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Kids miss school for a number of reasons, whether it’s fear of bullying, unstable living conditions, lack of transportation, medical problems or family vacations. But schools officials argue missing class for any reason has consequences, and not just on a student’s academics. It also affects the community as a whole. Schools throughout Sonoma County are working to reduce absences as districts across the state face greater pressure to get students to show up for class. [For more on this story...

Here are four great YouTube videos highlighting some of the work happening on the ground in Shasta County. They are motivated and mobilized. According to one of the providers speaking towards the end of one video - patients/clients had positively "profound" responses to learning about their ACEs - and they felt empowered to do what they could do to not have their children have the same experience. More videos available here .

By Tara Haelle When researchers first discovered a link in the late 1990s between childhood adversity and chronic health problems later in life, the real revelation was how common those experiences were across all socioeconomic groups. But the first major study to focus on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) was limited to a single healthcare system in San Diego. A study published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics — the largest nationally representative study to date on ACEs — confirms that these...

A new coalition, the Sonoma County Resiliency Collaborative, is offering a free train-the-trainer taught by the Center for Mind Body Medicine. The training program is about the neuroscience of trauma (including new studies about the difference between men and women) with a focus on environmental disasters and trauma and the various techniques to heal from trauma, mainly training a cohort in different forms of meditation. If you weren’t able to join us on July 26 to hear about this...

Attached is the agenda and minutes for the Sonoma County ACEs Connection Meeting that took place on August 22, 2018.

https://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/mental-health/what-wildfires-do-to-our-minds-20180807

About 40 members of the Arkansas Adverse Childhood Experiences and Resilience Workgroup attended a planning workshop July 25 at the Hillary Clinton Children's Library in Little Rock. The workshop was facilitated by Mike Craw, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Arkansas - Little Rock School of Public Affairs and coordinator of UA-Little Rock's Center for Public Collaboration. The workgroup has adopted the Collective Impact framework for change, and the workshop is the group's...

https://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/northbay/sonomacounty/8612421-181/kaiser-hope-1-million-grant

When Marin Community Clinics (MCC) first considered screening their patients for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) they already had decided that if they were going to prevent children from acquiring ACEs, they had to take a radical approach.

If you were unable to make it to any of the Fire Recovery Community Listening Forums hosted by the Sonoma County Office of Recovery and Resiliency has in July and August, you still have a chance to provide your feedback to the Draft Recovery and Resiliency Framework. The framework covers five strategic areas: Community Preparedness and Infrastructure, Housing, Economy, Natural Resources, and Safety Net Services.

Oakland BSC activity: Photo/ Courtesy of Trauma Transformed/East Bay Agency for Children When a group of community organizations in Baltimore came together in 2015, they already knew trauma figured large in many lives. There was violence in the community, in schools, and in community members’ homes. Police brutality occurred. Many suffered the loss of loved ones to incarceration or death. There were house fires and homelessness. Much of the dysfunction was systemic and rooted in racism,...

A Northern California community offers mental health first-aid to survivors of devastating fires. Yes Magazine-- posted Aug 07, 2018 https://www.yesmagazine.org/ issues/mental-health/what- wildfires-do-to-our-minds- 20180807/ It’s late spring, and I’m hiking Sugarloaf Ridge State Park in Sonoma County with therapist, ecopsychologist, and California naturalist Mary Good. A mist is drifting down, and we have the park mostly to ourselves. In October 2017, 80 percent of Sugarloaf’s 3,900 acres...