As far back as she can remember, Berkeley City College Mental Health Specialist Janine Greer understood that there was a connection between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and health. She had a sense early on that racism figures large in that equation.
“Looking around in my community – I’m African American, I noticed that even people who had healthy habits got funky diseases,” she said. “And I’m thinking there must be some sort of health trouble that happens if you’re always stressed.”
So last Fall, her colleague Scott Hoshida, an English instructor at BCC, approached her. “He asked me if I’d ever seen the film Resilience,” she says chuckling. Hoshida didn’t know until then that during the filming of Resilience, Greer was working as a mental health counselor at the Center for Youth Wellness, which was featured in the documentary, along with its trailblazing founder pediatrician Dr. Nadine Burke Harris. Harris is on a mission to prevent ACEs by pushing for universal screening of all children, and providing the necessary help so that children and their families can heal from trauma and build resilience. (Burke Harris’ recent book The Deepest Well chronicles the evolution of her quest.)
Greer said that as soon as Hoshida understood Greer’s background, he tapped her to give a talk about ACEs to their fellow instructors prior to the screening. ”I talked about the ACE Study, the neurobiology of ACEs, and trauma-informed practices,” she explained.
Around 22 of their colleagues attended the March 22 screening of Resilience, which was organized by Greer, Hoshida and another colleague, librarian Heather Dodge, who are part of Berkeley City College’s Faculty Diversity Inquiry Group. The group is looking at ACEs through the lens of historical trauma and racism, explains Greer, who says the campus is made up of about 30-40% Asian students, 30% Latino students and about 26% African American students.
“So we’re trying to think about that, because we think it’s a really big part of the conversation. Every black kid has a story of remembering when racism showed up in their life. And how does that shape how you see the world? And I’m sure every immigrant child has a story of what it’s like to show up here and feel different and ‘other.’ And how does that trauma affect you and stick with you?”
In fact, Bay View Child Health Center, which is affiliated with CYW, includes racism — and several other types of childhood adversity, including involvement with the foster care system and witnessing violence outside the home — in the ACE screening it does with its patients. And several ACE surveys subsequent to the original ACE Study now include racism as an ACE.
Greer said they received a grant from BCC to purchase Resilience and streaming rights for it, and they are hoping to screen it at the district level sometime in the Fall. She said that she’s also planning to connect with the newly formed group Resilient Berkeley.
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