Tagged With "Mindful Moment"
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Saint Joseph Health Hospice Offers Gentle Reminders on Self Care
In the midst of the devastating fires that continue to threaten our county, we at St. Joseph Health Hospice Grief Services would like to offer a few gentle grief reminders for anyone touched by these events . Whether you personally have experienced a loss, you are supporting others, or even witnessing the events remember: We all grieve differently, and ALL grief is valid. Extreme Self Care While chaos is swirling we must try to drink plenty of water , eat whenever possible, sleep even if...
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Kaiser Supports North Bay's VOICES through Youth & Trauma Informed Care Grant
"Kaiser Permanente Northern California Region—Community Benefit Programs (KPCBP)’s Youth and Trauma-informed Care grant program (YTIC), through which 20 community based agencies and school based health centers were funded in 2014, is a critical strategy for addressing community violence by focusing on prevention as well as healing. Experience of trauma in childhood is associated with a range of negative health, social, and educational outcomes. Trauma is frequently undiagnosed or...
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Leaders in SF public housing deal with their own and community trauma head on
Sengthong Sithounnolat, Jeris Woodson, Donald Greene, Ashley Blanco On a recent Saturday, 10 people gather around a table at the offices of Trauma Transformed in Oakland, Calif., where quotes from figures like Frederick Douglas, Nelson Mandela, and Coretta Scott King grace one wall as light streams in from a skylight above. The group is known as the Resident Warriors, which meets weekly. One participant talks of her recovery from addiction and her mother’s murder. Another mentions being...
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Living near SMART tracks, Petaluma homeless face danger [Petaluma360.com]
Jonathan Rollstin is often unaware that a train is coming until the moment it has arrived. Where the homeless man’s encampment is situated, trains barrel past about 50 feet away, on tracks splitting the graffiti-marred girders of a Highway 101 overpass south of the Petaluma Village Premium Outlets. Despite the obvious dangers and prodding by police, Rollstin, 39, refuses to quit his illegal set-up. “I want to be alone. I don’t want to be in a shelter,” he said Monday...
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Mapping the ACEs science movement — How close are we to a tipping point?
[Note: This is most of a keynote presentation I gave at last week's sold-out National ACEs Conference in San Francisco. The energy at this conference was incredible. To all who attended, thank you for doing so. To those of you who weren't able to attend, we hope the posts about the conference give you some idea of the speakers and sessions.] We have come an extraordinarily long way in spreading the word about ACEs science. During the first National ACEs conference in Philadelphia five years...
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MARC Booklet 2016: Features Sonoma County
Please find attached the 2016 booklet for the Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities (MARC) project, including Sonoma County and the other 13 communities that have been selected to participate in this 2 year learning collaborative. This is a great summary of the work happening in all 14 communities across the country. I am looking forward to working with you all as we tell your story to the world!
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Materials from Culture, Compassion, Competence and Humility Community of Practice Event
Thank you to all who attended our Culture, Compassion, Competence and Humility Community of Practice Event! Attached are the materials from our day together. Also, below you will find a link to the Brené Brown video on empathy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw If you would like to register for our March event you can register using this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/building-resilience-on-a-solid-foundation-community-of-practice-tickets-30963526742
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Meeting Reminder! 11-29-17 Child Parent Institute at 3:30
Hello ACEs Connection Members! We are so looking forward to coming together on Wednesday at the Child Parent Institute at 3:30. Here is a peek at our agenda for Wednesdays Meeting: AGENDA Welcome & Introductions (all - please sign in) 3:30 Mindfulness Moment (Kate) 3:35 Report Out- Beyond Paper Tigers (Dave Rose) 3:40 Acknowledge in light of our recent community experience what do you need? (Jessica and Nick) 4:00 Treasury Report (Kate) 4:40 Trauma Informed Care Program Updates (Members)...
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SONOMA COUNTY MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES ACT (MHSA)2017-2020 Three-Year Integrated Plan & Annual Update for 2015-2016
To read the full report, click here : Mental Health Services Act Integrated Report 2017 - 2020 Or see attached for a printable version of the report.
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Middle school tackles everybody's trauma; result is calmer, happier kids, teachers and big drop in suspensions
Sixth grader Cayla White (right) helps lead class meditation with Niroga Institute’s Lauren Banister (photo: Laurie Udesky) ________________________________ During the 2014/2015 school year, things were looking grim at Park Middle School in Antioch, CA. At the time, staff couldn’t corral student disruptions. Teacher morale was plummeting. By the end of February 2015, 192 kids of the 997 students had been suspended -- 19.2 percent of the student population. “I was watching really good people...
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Mindful-Based Practices, Therapeutic Activities, & Ways to Relax: For Teachers, Parents, & Children
Yoga is a great activity for children and adults and is easy to do just about anywhere! Children need to have multiple healthy ways to express their feelings and have opportunities for mind and body awareness. Yoga is beneficial because it is... Non-competitive Gender neutral Enhances motor skills and balance Improves listening skills in a fun approach Children can focus on what is happening in the moment A healthy way to express feelings Supports social and emotional learning and...
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Minutes from our May 27th meeting
May 27, 2015 QUOTE: Never before in the history of medicine have we had better insight into the factors that determine the health of an individual from infancy to adulthood, which is part of the life course perspective—a way of looking at life...
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Notes and materials from 11/19 meeting
Here is another set of great notes drafted by Karen Clemmer. Dear Sonoma County ACES Connection members! For all who made came to the meeting – thank you for trudging through the rain to participate in our Nov 19 th meeting! ...
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Notes and materials from March 25, 2015
Dear Sonoma County ACES Connection enthusiasts: Thank you to all who participated in today’s ACES meeting. Sometimes the transition between work and a working meeting can be a bit rough. Thankfully, today, Allen provided a...
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Notes from 4/22/2015 meeting
Seventeen Sonoma County ACEs Connection members attended our monthly, in-person meeting on April 22. Once again, Allen Nishikawa greeted us with a warm, steamy hand towel so that we could truly “arrive” and be mindful. We agreed that, for...
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Notes from May 27, 2015 meeting
May 27, 2015 Never before in the history of medicine have we had better insight into the factors that determine the health of an individual from infancy to adulthood, which is part of the life course perspective—a way of looking at life not as...
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Notes from our 3.27.19 meeting
ACEs Enthusiasts Community Meeting Notes March 27, 2019 from 3:30 to 5:00 Location: Child Parent Institute About this community: We bring the community together to prevent, heal, and treat ACEs while promoting resiliency. New Year - New Focus! Sonoma County ACEs Connection is starting fresh in 2019 with an emphasis on community, while seeking opportunities to leverage and coordinate with others. Welcome & Gather Mindful moment - volunteer to lead? Welcomed several new folks, representing...
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October 26 Meeting Notes
(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...
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Peer Voices Now! Spring 2018 Newsletter
Kalia Mussetter of Living Bridges " Bringing people together for transformative community service," invites you to read the attached Peer Voices Now! newsletter. Kalia writes: "Please enjoy this beautiful newsletter. It is rich with fine, heartfelt writing by many local mental health Peer Providers; talented individuals who serve our mental health stakeholder community every day. There is a focus on experience of both loss and healing from the recent fires, as well as moving accounts of peer...
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RSVP now! Protective Patterns and Centering Skills Webinar, Thurs 3/25 at 4pm!
Dovetail Learning has been working in the Social and Emotional/Resilience field for over a decade, so we'd like to share our work. There is no doubt that we all feel the tension, stress, and uncertainty of these times. How can we be more kind and connected with all we have going on? Dovetail Learning is proud to share We Are Resilient practices to maintain wellness and self-care in this unique moment in our shared history. Please view our free webinar directed toward parents/care givers (but...
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Early childhood educators learn new ways to spot trauma triggers, build resilience in preschoolers
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.
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For the January Meeting: This is Who We Are
Over the last several months, Sonoma County ACEs Connections (SCAC) has been struggling to develop organizational guidelines and committees. We have attempted to adopt them on several occasions but have not been able to agree on a plan. This has been especially frustrating for some of us, because back in November of 2015, SCAC voted to adopt a group of committees. For a variety of reasons however, folks keep wanting to reinvent that wheel. I am proposing one more attempt to discuss our...
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FREE Train-the-Trainer to enhance resilience and meditation skills in a post-fire Sonoma County
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...
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Hidden in Plain Sight & Why Eliminating Health Inequalities Should be a Top Priority
Pete Golis wrote an editorial piece in this weekend's paper highlighting a local research brief of sorts many of us might never hear about, but all of us can benefit from reading. " Hidden in Plain Sight " (scribed by the Sonoma County Community Foundation) paints a picture of the "growing, graying, and diversifying" Sonoma Valley. The report introduction begins with this compelling invitation to consider the assets and challenges: "American philanthropy is in the midst of an historic...
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Highlights and Resources from the February 7, 2019 Strategies 2.0 Sierra Regional Learning Community: Promoting Resilience using a Trauma-Informed Approach, Emphasizing Partnerships with Behavioral Health Systems.
Growing knowledge and networks for professionals working with families The third Sierra Learning Community in the four-part Building Resiliency Series focused on: Promoting Resilience using a Trauma-Informed Approach, Emphasizing P artnerships with Behavioral Health Systems. Together we explored successful approaches to support the behavioral health needs of children and families living in rural communities. View the recording of the event by clicking here: 2.7.19 Sierra Learning Community...
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Replacing detention with meditation
Often when a child acts out at school they are sentenced to detention or suspension. The Robert W. Coleman Elementary School decided this was no longer going to be the case. Instead of detention this elementary school created the Mindful Moment Room. This room was created for children to go and talk through what had happened and provides them with the space and time to practice breathing and meditation. Studies have shown that mindful meditation could improve a person’s attention span and...
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San Francisco Dept of Public Health Trauma-Informed Systems Initiative
I thought you might be interested in taking a look at the 2014 year in review from the SF Dept of Public Health's Trauma-Informed Systems Initiative. It's attached, below. The Department made the commitment to train all of its 9,000 staff...
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Solano County launches its ACEs and resilience initiative inviting all to take action
Elizabeth Huntley recalls the day when her family’s life was turned upside down. “One day my mom woke up and she packed up all of our clothes, all five of us…and she took me and my younger sister who had the same father… down to my paternal grandmother’s house…and she left us there. She took my middle sister to a town near Birmingham, Ala., and left her there. She took my only brother and an older sister back to Huntsville and left them at a sister’s house. Then she went back to that housing...
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Sonoma County ACES Connection Meeting 1/25/17
Let's join together for the upcoming Sonoma County ACES Connection Meeting on 1/25/17 from 12:30 - 2:00 in the City View Rooms at 625 5th Street in Santa Rosa.
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Sonoma County ACES Connection Meeting 1/27/16
Dear Supporters & Friends, We look forward to seeing you next Wednesday January 27, 2016 from 12:30 2:00 in the City View Rooms at 625 5 th Street. Our upcoming agenda and meeting materials are attached, and minutes from December follow here: December 14, 2015 Paper Tigers is a testament to what the latest development science is proving: that one caring adult can help break the cycle of adversity in a young persons life. Sonoma County ACES Connection...
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Sonoma County ACES Connection Meeting 10-26-16
Dear Friends, We’ll be gathering at the Valley of the Moon Children’s Home for our next meeting of the Sonoma County ACEs Connection. (Many of you may already plan to be there for the “ACEs, Trauma Informed and Self Care” workshop with Brian Farragher.) During this compelling meeting we’ll hear about the Master Training event with ACE Interface and Dr. Anda, the California ACEs Conference hosted by the Center for Youth Wellness, among other exciting announcements. We will also be doing the...
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Sonoma County ACES Connection Meeting 11/30/16
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...
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Sonoma County ACES Connection Meeting 2-22-17
Dear Friends, We look forward to coming together to continue our efforts to raise awareness around Adverse Childhood Experiences & Resiliency. Join our community coalition’s meeting on Wednesday, February 22, 2017 at 12:30 at 625 5 th Street, Santa Rosa in the City View Rooms. Our agenda and meeting notes from January are attached to keep you up to date about our exciting activities and future plans. Your voice, community insight, and local action is helping us achieve community healing.
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Sonoma County ACES Connection Meeting 3-23-16
Dear Friends, We look forward to coming together again on Wednesday March 23, 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. You can also find our meeting minutes here .
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Sonoma County ACES Connection Meeting 4-26-17
Dear Friends, We look forward to coming together to continue our efforts to raise awareness around Adverse Childhood Experiences & Resiliency. Join our community coalition’s meeting on Wednesday, April 26, 2017 at 12:30 at 625 5 th Street, Santa Rosa in the City View Rooms. Our agenda and meeting notes from March are attached to keep you up to date about our exciting activities and future plans. Your voice, community insight, and local action is helping us achieve community healing. We...
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Sonoma County ACES Connection Meeting 4-27-16
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.
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Agenda for 1.23.19 meeting
ACEs Enthusiasts Community Meeting PUBLIC ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND! Date: January 23, 2019 Time: 3:30 to 5:00 Location: Child Parent Institute : 3650 Standish Ave., Santa Rosa, CA 95407 About this community: We bring the community together to prevent, heal, and treat ACEs while promoting resiliency. New Year - New Focus! With start of new year, Sonoma County ACEs Connection will re-start fresh with a community focus, while seeking opportunities to leverage and coordinate with others. Welcome...
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ACEs Champions Science Series: Allen Nishikawa: ACEs Storyteller Helps People Develop Their Resilience
Sonoma County ACEs Connection members Allen Nishikawa and Lena Hoffman at California Policymaker Education Day, 2018 Allen Nishikawa, a sansei, or third-generation Japanese American, majored in political science and American history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he participated in antiwar (Vietnam) marches. But it was his experience as a military brat — moving from school to school across the U.S. and even to Japan as a child — that shaped his own childhood experiences and...
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Bring community voices into disaster rebuilding and infrastructure planning [thehill.com]
After wildfires and hurricanes ravaged the country last year, we saw devastating human impact, but also soon came to understand the huge financial costs to communities needing to rebuild. Reports are calling 2017 the most costly disaster year on record, with estimates of over $306 billion in damage to housing, transit, infrastructure and businesses. We know that a $1 investment of federal funds in resilient infrastructure can yield $6 in savings, and we also know that community voice is...
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County Supervisors Approve Recovery and Resiliency Framework
SANTA ROSA – On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors approved the Recovery and Resiliency Framework which serves as a vision and approach for how Sonoma County will recover and emerge more resilient from the October 2017 wildfires. The Framework was prepared by the County’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency in collaboration with other County departments and agencies, cities and other jurisdictions, nonprofits, and other community stakeholders. “In 2017, a catastrophic wind storm created a...
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Stress-related hormone cortisol lowers significantly after just 45 minutes of art creation
I know that I'm preaching to the choir with this article ( Stress-related hormone cortisol lowers significantly after just 45 minutes of art creation ), but I'd like to share a personal story and along with it a some floating hopes I have in all of this trauma-informed work that we strive to do. My Brief Story I didn't always like to paint. In fact, I hated it because I was high-achieving and didn't think I was good enough to do it. One day my senior year of college, a friend of mine (let's...
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CRI's Search for National Resilience Champions
CRI is the nation’s first Resilience community network and a national leader in the effort to create and support inclusive, equitable and healthy communities who understand, model and promote the common language of safety, connection and love. Contextual community resilience is our emphasis and helping to share that message is our passion. Why did CRI create a national resiliency award? Malcolm Gladwell defined a tipping point as ‘the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling...
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Do You Have a Story to Tell? Speak at the 2018 Fall Trauma-Informed School Conference
Beyond Consequences is excited to announce that our Call for Proposals for the 2018 Fall Trauma-Informed School Conference has been extended. If you have a great story to share about your experience in working with students who’ve had adverse childhood experiences, we would love to hear from you! Here are some examples of sessions that fit in at our nationally recognized conference: Administrative/School-Wide Track • Mindfulness Instead of Suspension • Special Education Law & Advocacy •...
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Documentary Wrestling Ghosts tracks a journey from trauma to resilience
When prompted by a life coach to comfort the child inside of her, Kim Montleon, a young mother at the center of the documentary film, Wrestling Ghosts , says emphatically: “I can’t do that; I’m afraid I won’t come back!” That’s the beginning of Montleon’s two-year struggle to dig deep into her own harrowing childhood trauma to find a way to heal so that she can nurture her young children. The documentary by filmmaker Ana Sofia Joanes was screened to more than 140 people on Saturday,...
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DULCE helps pediatricians in Oakland, CA, prevent toxic stress in newborns
On a recent day in early March, Laura Lopez met a former patient of hers in the waiting room of Highland Hospital’s pediatric clinic in Oakland, CA. The patient had forgotten her Medi-Cal card and called Lopez asking for help. But in the brief conversation, Lopez, a family specialist with the DULCE program, learned about some dire changes in the patient’s life. Laura Lopez “Without me even asking, she shared with me that she had separated from her partner, that she needs to apply for food...
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During COVID-19, how does a trauma-informed school pivot to distance learning?
All photos courtesy of Antioch Middle School staff Antioch Middle School seventh-grader Alyssia Garcia was accustomed to scanning the cafeteria during lunch for kids who might need her assistance. “I’d look for kids who looked sad, kids who were sitting alone, kids who looked angry,” says Garcia, a peer advocate at her school. Alyssia Garcia When she’d spot students sitting alone or looking sad, she’d approach them and ease into conversation. “If it’s a sad person, I’ll try to cheer them up...
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The Department of Health Services is tracking racial / ethnic demographic data for COVID-19 positive cases in County
Susan Gorin @susangorin1st Impacts on the Latinx Community There are long-standing injustices that have led to this, and this moment offers the opportunity to take concerted action to overcome inequalities and transform our thinking and actions towards a "stronger for all" Sonoma county. The health differences between the racial and ethnic groups are rooted in unequal economic and social conditions, as well as in past and current structural inequalities and discrimination that marginalize...
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Thoughts About Next Steps for Sonoma County ACES Connection
At our September meeting, we talked about creating an organizational structure for Sonoma County ACES Connection. I have attended plenty of community meetings (perhaps too many) where the deliberations about Vice-Chairs and Secretary-Treasurers...
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Trauma education and mindfulness help youth living amid gun violence
Armon Hurst, 2nd from left, first row, Teens on Target, courtesy of YouthAlive! Eighteen-year-old Armon Hurst serves as vice president of the student body at Castlemont High School in Oakland, Calif. He has a 4.0 grade point average, is an avid baseball player, and is slated to go to college next year. But until a few years ago, Hurst would find himself waking from nightmares in the middle of the night. It was difficult to concentrate at school, and he wasn’t eating well. Armon Hurst “There...
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Trauma-informed groups rev up to address race, inclusion
Eighteen-year-old Kia Hanson has always enjoyed her time as a youth leader at the East Oakland Youth Development Center (EOYDC). She’s worked mostly with five- and six-year-olds since she began in 2016. Recently, she tapped into new skills, especially if the kids were having a meltdown. Kia Hanson “If they’re off, we ask them, ‘What’s wrong?’ ‘Do you want to talk about anything?’,” she explains. “Basically asking before assuming they’re mad at the world for no reason.” What made the...