Blog

Tucked away on a quiet cul-de-sac in an Escondido neighborhood, a group of mostly Jewish adults with mental illness are gradually taking back their lives. Chesed Home — “chesed” is Hebrew for “loving kindness”, is a 12-bed board-and-care center for the Jewish mentally ill. Its mission is to help residents build the self-sufficiency, working, coping and social skills to permanently transition to independent living. Since Chesed Home opened three years ago, nearly half of its 20 residents have...

Project PAINT: The Prison ArtsINiTiative at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility was started by Laura Pecenco, a sociology professor at Miramar College whose doctorate thesis at UC San Diego was on the performance of masculine in arts creation in prison. Pecenco, an artist herself for her company Hester Crown Jewelry, met with Warden Daniel Paramo in 2013 to discuss the idea of working with inmates to create murals that would decorate visiting areas. The next year, the men created...

Rosa Ana Lozada grew up on a two-block-long street in a San Francisco neighborhood pocked with trauma: domestic violence, child abuse, the frequent wail of police sirens. “It was unsafe to walk the two blocks to the bus stop,” she recalled. “In my community, we learned that police officers were not our friends because they were only seen when bad things happened.” For Lozada, now CEO of Harmonium, Inc., and a member of the San Diego Trauma Informed Guide Team, home and family were the...

Reminder: San Diego Trauma-Informed Guide Team Meeting is March 4, 2019 12:30pm-2:00pm We are at our new location at San Diego Center for Children 3002 Armstrong Street, San Diego, CA 92111 (Please sign in at Lobby) Mission Statement: To promote the development and provision of trauma-informed services in San Diego County’s agencies and systems through collaboration, advocacy and education to achieve transformation. DRAFT AGENDA Introductions Agency Overview and Trauma Informed Journey...

Some days at work are better than others. Yesterday was one of the best days I've had in awhile! I had the chance to speak to a small group of youth leaders from Cherokee Point Elementary School on Wednesday. As a representative of the Chadwick Center for Children & Families, I came to talk with them about Child Abuse Prevention (CAP) month, which is coming up in April. We are collaborating with Cherokee Point in an effort to bring awareness to the community about CAP month, resilience,...

Wisconsin elementary-school teachers are incorporating simple mental exercises in the classroom to promote well-being, thanks to a partnership between the Madison Metropolitan School District and the Center for Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison. The school's 5th graders recently made a music video for the song, "Don't flip yo' lid," by SF Bay Area hip hop artist, Just Me. The song's hook is, "mindfulness will change your life."

Cherokee Point Parent Leaders presented at the Restorative Practice / Restorative Justice Summit hosted by the Human Relations Commission and Commission on Gang Prevention and Intervention in San Diego last Friday. Sharing their work over the past 5 years in two break-out sessions, they moved audiences with their compelling stories demonstrating how a trauma-informed community school can lead to transformative change for their children and families. Please see the attachment for more...

A new publication from the Prevention Institute, Adverse Community Experiences and Resilience presents a framework for addressing and preventing community trauma. The model shifts from a focus on individual trauma and healing (based on a medical model) to a broad community approach reflecting a public health perspective.

The Restorative Justice and Restorative Practices Summit drew more than 400 people to downtown San Diego last Friday for a day of learning about the science of childhood adversity and how San Diego’s organizations and institutions are implementing trauma-informed and restorative justice practices. Co-hosted by the Human Relations Commission and Commission on Gang Prevention & Intervention, the event brought together community residents, victims, service providers, youth, faith and civic...

Projected on the enormous screen at the front of the room was a blue-tinged image of a brain scan with a seemingly simple phrase next to it: Changing Minds. The striking image and accompanying messages are still being developed by national nonprofit Futures Without Violence (Futures) for a public outreach campaign about the complex issue of childhood trauma. Participants at the Changing Minds and Creating Trauma-Informed Communities convening, hosted by Futures in early February, got a...

What is Restorative Justice? "Restorative justice is a process to involve, to the extent possible, those who have a stake in a specific offense and to collectively identify and address harms, needs and obligations, in order to heal and put things as right as possible." What was the purpose of this summit? "The purpose of this summit is to raise awareness about Restorative Justice and Restorative Practices and the benefits to the community including victims, offenders, and society. The goal...

Hi All! Please find attached the 2016 booklet for the Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities (MARC) project, including San Diego and the other 13 communities that have been selected to participate in this 2 year learning collaborative. This is a great summary of the work happening in all 14 communities across the country. Harmonium, Inc, the San Diego Trauma-Informed Guide Team, and ALL of us play a pivotal role in advancing the resilience building movement across our community.