Blog

Thank you to all that participated in today’s ACES meeting. We had a great turnout given many partners also planned to attend the Blue Ribbon Child Abuse Prevention luncheon the next day! Today, we started the meeting with a meditation for our mindful moment . Sue Stephenson introduced us to the Tonglen meditation of breathing in suffering and breathing out compassion. With just a few breaths and a focus on our intentions, we were all quickly grounded in the compassion-centered work that...

On Saturday May 14th, the Press Democrat featured local ACEs efforts in South Sonoma County in the article "Petaluma schools implementing new approach to work with struggling students." The Petaluma Health Care District and the Health Action Chapter sponsored a Paper Tigers screening on May 12 that drew 221 folks. Reporter Christi Warren captures the experience here: On a recent school day in Petaluma, 57 students were on a waitlist to see a city schools therapist. The number of students...

Starting in May 2016, Roseland Pediatrics pediatrician Dr. Meredith Kieschnick will be offering monthly Wednesday trainings for providers and staff of Santa Rosa Community Health Centers on components of trauma-informed care and related issues. Trainings are from 12:30pm to 1:30pm and held at our Vista Family Health Center site in Conference Room A. Topics will rotate, with each training session covering one topic. Training topics include: Introduction to Adverse Childhood Experiences...

"This is a metaphor that really makes sense!" shares Grace Harris enthusiastically as she presented the Resilience Scale. This framework encourages us to think of a child's development as a scale that has two sides. Negative and positive factors in the child's life tip the scale to one side or the other. Most important, the position of the child's fulcrum (or balancing point) is affected by genetics and experiences. If the fulcrum is off center, the child can be more easily affected by...

Thanks to ACEs Connection Members Gabrielle T. and Kathy C. for sharing this compelling video showing how Memphis tries rooting out childhood trauma to improve life long health: With ACEs in National News this concept is reaching into the homes of even more of our community members. Memphis provides an inspiring vision for how we in Sonoma County might "prevent, treat, and heal" ACEs in our own community.

Do you read the Press Democrat or the North Bay Business Journal? If yes, you may have seen Prevent Child Abuse Sonoma County's special newspaper insert. This colorful and helpful resource guide offered stories, tips, resources and tools for helping to strengthen families and reduce child abuse. Page 7 featured an article about "Trauma Informed Care" and included a pocket card folks could use as a tool for letting doctors, dentists, and other care providers they might need some extra care to...

On April 15th, representatives from 6 counties met on a conference call to discuss recent First 5 activities around Trauma Informed Care (TIC). Since our first gathering at last year's Association Summit, we have been meeting quarterly via conference call and have learned that there is a lot going on with TIC. So much is going on that we decided to send out a survey gathering data to map all our TIC efforts across the state. Please let us know if you are at a First 5 and are interested in...

(Please see the attachment for the version with photos and colors - it is much more visually interesting!) 3/23/16 Dear Sonoma County ACEs Connection Enthusiasts, Thank you to all that participated in today’s ACES meeting. Today, we started the meeting with a quiet mindful moment . Susan Barnett-Hampson led us in a short meditation, using her soothing, slow voice to ground us in the present moment. A few deep breaths and positive affirmations can help us refocus whenever needed! “ A...

We look forward to coming together again on Wednesday April 27, 2016 at 12:30 in the City View Rooms at 625 5 th Street, Santa Rosa, CA. Your voice and energy is vital to our collective effort to prevent, treat and heal ACE’s in Sonoma County and we thank you for carving out the time for this meeting. The agenda is attached. Minutes are here.

On April 2, film maker James Redford screened his new movie "Resilience" at Sonoma's Film Fest. "I had too much content to create just one film. Paper Tigers became a vehicle for talking about Adverse Childhood Experiences. We furthered the message of hope in the follow-up film Resilience." Redford shared his discovery of the Felitti and Anda study on Adverse Childhood Experiences . "I thought to myself, this study came out almost twenty years ago and the whole world isn't taking action?" He...

Martin Espinoza of the Press Democrat captured an exciting event which took place in Santa Rosa earlier this week... Public Health 3.0: A high-ranking federal health official visited Santa Rosa on Tuesday to discuss a new direction for local public health departments, one that would push them far beyond their traditional role as watchdogs of communicable and chronic diseases and make them community partners in identifying the “social determinants” of health. Outlining an approach dubbed...

Thank you to Briana Downey and Ally Berk for finding these resources for our partners. Webinars: Recording: How Waupaca County, Wisconsin transformed their Health Human Services department into a Trauma Informed workplace (scroll to the bottom of the page to access the webinar). Link: http://ncwwi.org/index.php/link/256-mind-the-gap-6-becoming-a-trauma-informed-child-welfare-agency-the-waupaca-county-journey Tuesday (April 19 th ) from 11am-12pm: Becoming Trauma-Informed: What Does this Mean...