Stress & The Science of Hope” on Thursday evening at the Circle Cinema. The film was a lead-in to the topic of adverse child experiences, also known as ACEs, and an hour-long...
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Guide - Creating Trauma-Informed Policies: A Practice Guide for School and Mental Health Leadership
Author, Leora Wolf-Prusan, EdD, School Mental Health lead for SAMHSA's Mental Health Technology Center Pacific Southwest http://mhttcnetwork.org/mhttc/mhttc-psw.html Creating compassionate policies is a cornerstone strategy of educational leadership. This guide provides a deep dive into developing, implementing, and evaluating trauma-informed and compassionate school policies. It highlights four "choice points" for education and mental health leadership: Choice Point 1: Names &...
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Hofmeister announces school mental health grants totaling $12.5 million
Posted by SDEmedia on Fri, 10/05/2018 - 10:39am OKLAHOMA CITY (October 5, 2018) – On the heels of a trauma summit focused on equipping educators to respond to students suffering from toxic stress, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister today announced that the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) has received three federal grants totaling $12.5 million to support districts in meeting the mental health needs of their students. “Far too many of our children in...
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Hofmeister: Moving beyond trauma to hope
‘Our future can be brighter than our past.” These words of hope are critical for hundreds of thousands of Oklahoma children impacted by trauma and the public educators who serve them. Science tells us that childhood experiences of abuse and neglect linger in the brains of young people — causing them to relive their most agonizing experiences in an endless feedback loop and propelling them into a subconscious, and recurring, state of fight or flight that disrupts their ability to learn.
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Hunt & Kendall: Healthier Communities Start With Kids
The small city of Hudson is nestled in Upstate New York and home to fewer than 7,000 people. The city was hit hard by deindustrialization in the late 20th century, facing economic decline as factories closed and industry jobs left. In recent years development has surged, with the opening of antique stores, restaurants and art galleries. The city has become a popular destination for tourists and second-home owners. While our town is often celebrated as a story of revival, development has not...
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Insight Into Trauma Informed
The awareness of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the impact of developmental trauma on both children and adults has begun to spread across Oklahoma. Since Oklahoma’s statistics rank this state as one of the nation’s highest in need of trauma training, this awareness is a vital initial step. As the awareness spreads and many people begin to talk about trauma and how we as people, agencies, and a state respond, our communication and understanding must be consistent with other states...
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Jones: Day 2: Soda, cigarettes and trauma: How Adverse Childhood Experiences alter brain chemistry, cultivate unhealthy habits and prompt premature death
Patients would carry soda into Dr. Gerard Clancy’s office, with cigarettes tucked away for after therapy. Often victims of abuse or violent crime, they would seek soothing but risky behaviors to cope. Overweight. Chronic pain. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Type II diabetes. His former patients will die younger than they should, he said. Clancy conducted therapy sessions until he became president of the University of Tulsa in 2016. At his psychiatry clinic, he saw firsthand how a...
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Jones: Task force finds three important gaps in Oklahoma's trauma-informed care offerings
The Task Force on Trauma-Informed Care has identified three critical gaps in services in Oklahoma: rural communities, poverty-stricken residents and foster care. The panel, established a year ago by Senate Bill 1517, published its interim report this month. Its goal is to find ways to reduce or mitigate harm inflicted by Adverse Childhood Experiences, of which Oklahoma is No. 1 in the nation for youths experiencing two or more . The final report that will recommend a comprehensive strategy...
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Klass: Getting Through, Making Memories and Being the Grown-Ups [NYTimes.com]
I’m not here to tell you what the “good thing” is about the coronavirus situation, because there is no good thing about a pandemic, not ever. That doesn’t mean there won’t be acts of heroism, because there will be, and heartwarming stories, because we’ll have those too, and even — if we’re lucky — moments of scientific brilliance. But we still have to get through the bad stuff. And getting through the bad stuff with your kids may be your act of heroism, your heartwarming story, and even your...
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Keith: Local trauma specialist spreading knowledge statewide
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...
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Leading an Organization Through the COVID-19 Crisis [blog.boardsource.org]
By Phil Buchanan, BoardSource, March 26, 2020 Editor’s note: Running an organization is a huge responsibility on its own, but doing so in today’s environment is truly a different beast. We are in uncharted waters. This post, originally published as a series of tweets by Phil Buchanan — president of the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) and author of "Giving Done Right: Effective Philanthropy and Making Every Dollar Count" — touches on 15 things to keep in mind as you adjust to the many...
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Let's Go Upstream
As the knowledge of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and trauma resilience begins to flow through Oklahoma and our nation, multiple programs, interventions and entire agencies are popping up to address the negative impact of trauma. As the river of knowledge flows faster and rises, the words of Desmond Tutu should inspire agencies and schools to take action. Desmond Tutu so brilliantly stated: There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go...
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Limited Dollars, Significant Influence: How We Advocate, Convene & Catalyze
So Your Grant $ Don’t Go Far? Then be little but loud! Using your voice with people of influence can move others to action. Be they business, foundation or policy makers; you have credibility (earned or not) just by virtue of being a foundation. You can provide a stronger voice for the cause represented by the nonprofits that do the work you care about. That voice can be through social media, through newspaper editorials, through presentations to civic groups, etc. You can involve volunteer...
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National Council for Behavioral Health Conference #NatCon19
Last month, I had the pleasure of attending the annual National Council for Behavioral Health Conference. I have been to my fair share of conferences but #NatCon19 was one of the best. First, I'm biased. It took place in my city, Nashville, TN . And the venue was the world renowned Opryland Hotel's Gaylord Convention Center . And, I love, love, love the Opryland Hotel ! As any seasoned conference goer, I had a strategy when it came to which sessions and events I wanted to attend. My game...
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Newbigging: Key to lifelong good mental health – learn resilience in childhood
Poor mental health among young people is on the rise in the UK, while access to support and treatment remains patchy . There is now a pressing need to build resilience in young people to minimise their risk of poor mental health later on, as our latest report argues . There are 12.5m young people in England, and one in ten will experience poor mental health. Half of all lifelong mental health problems start before the age of 14 , but only one in four young people uses mental health services.
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Nominate a Trauma-Informed Care Champion: #TICchampion
Becoming a trauma-informed organization requires clear communication about the transformation process, and support from staff at all levels of an organization. Often these efforts are spearheaded by “trauma-informed care champions”— individuals committed to raising awareness regarding the health effects of trauma and toxic stress and improving care for people who have experienced trauma. This week, the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) invites you to recognize people around you who...
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Nothing Matters More Than Hope -- Including Resiliency
“In every published study of hope, every single one, hope is the single best predictor of well-being compared to any other measures of trauma recovery. This finding is consistently corroborated with other published studies from top universities showing that hope is the best predictor for a life well-lived."
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Positive Childhood Experiences offset ACEs: Q & A with Dr. Robert Sege about HOPE
Tufts University medical professor Dr. Robert Sege directs the Center for Community-Engaged Medicine and is nationally known for his research on effective health systems approaches that address social determinants of health. He is also the principal investigator for the HOPE framework (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences).The HOPE framework is based on research that shows how positive childhood experiences can mitigate the effects of adverse childhood experiences. Sege and colleagues...
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Positive Childhood Experiences offset ACEs: Q & A with Dr. Robert Sege about HOPE
Tufts University medical professor Dr. Robert Sege directs the Center for Community-Engaged Medicine and is nationally known for his research on effective health systems approaches that address social determinants of health. He is also the principal investigator for the HOPE framework (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences).The HOPE framework is based on research that shows how positive childhood experiences can mitigate the effects of adverse childhood experiences. Sege and colleagues...
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Prosperity Policy: A message for our new governor [The Journal Record]
Kevin Stitt became governor of Oklahoma this week at a highly promising time for our state. “With rising employment and positive outlooks across most industries, the outlook for Oklahoma’s economy heading into 2019 appears positive,” wrote the head of the Oklahoma City office of the Federal Reserve Bank in a mid-December report. The unemployment rate has fallen to near record lows and workers are finally seeing real hourly wage growth. Due to the strong economy and bold actions taken by...
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Rains: Ardmore community seeking ways to address childhood trauma amid low state rankings in well-being, high drug-related arrests
Most parents would never look at their child and say, ‘I can’t wait to mess you up.’ Instead, it’s often ‘I want better for you than I ever had,’ said Ardmore Behavioral Health Collaborative Director Ashely Godwin. However, within the last couple of years, Oklahoma has ranked in the bottom 10 states in the nation for child well-being and has been among the states with the highest recorded juvenile drug-related arrests. A report conducted by Greenhouse Treatment, a rehabilitation facility,...
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Settling In While Feeling Unsettled
How quickly the outside world has influenced our inner world and changed our thoughts, patterns, and triggers. Life is definitely coming in waves. We feel a sense of safety if we can be in a healthy home, fear and worry if we have to venture out for food, calm returns after we practice something that soothes and regulates us, and anxiety builds when we hear news and the impact the virus has on the whole world. We are beginning to expect and accept many unpredictable and unknown...
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12 Myths of the Science of ACEs
The two biggest myths about ACEs science are: MYTH #1 — That it’s just about the 10 ACEs in the ACE Study — the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study . It’s about sooooo much more than that. MYTH #2 — And that it’s just about ACEs…adverse childhood experiences. These two myths are intertwined. The ACE Study issued the first of its 70+ publications in 1998, and for many people it was the lightning bolt, the grand “aha” moment, the unexpected doorway into a blazing new...
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ACEs high in Oklahoma [Examiner-Enterprise.com]
A study ranks Oklahoma as one of the worst states in the nation for adverse childhood experiences, Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy CEO Joe Dorman said Wednesday, and he said he hopes his organization can reverse that trend. Dorman spoke during the Wednesday lunch meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Bartlesville at the Bartlesville Community Center. The former state legislator and 2014 Democratic candidate for governor, began his tenure as CEO of the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy in...
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ACEs Science in Education: The Next Big Challenge is Systems Change #ACEsCon2018
One of the first sessions of the 2018 ACEs Conference: Action to Access discussed the barriers and opportunities for increasing access in the field of education. The main question was: "How can one achieve systematic changes within the field of education?" The session was moderated by Michelle Flowers, a passionate advocate, and the principal of Kinney High in Rancho Cordova, CA, which is part of the Folsom Cordova Unified School District. It included a dynamic and diverse panel of education...
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An imperative for those in "towers" to connect with the realities of trauma in schools
Boosting SEL in K-12's "Ivory Towers" Educational Leadership October 2018 | Volume 76 | Number 2 The Promise of Social-Emotional Learning Those of us in administration must lift our "social awareness" by getting closer to schools and the people inside them. The superintendent's leadership team for the district where I was working had just finished its Monday morning meeting. One member of that team stopped as he passed by my cubicle to view the large poster I'd recently hung up. It displayed...
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Armstrong: Building a Supportive Classroom Community in Early Childhood
As an educator and researcher who specializes in early childhood and also works with older grade levels, I’ve used National Bullying Prevention Month to reflect on ways bullying progresses as children age. I’ve been wondering what can be done in early childhood to prevent bullying in later grades. I’ve reviewed the literature on bullying, including sites that provide suggestions on how to prevent and address bullying , but figuring out how to get started can be overwhelming as it involves...
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Bitterman: Coronavirus in Oklahoma: Teacher parades let students, educators connect from a distance
Teachers from schools around the Oklahoma City metro area have been lining up their cars in caravans and parading through their students’ neighborhoods this week to show their students how much they care about them. The teachers have written on their windows with car paint and taped on hand-written signs with messages of how much they love and miss their students. “We miss y’all,” read a sign held by one teacher Wednesday in Reagan Elementary's parade in Norman. The caravans have snaked down...
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Brene Brown: Why Experiencing Joy and Pain in a Group Is So Powerful
Today, our culture is in crisis. Many people have retreated to their ideological bunkers to hate from afar, dehumanizing others rather than risk having real, meaningful conversations across their differences. How will we find our way back to each other? It’s not by staying in our factions and echo chambers, pressured to conform to whatever viewpoints and ways of being are acceptable to our political and social groups. Instead, it will take a willingness to share our authentic stories,...
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Buchman: House Panel Takes Up Treatment of Childhood Trauma
WASHINGTON (CN) – During its first-ever hearing on the subject, the House Oversight Committee met Thursday with experts and survivors of childhood trauma, a day after an immigrant mother gave emotional testimony about the death of her baby daughter following their stay at a detention center. Thursday’s hearing comes on the heels of testimony delivered by Yazmin Juarez, the mother of a 19-month-old girl who died after 20 days in detention at a facility in Texas. Her story detailed the...
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Building Resilient, Self-Healing Communities
An exciting and somewhat logical outgrowth that has followed the Resilience documentary screenings sponsored by the Potts Family Foundation has been the creation of multidisciplinary teams formed to think about and take next steps within their communities. Led by Resilient Payne County, formed over two years ago, other communities are following a similar path in bringing key leaders together to assess their community’s strengths and define community needs around mitigating and preventing the...
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Caroline Miller: Back to School Anxiety - How to help kids manage worries and have a successful start to the school
The start of the new school year is exciting for most kids. But it also prompts a spike in anxiety: Even kids who are usually pretty easy-going get butterflies, and kids prone to anxiety get clingier and more nervous than usual. Parents feel the pain, too: Leaving a crying child at preschool isn’t anyone’s idea of fun. And having to talk a panicked first grader onto the bus or out of the car at school can be a real test of your diplomatic skills. Kids who normally have a little trouble...
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Child Mind Institute: Not All Attention Problems Are ADHD
Trouble paying attention is often first identified by a teacher who notices that a student seems more easily distracted than most other kids his age. Maybe the child takes an unusually long time to finish schoolwork in class. Maybe when the teacher calls on him, he doesn’t seem to have been following the lesson. Maybe he seems to tune out when instructions are given, or forget what he’s supposed to be doing. Maybe homework assignments often go missing. While all children, especially those...
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Column: Adverse Childhood Experiences Plague Oklahoma's Children [duncanbanner.com]
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...
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Creating hope from adverse childhood experiences
There is no doubt that the landmark Adverse Childhood Experiences study by Anda and Felitti has shifted the landscape of how we think about childhood. The ACEs study established the link between early adverse experiences and later negative outcomes. A brief overview of the key areas of early adversity included in the ACEs study are: (1) physical abuse, (2) sexual abuse, (4) physical neglect, (5) emotional neglect, (6) having a parent with a mental illness, (7) having a parent with substance...
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D. D. Kirkland School features innovation, partnerships
A t the invitation of an early education expert with the Potts Family Foundation , I attended the Aug. 14 D.D. Kirkland Early Childhood Center Screening Day and Meet the Teacher event. I should add that this retired high school teacher did not grasp the importance of high-quality pre-K until I was schooled by Ray Potts (as well as John Rex) during MAPS for Kids. Back then, there were still some doubts as to the benefits of pre-K and full-service community schools like D.D. Kirkland. I should...