Tagged With "Meet the Team"
Blog Post
MARC Booklet 2016: Features Walla Walla and Whatcom
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!
Blog Post
Meet Allyn Griffin! One of CRI's Trainers.
Today we get to know Allyn Griffin, one of CRI's trauma-informed trainers out in the field based in Prescott, WA. What was your "aha" moment that took you into the world of ACEs and Trauma informed care? Just over five years ago, I was asked to speak at a friend’s retirement celebration. A close friend of mine and retired NASA astronaut, Leland Melvin, arranged a meeting with a group of NASA educators who were very influential at the time in creating national curriculum. That meeting and a...
Blog Post
Meet Rick Griffin! CRI's Dir. of Training + Curriculum
Today we have the chance to get to know Rick Griffin, CRI's Director of Training and Curriculum. Rick continues to speak to thousands of groups from all over the country and is widely recognized for his work with trauma-informed practices. What was your "aha" moment that took you into the world of ACEs and Trauma informed care? My "aha" moment came from two decades of working with struggling teens. I saw young men become frustrated far more easily and more often and communicate their...
Blog Post
Meet the team--our new Associate Director, Rebecca Cooley
Rebecca joined the team at CRI in September, 2019 What was your "aha" moment that took you into the world of ACEs and Trauma informed care? Before I answer, I would like to say how honored and lucky I feel to have been chosen to work with Teri, Rick and others who are addressing health and wellbeing inequities. I love my job and what we do. It was a build up. Upon moving to Walla Walla, a friend encouraged me to see Paper Tigers at a public screening at Whitman College. Then within a few...
Blog Post
Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities (MARC) Represented at California ACEs Conference
(L to R) Teri Barila from Children's Resilience Initiative in Walla Walla, WA along with Dr. Ariane Marie-Mitchell from San Bernardino County, CA ACEs Task Force share their ACEs journey in their communities Representatives from several MARC communities were among the 450 people who attended the 2016 Adverse Childhood Experiences Conference in San Francisco, CA on October 19th and 20th. This is the third CA ACEs conference sponsored by the Center for Youth Wellness (CYW), and it was also the...
Blog Post
New Study Shows Communities Can Reduce the Effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences [Mathematic Policy Research]
[ 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...
Blog Post
NJ medical school program requires all first-year students to learn about ACEs science
In 2015, Dr. Beth Pletcher, a pediatrician and associate professor specializing in genetics, was at the annual conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics in Washington D.C. when she heard two speakers that forever changed her work with medical students. Dr. Beth Pletcher “I went to two talks on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) that were so mind-boggling to me that I decided on my drive back to New Jersey that I had to do something about it,”says Pletcher, director of the Division...
Blog Post
Oh what a night! Expressing emotion through mindful art!
What can be better than dinner together and mindful art as a way to express our feelings! Walla Walla families left with smiles on their faces and wet canvases in hand after spending a delightful two hours with Brigette Phillips https://www.facebook.com/mindfulart2016/ and the CRI Team, creating beauty. Breathing buddies, feelings charts, and "how do I feel" were additional activities available for the children (one youngster actually drew 28 "faces" of how he feels!). Thanks to Brigette for...
Blog Post
Ready for October
Effectively communicating a message in 15 seconds can take hours to formulate. After spending weeks, months and years upgrading our most current phrase “resilience trumps ACEs”, our own resilience was getting exhausted. A simpler more meaningful message was necessary to capture attention and create new awareness. If we hadn’t practiced resilience training ourselves we might have never accomplished our task. Teri Barila kept bouncing ideas my way. I kept researching to understand why...
Blog Post
Beyond Paper Tigers Presenter Showcase! Teaching Employability in Prisons: Tony McGuire’s Harmony of Emotional Resilience and Building Instruction
Tony McGuire- a member of Community Resilience Initiative, and an instructor for Walla Walla Community College at the Washington State Penitentiary- had divided his Building Maintenance class into random groups where white supremacists may be working on the same team as Native Americans. This choice was intentional; “there’s no affiliation on a job site, so you don’t get that here,” Tony told his students. Yet not long after the start of such teamwork, tools began flying. One student was...
Blog Post
Beyond Paper Tigers Presenter Showcase! The Impact of Data on Community Growth: ACEs Connection's Framework and Tools
What can organizations do to be successful in growing their ACEs initiatives and trauma-informed communities? This is the question that Jane Stevens, founder of the social network ACEsConnection.com and news site ACEsTooHigh.com , helps to answer. For the last several years, Jane and her team at ACEs Connection have been collecting information from communities as they start and grow their ACEs initiatives. ACEs Connection staff watched and reported on communities like Walla Walla as they lay...
Blog Post
Walla Walla (WA) City Council Proclamation — October is Resilience Awareness Month
The kick-off event for our Resilience Awareness community campaign started with the Mayor Allen Pomraning signing a proclamation at the Walla Walla City Council session September 27th. The Proclamation noted CRI's focus on the help, healing and hope that comes when a community understands the impact trauma can have, and how together, we support each other by building stronger connections across all domains and sectors. With a yard sign in hand, members of the CRI planning team celebrated...
Blog Post
What the ACEs Screening Movement Can Learn from the Healthcare Hotspotting Movement
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.
Blog Post
A new response to child abuse [Union-Bulletin]
Seated on a child-sized chair, Brooke Martin looks right at home. That’s intentional, she said. Martin is a social worker with the Walla Walla office of Child Protective Services. While her office is under the umbrella of Washington state’s Division of Children and Family Services, she works in the Walla Walla Police Department’s headquarters right next to a child-friendly forensic interview room. That’s the spot where most troubled kids 13 and younger in Walla Walla County end up talking...
Blog Post
A Simple Formula to Cultivate Understanding
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...
Blog Post
Bringing ACEs, Resilience, and Hope to preschool families
This school year, an endeavor of the Franklin Pierce Hewins Early Learning Center (ELC) was to bring Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Resilience to the preschool families. What began as a broad idea soon turned into an exciting project: “Rise to Resilience & Hope”. Our ELC has had a Kids at Hope culture for many years – believing that all children are capable of success, with no exceptions. With Kids at Hope, the adults are Treasure Hunters, seeking out and recognizing the...
Blog Post
By Any Name, Emotional Maltreatment Is Destructive!
Recently I conducted a Google search for synonyms of emotional maltreatment. Phrases such as mental abuse and psychological abuse were fairly common. However, I also saw phrases such as The Quiet Killer and Invisible Violence. By any name, emotional maltreatment is destructive. Unfortunately, not all agree on what constitutes emotional maltreatment. On one hand, no one would deny that a child being called worthless repeatedly would be considered emotional maltreatment. On the other hand,...
Blog Post
Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP) launches new grassroots initiative to engage and educate Congress
CTIPP (Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice) today announced the launch of the National Trauma Campaign , calling for federal action to prevent and address childhood trauma and build resilience through educating and engaging Congress. Its widely circulated communication invited people from around the country to join the new grassroots initiative. The campaign provides ways for everyone to get involved by joining the effort, becoming a Local Liaison to take the lead in every state...
Blog Post
Community Leaders Tell Their ACEs Success Stories at 2016 ACEs Conference in California
(l to r) Teri Barila, director of the Children's Resilience Initiative; Dr. Ariane Marie-Mitchell, assistant professor in Loma Linda University Preventive Medicine and Pediatric Depts. (Photo: Jennifer Hossler) _________________________________ Sauntering on stage to the beat of Everyday People by Sly and the Family Stone, four “heroes” of the ACEs movement took their seats for a panel on trauma-informed and resilience-building communities on October 21, the last day of the 2016 Adverse...
Blog Post
Compassion - Play it Forward
Partner Showcase #3 - Michelle Higgins If compassionate police officers deserve purple hearts – what do trauma informed teachers deserve? A few weeks ago I posted an article titled Purple Hearts, Compassion and De-traumatizing. That article acknowledged Sergeant Braman for his heroic courage to exercise compassion in an often brutal world of law enforcement. There is no substitute for educating professionals who yield the power to transform our world into a safe place through compassion.
Blog Post
CRI Celebrates its Ninth Birthday!
CRI is excited to share that the CRI Team celebrated our ninth birthday, having been first seated as a Team in February of 2010. Research confirms that intentional, creative acts of celebration are powerful organizers in family and organizational culture and provide stability in times of stress or transition. Thus CRI held a small party with a themed cake, sang happy birthday, and enjoyed time together honoring our work and growth. CRI also welcomed guests Dr. Dario Longhi and Dr. Marsha...
Blog Post
CRI honored three National Resilience Champions at the 2019 Beyond Paper Tigers Conference!
CRI is grateful to have honored three National Resilience Champions- Karen Pritzker, Jane Stevens, and Laura Porter- at the 2019 Beyond Paper Tigers Conference. Each has inspired the development of critical mass, and have been energetic catalysts of new ideas. The three women have represented tipping points in the national movement. They have worked tirelessly to shift culture and mindsets around how human restoration occurs and have provided brilliant insights to reframe beliefs about the...
Blog Post
CRI is hiring an Associate Director!
Community Resilience Initiative is seeking an innovative and passionate individual to join our organization as an Associate Director (AD). Based in Walla Walla, WA , the AD reports to the Executive Director and to the Board of Directors. Job Overview The role of the Associate Director is to sustain the resilience-based, trauma-responsive capacity building work at the local, regional, state and national stage for which CRI is recognized. Success in this position will be evidenced by...
Blog Post
Discover Why Walla Walla is a #1 Trauma Informed Community
BEYOND PAPER TIGERS CRI is moving Beyond Paper Tigers into a whole new expe-resilience. Our team of presenters are providing cutting edge information and tools for transformation. Join us in June for the conference you've been waiting for. Beyond Paper Tigers Want to know more? See what our other partners have to say: https://www.youtube.com/user/ResilienceTrumpsAces Sign up now to reserve your seat at Beyond Paper Tigers conference BEYOND PAPER TIGERS CONFERENCE REGISTRATION
Blog Post
Education of Early Child Development
Partner Showcase No. 5 - Melissa Clearfield. -- Just as healthy crops require healthy seeds to be selected from healthy plants, and planted in healthy soil to be nurtured with water and sunlight, healthy people require healthy parents who can supply them with the essential requirements to thrive. A man who attempts farming and grows crops in poor soil, without water or sunlight will be a man who fails at farming. A parent who attempts to raise a child without first understanding the...
Blog Post
Jubilee Leadership Academy: Using ACEs Science to Transform School Culture
Students at JLA are reminded that change starts with themselves In 2004, after nearly a decade as program director at Jubilee Leadership Academy (JLA), a Christian alternative boarding school for troubled boys ages 13-18 in Prescott, WA, Rick Griffin decided to take a job in Phoenix, AZ, to work with adults with developmental disabilities. There, he began to see similarities between the issues they were having and what he saw in the kids at JLA. “There was a cognitive reason these adults I...
Comment
Re: A new response to child abuse [Union-Bulletin]
The new Child Advocacy Center, housed at the Walla Walla Police Department, represents how forty-four partners from thirteen local agencies representing six disciplines – including WWPD, CPS, prosecution, law enforcement, medical and behavioral healthcare and advocacy/case management (social work)- came together to find a better way to serve children following trauma. We celebrate another community example of building a resilient Walla Walla County! Deborah Peters, Children's Advocacy Team...
Comment
Re: EVERYONE IS A LEADER -- Partner Showcase #2
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.
Blog Post
New Resource: Trauma-Informed Nutrition Factsheet
A newly developed factsheet, “Trauma-Informed Nutrition: Recognizing the Relationship between Adversity, Chronic Disease, and Nutritional Health” has just been released. This factsheet is intended for Registered Dietitians (RDs) and was designed to support and describe the connection between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), the impacts of trauma and its relationship to chronic disease, and trauma-informed nutrition practices. This factsheet was developed through a collaborative...
Blog Post
DCYF Strategic Plan Feedback Survey - needs your input!
Before the creation of DCYF, funding and services were not always connected. The draft strategic plan helps our agency focus on how we serve children, youth, families and our communities as one entity. This framework helps to build on existing funding and services to strengthen our ability to serve families as well as to disrupt racial inequity and disproportionality in our systems. There is more work ahead for us to accomplish the priorities set out in the draft plan. The process to gather...
Blog Post
Ann Penn-Charles casts a wide net to reduce generational trauma in Washington State coastal tribes
You could say that Ann Penn-Charles, a native of La Push, Washington, was a natural resilience builder even before there was an ACE Study. La Push is a Native American reservation on the western edge of Olympic National Park, where the Quileute Nation ancestors of “Miss Ann”, as she is known, have lived for generations. Although she faced hardships growing up on the reservation, including having her first child when she was a junior in high school, she was able to graduate with the support...
Blog Post
October is for Resilience-Building
Until I read “The Deepest Well” by Dr. Nadien Burke Harris, I had never heard of Adverse Childhood Experience, toxic stress, or epigenetics. Yes, I was aware that trauma can be transferred genetically, but my knowledge stopped and ended at trauma’s impact on the body due to major world and life events. In essence, I knew of trauma’s impact of the body only in terms of contexts like slavery, 9/11, and the holocaust. I did not know that the shortening of telomeres, stunted amygdala growth, and...
Blog Post
"A Better Normal" Community Discussion: Suicide Awareness and Community Cafes
Join us on Friday November 6, 2020 from noon to 1:00 PST as we come together and join Satya Chandragiri MD, Bonnie O’Hern RN, Denise PNP, & Michael Polacek RN for a discussion around the tender issue of suicide. Together we will discuss ways people and providers can support each other and encourage communities to take action to support one another around suicide prevention, crisis intervention, and the layers of culture and structural barriers to care. A special emphasis will be on...
Blog Post
Me & My Emotions: A New, Free Resource for Teens
The pandemic has had a lasting effect on youth mental health. Moved by a desire to reduce youth’s toxic stress and increase their resilience, The Dibble Institute, in partnership with a team of students and alumni from ArtCenter College of Design and author Carolyn Curtis, PhD, is releasing Me & My Emotions —a new, free adaptation of our beloved Mind Matters Curriculum. The mobile-friendly Me & My Emotions website features engaging graphics and bite-sized lessons teens can access and...
