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. ...

Resilient Santa Barbara County is a countywide network dedicated to preventing and reducing the impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in Santa Barbara County. We educate, exchange ideas, share opportunities and work collectively to transform lives through practical and community- centered solutions. Community Partners are organizations that are committed to building their own capacity for being ACEs-informed, trauma-responsive and resiliency –focused, while also contributing their...

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.

Join us on Tuesday, April 3rd for a VIMEO Virtual Screening of the award-winning film, RESILIENCE: The Biology of Stress & The Science of Hope - a critically acclaimed documentary chronicling a new movement among pediatricians, therapists, educators and communities, who are using cutting-edge brain science to disrupt cycles of violence, addiction and disease. RESILIENCE: The Biology of Stress & the Science of Hope is the latest film from documentary Director-Producer James Redford...

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.

Click here to listen here to the audio recording. This summer I joined Hometown Radio Show host Dave Congalton to discuss a series of public health issues. I'm Alison and I'm a Master of Public Health student at Boston University. I spent the summer interning for ACEs Connection. In this episode, which was broadcast live from San Luis Obispo, CA on July 30, 2019 at 5pm, and was #3 in the series of 4 episodes, we discussed the absence of federal level paid parental leave policy in the United...

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...

On April 2, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution recognizing April as ACEs Awareness and Child Abuse Prevention Month. Here’s what that means and why it’s important. Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, are traumatic experiences that occur early in life, including child abuse (physical, emotional, or sexual), child neglect (physical and emotional), and household dysfunction (exposure to domestic violence, substance abuse, untreated mental...

The Santa Barbara County Probation Department is excited to join a team of trauma informed community partners dedicated to resiliency and collaboration. In our commitment to improve the ways in which we serve our youth and families, we recently implemented the Positive Achievement Change Tool (PACT). The PACT screens for ACEs in addition to assessing a youth’s risk to reoffend and criminogenic needs. This, along with training around the latest research on the adolescent brain and ACEs...

The Santa Barbara County ACEs Connection Steering Committee brought its work to the larger SB ACEs community at the KIDS Network meeting on September 5th. Participants connected with one another through a brief storytelling exercise before hearing a report on the learning process and outcomes of the committee's Phase 1 efforts. Those in attendance had the opportunity to grapple with one of the mapping exercises undertaken by Steering Committee members in previous months. They were also...

Karen Clemmer, the Northwest community facilitator with ACEs Connection, was already deeply interested in the CDC/Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study when she and a colleague from the Child Parent Institute were invited to lunch by ACEs Connection founder and publisher Jane Stevens in 2012. But that lunch meeting changed everything.

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,...

We have some very exciting news! As of today, ACEs Connection is now PACEs Connection. PACEs stands for Positive and Adverse Childhood Experiences.

Our speaker for the August PACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities meeting will share ways of building community connections we may not have thought of before – starting with trust in the earliest and most important relationships – as well as some challenging news, exciting resources, and timely inspiration. Cooperative of Communities members and members of their communities are invited to join us tomorrow, August 8, 2023, at 10 a.m. PT, Noon CT, and 1 p.m. ET when we welcome Deborah...

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...

The September Lunch & Learn session hosted by the Center for Family Strengthening of San Luis Obispo County increased our knowledge of the impact of trauma on the body and brain, helped practitioners learn to apply a trauma lens in their work, and provided guidance for implementing sustainable self-care practices.