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Families trust and look to their pediatricians for guidance about parenting and help with managing behavioral, mental health and developmental problems. Pediatricians have since realized that how parents raise their children is heavily rooted in the parent’s own childhood experiences. As you may know cumulative adverse childhood experiences, especially in the first three years of life, have a profound negative effect on a child’s physical health, brain development and mental health. This...

Let's join together for the upcoming Sonoma County ACES Connection Meeting on 11/30/16 from 12:30 - 2:00 in the City View Rooms at 625 5th Street in Santa Rosa. Together we'll take a pause to reflect on our coalition formation, and affirm our foundational elements. We'll create goals for the next 12 months, and begin forming committees to support this work. For those who expressed interest in joining an ad hoc committee to continue developing the working guidelines, please look for a meeting...

(For a colorful version with graphics, please see the attached .pdf.) 10/26/16 Dear Sonoma County ACEs Connection Friends, Thank you to all that participated in today’s ACES meeting. Jessica Hackwell invited the group to take a mindful moment to listen to a “reflection” or short tale with a powerful message about intentions. Briana Downey welcomed the group to the Valley of the Moon Children’s Home and talked briefly about the Trauma Informed Journey taking place through this residential...

The Future's Without Violence Webinar "Compassion Fatigue & Self-Care for Individuals and Organizations" today was excellent, and several great resources were shared. Resources with weblinks included: Self Care Poster: https://socialwork.buffalo.edu/content/dam/socialwork/home/self-care-kit/self-care-poster.pdf Building Cultures of Care: http://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/publications_nsvrc_guides_building-cultures-of-care.pdf 21 Day Self Care Challenge:...

Here is a short video clip that explains how toxic stress effects development. Learning to cope with stress is an important part of healthy development. When experiencing stress the stress response system is activated and once the stress is relieved the stress response winds down. In severe situations of abuse or neglect where there is no caring adult to act as a buffer from the stressor, one’s stress response stays activated. Absence of response from adults and constant activation of the...

Trauma-informed Care of Immigrant and Refugee Children Wednesday, November 16 Noon – 1:30 pm ET This free webinar hosted by the National Health Collaborative on Violence and Abuse and co-sponsored by the AAP Immigrant Health Special Interest Group will examine the effects of trauma on immigrant children, discuss mental health screening of immigrant children, review strength- based approaches to build resilience and heal trauma, and offer insight on how to utilize the medical home/care...

The Center for Youth Wellness (CYW) is a clinical research center located in Bayview Hunters Point, that was created in response to the medical understanding that early adverse traumas can harm the developing brain and bodies of our children. They operate on the mission to improve the health of children and adolescents exposed to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). The CYW has collaborated with the Bayview Child Health Center (BCHW) to develop tools and methodologies for early detection...

The article by Felitti et al., looked at the impact of abuse and household dysfunction during childhood in relation to health risk behavior and disease in adulthood. Studies often focus on one type of abuse at a time, but this study looked at more than one type of abuse and this idea of cumulative influences. Adverse childhood experiences can include childhood emotional, physical, or sexual abuse, and household dysfunction. This study took place in in a primary care setting and aimed to...

At our October meeting, we decided to not adopt our draft bylaws. (Working Guidelines) As someone who spent a lot of time and thought crafting a compromise consensus version for approval, I feel entitled to an opinion on the matter. I'm really glad we didn't adopt them. In drafting guidelines for Sonoma County ACEs Connection, one should begin by going back to first principles. Who are we? What are our values? What do we want to be? In reviewing the guidelines, I saw a lot of rules that did...

One out of five California adults with children living in their homes were beaten, kicked or physically abused when they were children, and one in ten were sexually abused, according to data released recently by a children’s health foundation. Experts believe that’s an undercount. “I think it’s probably a low estimate,” said Cassandra Joubert, director of the Central California Children’s Institute at California State University, Fresno. “I think these kinds of events within families are...

A new national campaign launched last week hopes to raise awareness around childhood trauma, starting with a series of videos that highlight the important roles that adults can play in helping children succeed after experiencing violence. Changing Minds is a partnership between the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), San Francisco-based nonprofit Futures Without Violence, the Ad Council and the advertising agency Wunderman. Read the full article here: Changing Minds Launches Child...

Compassion Fatigue & Self-Care for Individuals and Organizations Brought to you by Futures Without Violence’s Supporting Organizational Sustainability Institute (SOS Institute) in partnership with the Office on Violence Against Women. Date: Wednesday, November 16, 2016 Time : 9:30 a.m. PT, 10:30 a.m. MT, 11:30 p.m. CT, 12:30 p.m. ET (1 Hr. 30 Min.) ***Closed caption will be provided. Registration Link:...