***Title Image credit: Tonia Rucker, National League of Cities
The Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) held a webinar today titled Working Toward Well-Being: Community Approaches to Toxic Stress. (Powerpoint slides are attached).
I was very intrigued, and eagerly registered- this is what we're trying to ramp up here in Sacramento! And there were many great nuggets of wisdom shared.
The National League of Cities (NLC) has an Institute for Youth Education and Families, who were co-presenters with CSSP in today's webinar.
The presentations included an explicit connection to ACEs scores, and provided a strong rationale for why cities should prioritize moving towards becoming trauma-informed across all systems.
Three presenters covered the topics:
- Toxic stress and well-being
- Cities and toxic stress
- Toxic stress and public safety
Presenters shared exemplar communities that are currently tackling trauma-informed change at a multi-system level, along with strategies these champion cities have used to engage non-traditional sectors in using a human service lens.
The nuggets that excited me most:
Presenter Tonia Rucker framed the rationale for multi-system involvement as “city roles across the lifespan”. Yes! This framing helps cities imagine that they have a role related to lifespan development, not just infrastructure and basic social services. She presented strategies and brief highlights of exemplar champion cities, Jacksonville and Tarpon Springs in Florida.
The NLC Justice Reform Initiative addresses toxic stress and public safety, with the aim of reducing the negative impacts of the justice system on traumatized youth. Presenter Laura Furr discussed the negative developmental effects on youth from being arrested or witnessing arrest in their communities and families.
Laura urged the need to move from punishment to treatment services: especially for status offenses such as running away. Arrests for failure to pay fines are particularly unnecessary, especially given the harm they cause to children who then must endure parents’ incarceration. To reduce trauma, it is important to avoid arrest as much as possible:
“Let’s not rely on incarceration and excessive supervision”- Laura Furr.
The message: When public safety is not at risk, do not arrest. It is very traumatic for the children and sets the stage for negative outcomes related to toxic stress- a rise in ACE scores.
Finally, Cailin O’Connor of CSSP shared the Center’s work on community-wide culture change. Check out several resources on this topic on their website here:
http://www.cssp.org/reform/ear...early-childhood-linc
Powerpoint slides for the presentation are attached below, and will also be saved in our Resources section.
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