Meeting notes / February 9, 2016
Attending
Greg Bourne, Lead 4 Tomorrow Family Hui Program
Angela Carrasco, UC Davis Hospital
Shaunda Cruz, Sacramento County Probation
Susan Jones, San Juan Unified School District and ACEs Connection CA Education Manager
Gail Kennedy, ACEs Connection Network- Northern California Community Manager
Katherine Lehman, Rudolf Steiner College
Imani Lucas, Health Education Council
Donielle Prince, ACEs Connection Network- Sacramento Online Group Manager
Lucy Roberts, Lead 4 Tomorrow Family Hui Program
Wendie Skala, Kaiser Permanente
Barbara Stern, Rudolph Steiner College
Kathryn Taylor, Sierra Mental Wellness Group
Introductions
Mindfulness Minute led by Susan Jones
Announcements
- There will be a Healing Festival in Sacramento on March 5, 2016. See our group calendar for details and the flyer. The Festival is still in development and they are still accepting proposals for workshops. Contact: Christi Ketchum at: sacsurvivors@safeandjust.org
- Save the Date: On May 10, there will be an Aces Connection Network NorCal Conference. 4-6 members of each ACEs connection Working Group will be invited to attend. The goal of the conferences is to give working groups across California the opportunity to share and learn about common challenges as well as best practices.
- Report Back: Futures Without Violence convening “Changing Minds”. Wendie, Greg and Imani all attended.
- Gail commented: a valuable opportunity to ensure that there was a voice from service providers in the room of elected officials and other decision-making stakeholders.
- Wendie commented: impressive to see the number of California cities and regions represented at the convening, demonstrating an interest in working collaboratively to address violence.
Presentations
- Lead for Tomorrow founder Greg Bourne presented, along with the Director of their Family Hui Mainland Parent Training program. This program serves families with children aged birth to 5 years old. An informational flyer is attached to this post.
Greg provided background: The word “hui” (pronounced hoo-eee) is a term that means “meeting or gathering”. The concept of a “family hui” started in Hawaii and was designed to provide supports that strengthen families, with an embedded evaluation design that contributes to evidence based effectiveness.
Family Hui Mainland continues this work in the local area, and has a current goal of integrating an ACEs framework into their curriculum. Greg started Learn 4 Tomorrow with the mission of “silo-busting”. In his career working on conflict resolution, he has found that sector isolation creates conflict, while collaboration cross-sector helps to resolve it.
Lucy: “We are an ACEs hui in this room”. Family Hui designs a curriculum and implements this curriculum with 6-10 families. They follow a strengths-based, peer-led model. The key strength of their program is that it empowers the families that they are supporting. They believe that ultimately change comes from the communities themselves, not from programs. Programming can’t be everywhere, but empowered community members can effect cultural shift.
After learning about ACEs, they realized that the trauma-informed component was missing from their curriculum. They have received a grant to support the work of centering ACEs in their curriculum. Their long term goal is to bring Family Hui to Sacramento, hopefully by training organizations that currently provide parenting programs to deliver the Family Hui model and curriculum.
- Susan Jones shared the growing commitment of Encina High School to developing a trauma-informed approach to schools. Initially 7 staff volunteered to receive training and to implement techniques, and now 27 are involved.
Susan also discussed how her work in diverse schools highlights how trauma awareness is critical across a continuum of needs. Students in affluent schools are often facing achievement pressures that lead to anxiety, depression, and other serious issues. On the other end of the spectrum, Encina High School has a student population in which 40% of students are homeless, dealing daily with stressful life circumstances. Students at both types of schools benefit significantly from a trauma-informed staff.
Discussion
- Now that members of the Sacramento ACEs working group have begun presenting on ACEs in the community, there is a need for the group to create a stock of informational materials to share in the community.
- Gail suggests engaging a subcommittee to develop this set of materials.
- Wendie can provide a Table Top of information about ACEs and will launch it at Imani’s next workshop.
- Susan’s comments reminded Wendie to share that she and DeAngelo toured Kennedy High School, which has a Meditation Garden and is committed to instructing students on stress management techniques.
Wendie and DeAngelo also delivered a community presentation on ACEs to Sacramento County Unified School District, at a convening of after school program providers. The reception to ACEs was strong, and highlighted the need for readily available informational materials.
- Imani shared that he gave a presentation at the Juvenile Justice Center on conflict resolution, which made a strong impression, resulting in the Center requesting that he come back on a regular basis. While the logistical details still need to be worked out, the program design would be a weekly group on conflict resolution, bringing trauma-informed, Alternatives to Violence strategies to the detained youth.
Imani’s goal with the program is to create a pipeline of support so that when these young people return to the community, they are better prepared to cope with their stressors, and also more motivated to connect to the resources they need in order to be successful.
Closing Notes
We are ready to start a subcommittee on developing informational materials and subcommittee to develop the goals for a steering group for Sacramento County ACEs Working Group. Send a note to Gail (gkennedy@acesconnetion.com ) if you have interest in serving on either of these committees.
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