On November 1, the UC Davis Department of Family and Community Medicine hosted guest lecturer Dr. Nadine Burke Harris for a special screening of Resilience: The Biology of Stress & The Science of Hope, a KPJR film directed by James Redford. The event was made possible by support from Resilient Sacramento and the Sacramento Public Library, which offered the beautiful Tsakopoulos Library Galleria as the setting for the screening. After the screening, Dr. Burke Harris addressed the 250 person audience. Sacramento community members, from school, child welfare, law and judicial sectors, medicine, and a variety of community based organizations convened for the event.
The film is a follow up from the documentary, Paper Tigers, which highlights a single school and community that went on the journey to help their students articulate and receive support for their experiences of trauma. Resilience takes us on the next step: Learning how trauma informed practices can help dramatically shift outcomes for struggling families in entire communities. Resilience shows us that these practices are applicable across a variety of settings: from schools to medical clinics- to every environment that seeks to support community members and their families who are struggling.
Examining the scientific evidence of the health effects of emotional trauma, Resilience shows us both the urgency of, and the remedy for, addressing trauma in every institutional setting. When trauma is routinely addressed through intervention, and better yet, through prevention, resilient communities are born. Ultimately, resilient communities are socially just communities.
The Center for Youth Wellness, founded by Dr. Burke Harris, is featured in the film, demonstrating what trauma informed practice and the routine use of ACEs screening looks like in implementation. After the film, Dr. Burke Harris shared powerful stories of the impact that this work has had on her pediatric clients and their families in the Bayview Hunter’s Point neighborhood of San Francisco.
This event was part of the Snively Visiting Professorship, a program of the UC Davis Department of Family and Community Medicine. For more information about the program, please visit http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/f.../Events/Snively.html
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