Tagged With "Heart of the Matter"

Please find attached the 2016 booklet for the Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities (MARC) project, including Walla Walla, Whatcom 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 the WA group as we grow so we can share your story!

Today, we have the opportunity to get to know CRI’s founder and board president Teri Barila. Teri holds a M.S. Degree in Fisheries Science and Management, has over 20 years experience working for government agencies from the Bonneville Power Association in Portland to the Army Corp. of Engineers in Walla Walla, WA. She was a founder or major instigator for numerous community focused non- profits, most notably, Friends of Children of Walla Walla, Community Center for Youth (CCY), Commitment...

There are hundreds of untold stories about rural health care and precious few resources to tell those stories. Report For America, The Spokesman-Review and the Innovia Foundation have all committed to do something about that. On June 4, The Spokesman-Review will welcome Arielle Dreher as our rural health care reporter. Report for America is a national service program that places talented emerging journalists into local news organizations to report for one to two years on under-covered issues...

[ Ed. note: Following is a media release published yesterday by Mathematica Policy Research. This follows on the heals of the report, "Self-Healing Communities" that Laura Porter, Dr. Robert Anda and WHO wrote for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Both reports and executive summaries are attached to this blog post. Both reports are significant, because they show that community ACEs initiatives -- with "modest investments and limited staff" -- are solving some of our most intractable...

We measured the feelings of our CRI members with a thought provoking question at our monthly meeting in May. We asked “What is the heart of this work to you?” Our question provided a basis for why our efforts to raise the personal and public awareness about stress and trauma are so powerful! Twenty- three members and three guests sat around 5 tables and shared their passion about the trauma informed work we’re all doing. Poster paper was used at each table as members spelled out the key...

I was asked to prepare a one-pager to use following screenings of Paper Tigers , or in conjunction with using the ACE Questionnaire. While hard to capture all I wanted in one page, here is the product, in case it might be of use to others. ~~One reminder, from Dr. Rob Anda- it is very important that the ACE Questionnaire never be used as a diagnostic test. He reiterated this at the April 2016 Science of Hope Seattle WA. conference hosted by Healthy Generations. Now that you’ve watched Paper...

“We’re all humans and we’re all going through the same things,” Kelsey Sisavath explains. “It’s important for everyone to know. It can change your perspective on how you see yourself, how you see others, and how you see the world.” The “it” Kelsey is talking about is trauma-informed and resilience-building practices based on the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) . She has a unique perspective on the topic given her range of experiences throughout her 19 years of life. The story...

Partner Showcase No. 7 -- Dr. Don Ashley is not your typical pediatrician. If I’m reading Dr. Ashley correctly, he suggests that our bodies hold memory patterns from early childhood experiences that control our biological and decision making processes throughout our lives. In his words: “Pretty scary to have your body sabotage your health, sabotage your marriage, and sabotage your work”. New brain science and the study on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) reveal that certain habits that...

Hello all! The Columbia River Gorge is hosting a Trauma & Resiliency Summit on October 20th & 21st, 2016 in The Dalles, OR. Registration is made free to attendees through MARC Grant funding. If you are in the area please join us! And please note that registration is only available prior to the event as we have a limited amount of space. Claire

Pediatrician Lisa Ponce expresses her concerns about the needs of her patients at last year’s Beyond Paper Tigers Conference. She says 5 minutes per patient simply does not give enough time to get to the heart of any matter where true healing can take place. “Seeing 30 kids a day to measure head circumferences and fix ear infections was not enough”. She asked herself important questions that began a change in her practice. She asked how can I provide optimal care and help these children...

Welcome to the Children's Resilience Initiative group! Our team's goal is to share material and generate conversation as we strive to learn from each other in our collective efforts to "grow" the Resilience movement! Many of you took the time to travel to Walla Walla to participate in our June 28-29 conference, Beyond Paper Tigers Conference . We were humbled by the response to our first ever conference! We hope you left with new strategies, ideas and energy for this work; we certainly...

No brief intervention or short-term infusion of services is a silver bullet that will overcome the long-term harm caused by structural racism, poverty, and multi-generational trauma.

“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in” -Desmond Tutu. This quote captures the essence of why resilience matters. To CRI, Resilience is not about “lifting yourself up by your bootstraps” or “bouncing back” from serious harm or injury. To us, Resilience is about self-discovery and self-awareness based on what the ACE Study, neurobiology, and epigenetics tell us about our development. It is...

Partner Showcase No. 6 - Sonia Cole The Heart of the Matter -- “We realized that in order to have a trauma informed practice we needed to have trauma informed self-care in order to not only sustain our careers but actually increase our compassion”. Sonia Cole Paradigm shifts were uncommon several years ago. Today, in our fast paced world of technology and change we might face new paradigm shifts every day. Sonia’s words are important because they contain a format that can help us shift from...

Authors note: This piece is co-authored by @Lara Kain and @Christine Cissy White. Though we had never worked together or met, we were asked to co-present on creating t rauma-informed changes in communities by the Attachment Trauma Network for the first national (now annual) Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools Summit in Washington, DC. This article is an expanded essay version of that presentation). Be the Spark Oprah Winfrey helped mainstream discussion about...

In Japan, there is a form of art called Kintsugi, the process of repairing a broken piece of ceramic with gold, filling in its cracks. Such a technique renders the piece more beautiful in the eyes of the artist; it celebrates the object’s history, its unique story, and emphasizes the beauty of damage instead of disguising it. To feel this truth about ourselves, however, requires an accepting space and practice. When upcoming Beyond Paper Tigers conference presenter, Brigette Phillips, began...

In Japan, there is a form of art called Kintsugi, the process of repairing a broken piece of ceramic with gold, filling in its cracks. Such a technique renders the piece more beautiful in the eyes of the artist; it celebrates the object’s history, its unique story, and emphasizes the beauty of damage instead of disguising it. To feel this truth about ourselves, however, requires an accepting space and practice. When upcoming Beyond Paper Tigers conference presenter, Brigette Phillips, began...

Graphic artist Anne Nelson created this visual roadmap during the partner showcase, capturing the "heart of the matter" for each community member Teri Barila, co-founder and CEO of the Children’s Resilience Initiative and the igniting force that brought change to a quiet corner of southeast Washington, kicked off last month’s Beyond Paper Tigers Conference by sharing one of her “aha” moments. In 2007, she attended a conference in Winthrop, WA, where Dr. Robert Anda spoke about the CDC-Kaiser...

“I believe that everyone, especially a child, deserves to know how their brains are shaped by environment, to then understand their capacity for building proactive protective factors. We all deserve to be super heroes as we do the best we can to consciously live life well. ” - Teri Barila The superheroes we learn about in comics, movies, and TV shows swoop in to save the world with their incredible powers, to shield people from harm. But in our world, no matter how much we wish to protect...

Walla Walla ignited “the Heart of the Matter” at the Trauma-Informed Care Conference, Beyond Paper Tigers , June 28-29. The conference was filled with so many good insights and ideas on how to work with ACEs in our young, vulnerable population. The final session included some best practices that were captured in a lively graphic by Anne Nelson of Drawn2Solutions (see attached). I’ve heard that a picture is worth a thousand words and Anne effectively captured the highlights so we would have a...

Teri is the best!

Roger and the leadership team at Broetje Orchards all exemplify how "The Heart of the Matter" works to improve all aspects of the lives they touch, including their "bottom line" -- a wonderful model for us to learn from. Ralph and Cheryl Broetje walk the talk every day, and demonstrate what a nurturing and caring mentality can accomplish.

For more information and to register - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/124637117975 Reimagining Resilience: Using a Trauma Lens helps adults build positive relationships with children who have experienced trauma. We will explore the impact of adverse experiences and the effect they have on developing brains and student behavior. The course gives teachers, parents, and other adults working closely with kids the skills they need to make sure that every child knows that they matter. An online...

Rick Griffin knows a lot about hope – how to understand it, instill it, develop it. Griffin is the director of training and curriculum development for the non-profit Community Resilience Initiative (CRI) in Walla Walla, Washington. Walla Walla’s Lincoln High was the subject of a 2015 film, “Paper Tigers,” by the late Jamie Redford, about how the school principal, Jim Sporleder, adopted an ACEs-informed approach that positively transformed the school as well as the surrounding community.