What are ACEs? ACEs are adverse childhood experiences that harm children's developing brains so profoundly that the effects show up decades later; they cause much of chronic disease, most mental illness, and are at the root of most violence. ...

A recent celebration of community in Carpinteria, CA featured an inspiring speech by the Executive Director of the Carpinteria Children's Project, Maria Chesley, PhD. Maria and Dr. Peggy Dodds from the Carpinteria Health Care Clinic have been instrumental in launching a pilot project that began screening for ACEs in February. The Carpinteria Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Resilience Project (CARP) marks a significantly expanded integration of formal care across organizations. A...

Have you been hearing all the buzz about Dr. Mona Delahooke's new book, Beyond Behaviors ? In my opinion, it’s the best new book of 2019. Dr. Delahooke is a practicing pediatric clinical psychologist of thirty years. She is gaining critical acclaim and grassroots support for challenging the prevalent and pervasive behaviorist bias in schools. As a result, she is an emerging authority in the growing revolution to re-interpret children's misbehavior. She highlights much of the books' content...

A hug may be comforting to many children, but for a child who has experienced trauma it may not feel safe. That’s an example used by Julie Kurtz, co-director of trauma informed practices in early childhood education at the WestEd Center for Child & Family Studies (CCFS), as she begins a trauma training session. Her audience, preschool teachers and staff of the San Francisco-based Wu Yee Children’s Services at San Francisco’s Women’s Building, listen attentively.

Please see the attached document to read the full newsletter.

On June 6, 2018, over 60 people gathered in mid-Santa Barbara County for a special convening of the KIDS Network. The meeting was advertised among stakeholders as the unveiling of the 2017 Children's Scorecard and the launch of the Santa Barbara County ACEs Connection. After receiving an overview of the Children's Scorecard, participants were invited to discuss the three objectives previously identified by stakeholders who met with Dr. Nadine Burke Harris in April. These were support for...

Karissa Luckett at Clinica de la Raza, Oakland, California (Photo/Laurie Udesky) ______________________________________________ When the question of screening patients for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) was first raised a couple of years ago, Santa Barbara pediatrician Andria Ruth had mixed feelings about it. Dr. Andria Ruth “We know our patients have a lot of these [ACEs] experiences,” said Ruth, who works for the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics (SBNC), a network of four medical...

When the question of screening patients for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) was first raised a couple of years ago, Santa Barbara pediatrician Andria Ruth had mixed feelings about it.

The Bridges to Resilience Conference will take place on October 11, 2018 from 8am-5pm. This is the third annual conference, to be held at the Santa Ynez Valley Marriott in Buellton. The conference has fueled a growing awareness across service sectors about the impact of childhood adversity and the importance of working collaboratively to support the health and wellbeing of children and youth in our community. Presentations and breakout sessions will provide opportunities to deepen...

April is National Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Month. The 30th Medical Group Family Advocacy Program at Vandenberg Air Force Base hosted a screening of the independent film "Resilience" which discusses how Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) can significantly impact health and even decrease life expectancy. It was a great group: 48 people attended, most in uniform. Participants completed the ACEs Survey and 52% had 4 or more ACEs! Air Force medics, mental health clinicians, First...

In 2019, more than $40 million will become available to fund community-based, culturally rooted, trauma-informed services for youth in California as alternatives to arrest and incarceration. Thousands of California youth are arrested every year for low-level offenses. Youth who are arrested or incarcerated for low-level offenses are less likely to graduate high school, more likely to suffer negative health-outcomes, and more likely to have later contact with the justice system.

The ACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities launches today. We want to continue to contribute to the ACEs movement for as long as it takes to create a worldwide healing-centered culture based on ACEs science. We want that to take hold in this world in the same way electricity has — we only notice it if it isn’t there. First, a clarification: Nothing on ACEsConnection.com changes! Membership remains free! Everything our current 300+ communities use stays free, and remains free for new ones.

ACEs initiative participants in communities where there is tension between the community and law enforcement will want to join Becky Haas in a compelling conversation on law enforcement, ACEs science, COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement and protests. Haas is a nationally recognized adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) science initiative builder and trainer. She and colleagues Renee Wilson-Simmons, the head of the ACE Awareness Foundation of Memphis, Tennessee, and Maggi Duncan,...

The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) and California Department of Education (CDE) have jointly released a guidance document for educators conducting distance learning on recognizing the signs and symptoms of abuse. To read more, please see the attached document.

I'd like to share a rather unusual free resource...parenting tips bumper stickers. Advancing Parenting, a Camarillo CA nonprofit organization, produces parenting tips bumper stickers and makes them available at no cost to schools, organizations, agencies, clinics, businesses, and individuals. There are fifty-one in a set and each one communicates a parenting behavior or practice generally recognized as supporting the healthy development of children. Just one will be read thousands of times!

The election is upon us. In two short weeks, we voters in this country decide who will lead us for the next four years. We have the opportunity to embrace — as a national priority — the tenets of understanding, nurturing and healing that underlie the science of adverse childhood experiences and move in a direction that embraces cultural and racial equity and anti-racism. Or not. What is clear is that no matter what, the ACEs movement will continue.

SANTA BARBARA – The Santa Barbara County Network of Care, a partnership of the Pediatric Resiliency Collaborative (PeRC) and Resilient Santa Barbara County, has awarded more than $800,000 in buffering services grants to 19 community organizations addressing toxic stress in children and youth. Children who experience toxic stress, or high levels of adversity, have been shown to experience disruptions in their health and development. Cottage Health, on behalf of PeRC and Resilient Santa...

Last month, LegacyWorks Group was able to participate in a training surrounding Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) science and trauma informed care, led by Terri Allison. While LegacyWorks Group is a non profit focused on community driven projects, we are not healthcare providers nor do we work directly with youth in the community. Yet we still value ACEs science and wanted to incorporate the language and practices more within our own work. Most of the trainings associated with...

CAPC Intro It’s week three of Child Abuse Prevention Month, a time when we pause to appreciate all of the people who come together to support and encourage children, youth and families. Everyone has a role to play in making sure that our community is a great place for children and youth to thrive. Parenting can be hard, and parents must be flexible and strong to meet the needs of their families when challenges arise. Stress can make it harder to be a patient and supportive parent. This...

For the final week of Child Abuse Prevention Month, our stress-busting strategy is Supportive Relationships. Supportive relationships make a significant impact on our social, emotional and physical well-being. Renowned psychiatrist and trauma expert, Dr. Bruce Perry writes, “The more healthy relationships a child has, the more likely he will be to recover from trauma and thrive. Relationships are the agents of change and the most powerful therapy is human love.” We will be highlighting the...

July is a time to celebrate all summer has to offer by building bridges and innovating with community to get to the heart of trauma-informed awareness and resilience building. This month, we’ve added new July dates to the summer 2023 *CRC* curriculum—but that’s only half of the good news. Last year, the CRC began as a pilot program. Now that it's evolved, what better time to bring accelerator participants together in a PACEs Connection CRC community than the summer? We are proud to announce...

Christina Bethell, Ph.D, MBA, MPH, founder of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI), principal author of the groundbreaking study on positive childhood experiences, and creator of the free Well Visit Planner, among other innovations. Two internationally-respected leaders and innovators in complementary aspects of early relational health and childhood and maternal health equity recently launched a partnership they believe will benefit everyone from newborn babies and...

Beyond Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), our members seek to deeply understand strengths-based insights embedded in the remaining ACEs quadrant: Adverse Community Environments, Adverse Climate Experiences, and Atrocious Cultural Experiences.