There's a fantastic five-part series, Whole People , done by PBS, " spotlighting the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) through personal and community stories. It explores the long-term costs to personal well-being and our society. While much work needs to be done, there are many innovative developments to prevent and treat ACES. We all play a role in becoming a whole people." It's amazing. The five topics covered are as follows: Childhood Trauma Healing Communities A New...

The Hogg Foundation has awarded $11.5 million in grants to 11 Texas organizations for the Communities of Care initiative. The initiative supports collaborative approaches to well-being in the Houston Metropolitan Statistical Area. The grants will strengthen efforts to transform the environments where people live, learn, work, play and pray, bringing a population health approach to support resilience, mental health and well-being for all members of a community, and with a focus on children...

For the eight-and-a-half years she spent in prison, Kristan Kerr looked forward to one thing every month: a visit from her daughter, Chloe. Visit by visit, she watched Chloe grow from a toddler to nearly a teenager. "I just watched her grow all the way up," Kerr says. "One visit, she couldn't read, and then the next visit she was reading something to me." Convicted for aggravated robbery in 2011 – she was the driver — Kerr says she wasn't making good choices back then, and it meant missing...

Mental health is at the forefront of gun violence prevention conversations among Texas legislators this session, but advocates for people with mental illness are wary of that focus. After the Santa Fe High School shooting in May that left 10 dead and 13 others wounded, Gov. Greg Abbott held a series of roundtable discussions around school safety that resulted in proposals like more resources for school safety personnel and closing gaps around mental health access. He named school safety as...

Please join us on Thursday, March 21st for a special virtual screening of Broken Places , the latest U.S. documentary on early childhood trauma and resilience. The film will be offered via a private Vimeo link with passcode to all registered members of ACEs Connection, for free, accessible in the United States and internationally. REGISTER TODAY: To register, please visit : https://goo.gl/forms/apdoINwgtQmydEXK2 The viewing portal for the film will open on Vimeo at 6am EST and close at 11pm...

The first three years of a child’s life are the most critical for brain development, yet Mississippi has done too little to support this cognitive evolution. The state needs to improve its policies to ensure children are in good health, have stable homes and have access to early learning opportunities. Those are the findings of a new report, the State of Babies Yearbook 2019 , released by the nonprofits Zero to Three and ChildTrends. The authors of the report analyzed state policies and...

The promotion of trauma-sensitive and trauma-informed schools has grown tremendously in education. Broadly speaking, trauma-informed schools maintain a framework whereby the entire school staff maintains awareness of the impacts of toxic stress and trauma, and strive to ensure that all students feel safe, supported, and connected. Such awareness and motivation among educators and caregivers to promote such a framework presents multiple opportunities to change the lives of students and help...

Claiming a city—or a school—is inclusive doesn’t make it so, said Angela Ward, the supervisor of race and equity programs in the Austin Independent school district . Building environments where everyone feels valued and supported takes a commitment to challenging, thoughtful work, she believes. Ward, 46, also oversees the district’s restorative practices, an alternative to traditional forms of discipline that teaches students to talk through their problems and experiences. The aim is to...

To read the announcement and all details, click HERE and see below key dates. BUILD is looking to support dynamic collaboratives driving sustainable improvements in community health. Are you ready to BUILD with us? For this new third cohort, BUILD is looking to support up to 17 innovative collaboratives across the US t hat include a community-based organization, hospital or health system, and public health department working together in dynamic ways to address upstream challenges and drive...

In looking at the impact of childhood trauma, you can’t get much clearer than this: In 2017, ACEs among Tennessee adults led to an estimated $5.2 billion in direct medical costs and lost productivity from employees missing work. That’s just one year, according to the new report, “ The Economic Cost of ACEs in Tennessee ," released on Feb. 1, 2019 by The Sycamore Institute in Nashville, Tenn. And to provide some perspective, $5.2 billion is one-seventh of the state’s annual budget . This $5.2...

“Forgotten.” In the months after Hurricane Harvey slammed the Texas Gulf Coast as a Category 4 storm, that was the word I heard repeatedly from renters, homeowners and disaster case managers in small towns and rural communities. The help that the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state leaders promised hadn’t arrived. They feared their communities would be left behind, overshadowed by larger cities like Houston. In some cases, their homes looked as if Harvey had just hit — not the year...

Child Abuse & Neglect Article of the Year 2017 Child Abuse & Neglect, The International Journal, is pleased to announce the winner of its ‘Article of the Year’. The papers shortlisted for this title have demonstrated outstanding contribution to research on child welfare and we wish to recognise these scholars and research topics within the community. The papers selected for this title were voted on by the editorial team and editorial board (33 votes) of Child Abuse & Neglect. For...