Tagged With "critical thinking"
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12 Myths of the Science of ACEs
The two biggest myths about ACEs science are: MYTH #1 — That it’s just about the 10 ACEs in the ACE Study — the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study . It’s about sooooo much more than that. MYTH #2 — And that it’s just about ACEs…adverse childhood experiences. These two myths are intertwined. The ACE Study issued the first of its 70+ publications in 1998, and for many people it was the lightning bolt, the grand “aha” moment, the unexpected doorway into a blazing new...
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A Review of Community Efforts to Mitigate and Prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences and Trauma
This 63-page report was prepared by Christopher Blodgett, Ph.D. Washington State University Area Health Education Center. This paper summarizes a number of community and treatment system initiatives in Washington State that address elements of...
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ACEs Connection, our Cooperative of Communities, and....Pando!
Last month, we officially launched the ACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities. We are SO excited about this! And the communities that are part of the handful of ACEs initiatives that are piloting the Cooperative are, too! Before describing the Cooperative, I want to reassure our 40,000+ members and 277 ACEs initiatives (plus another 100 in development) that have communities on ACEs Connection that nothing on ACEsConnection.com changes! Membership is and remains free ! And it will remain...
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Adverse Childhood Experiences Response Team in Manchester, NH, helps children grapple with trauma, violence, addicted parents
An often-overlooked aspect of the opioid epidemic that has exploded across the U.S. in recent years is how often the abuse of heroin or prescription opiates is accompanied by domestic violence. This is tragic enough for the adults involved, but it’s a ticking time bomb for children who are exposed to these adversities, raising their risk for future drug use and multiple health and mental health conditions. Here’s how one community is trying to address the problem.
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Affirming Our Self-Love, Self-Acceptance, and Self-Worth
CRI hosted a training in Everett recently, focusing on the power of self-love and acceptance. As a branch of our Course Two material- CAREER, an acronym for Celebration, Affirmation, Regulation, Expectation, Education, and Education- we focused the day on Affirmation. Teri brought in arts and crafts, scrapbook paper, and our friends came to participate in making bookmarks. The day started with the song, "How Could Anyone" . How could anyone ever tell you You were anything less than beautiful...
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How a natural disaster led one town to do something about its ACEs, past and future
Tracy Franke, principal of Darrington Elementary School, a K-8 school with 300 students, had heard about CLEAR, and called Dr. Christopher Blodgett, who runs the program, to arrange a visit from Turner. “We were hurting,” says Franke. “Our students and staff needed some tools to get through the trauma.”
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Howard Pinderhughes Inspires Community Healing in 2017 UCSF Last Lecture [ucsf.edu]
In Martin Luther King Jr.’s last book published before his assassination, he reflected on the civil rights movement and asked, “Where do we go from here? Chaos or community?” That same question resonates today, said Howard Pinderhughes , PhD, during the 2017 UCSF Last Lecture , in which he highlighted the importance of community and social justice in tackling health care challenges. Now in its sixth year, the UCSF Last Lecture has become an annual tradition in which a UCSF faculty member is...
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ITRC calls for Universal Resilience Education and Skills Training for Climate Trauma
Sneak Preview for ITRC ACEs Connection Members! Next Tuesday, Jan. 8, the ITRC will release a major report Preparing People on the West Coast for Climate Change. The media release about the report is below (and attached). It includes a link to the webpage for the report, where people can download the full report, and find a link to the webpage with examples of resilience programs across the west coast. You can connect with the ITRC CA and PNW Facebook page:...
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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...
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"Learn to Love Others, Learn to be Free." Celebrating The Life of Chaz...
How we care for the most vulnerable citizens in our community is a reflection of who we are…
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Mobilizing ACEs, Trauma and Resilience Networks to Support and Strengthen Pandemic Response Efforts
“What are your signs of stress?” asked the leaders of a recent mindfulness webinar hosted by the Philadelphia ACE Task Force (PATF), held during the week that U.S. cases of COVID-19 neared half a million and more than sixty Philadelphians had died of the disease. Participants spilled their responses into the chat box: “headache…teeth grinding…can’t think clearly…nervous stomach…ruminating thoughts…muscle pain…itchiness…bad dreams.” [ At left: #TakeCarePHL during COVID-19 #StayHome #StaySafe.
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Mobilizing ACEs, Trauma, and Resilience Networks to Support and Strengthen Pandemic Response Efforts [MARC.HealthFederation.org]
By @Anndee Hochman
“What are your signs of stress?” asked the leaders of a recent mindfulness webinar hosted by the Philadelphia ACE Task Force (PATF), held during the week that U.S. cases of COVID-19 neared half a million and more than sixty Philadelphians had died of the disease.
Participants spilled their responses into the chat box: “headache…teeth grinding…can’t think clearly…nervous stomach…ruminating thoughts…muscle pain…itchiness…bad dreams.”
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Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities through Policy and Advocacy: A Toolkit for Trauma-Informed, Cross-Sector Networks
The Health Federation of Philadelphia is excited to launch Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities through Policy and Advocacy: A Toolkit for Trauma-Informed, Cross-Sector Networks . This resource supports network engagement in policy and advocacy efforts that are critical for achieving trauma-informed change and building community resilience. Use it to: Explore what counts as "trauma-related" policy. Think critically about advocacy roles networks can play. Be inspired by examples of...
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Self-Healing Communities: A Transformational Process Model for Improving Intergenerational Health
Self-Healing Communities: A Transformational Process Model for Improving Intergenerational Health Laura Porter, Kimberly Martin, PhD, and Robert Anda, MD, MS Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, June 2016 http://www.rwjf.org/en/library/research/2016/06/self-healing-communities.html
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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...
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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...
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Pitch to Ditch Poverty (From Poverty to Possibilities Summit November 12, 2019)
*Please reach out to me if you are in the Tacoma-Pierce County area and are seeking to connect with others to submit a proposal!* We are seeking creative approaches via an innovation challenge that provides funding, support and recognition to individuals and community-led groups who have big ideas that address family financial instability. Participants will have the opportunity to pitch their ideas to the community for potential funding and additional support. Big ideas, at a grassroots...
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Principal starts 'No phone, new friends Friday' lunchtime tradition
Thanks to Northwest PBIS Network, Inc. for sharing this on Facebook. Jackie Kennon - KCRG.com, Eastern Iowa, November 8, 2019 'No phone, new friends Fridays' is a new tradition at Iowa Valley Junior-Senior High School in Marendo. Principal Janet Behrens started it this year. She says she noticed students at the school with their heads down, looking at their phones. Instead, she wanted them to look at each other, and learn face-to-face communication skills. Students like junior Page Weick say...
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Program gives Spokane schools resources to help students rise above adversity
By Jim Allen , Thu., Oct. 24, 2019 Think of it as a well-school checkup. On Tuesday morning at Bemiss Elementary School, educators and health professionals spoke enthusiastically about something called Resilience in School Environments, or RISE. A collaboration between Kaiser Permanente and the Spokane and West Valley school districts, the RISE program is expected to lift up teachers and administrators and give them tools to cope with all the challenges of the modern student. The challenges...
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Resilience tips for today's environment
I came across this graphic I had used for a Child Care Providers training. It made me think of families looking for tips while in "shelter in place". For Claim my calm , a parent's ability to remain calm is important for children to see modeled. "Serve and return" in action! Find my safe zone in my mind is having structure and routines in place. Our card speaks to this (and by the way, read books together as part of the routine!). Name my feelings helps us calm our emotions, or name it to...
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Artists in the ACE and Resilience Movement: Creative Avenues to Change
They began with a song and ended with a poem. In-between, there were photographs and giant graphic renderings, movement exercises and a “human pulse” formed when 90 people stood in a circle and squeezed each other’s hands. At a June summit in Whatcom County, Washington, titled “Our Resilient Community: A Community Conversation on Resilience and Equity,” the arts played a starring role. Kristi Slette, executive director of the Whatcom Family and Community Network, one of two Washington sites...
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Beyond Paper Tigers: The Heart of the Matter
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...
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Child Trends Seeks Information About Programs Serving Opportunity Youth
From Child Trends, March 6, 2020 Child Trends’ new project with MDRC, “ Reconnecting Youth: Putting Out-of-School, Out-of-Work Youth on a Path to Self-Sufficiency ,” is seeking information about programs that provide services to help young people ages 16 to 24 advance on education and employment pathways. This project is focused on the population of young people who are out of work and out of school, sometimes called disconnected or opportunity youth. The information gathered will result in...
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Enhancing Resilience Through Human Design
{Photo above is the visual depiction of my human design} Have you ever wondered how the day and time of your birth, coupled with the precise location in which you were born could help you enhance your own resilience? If you’re like me, that thought may have never crossed your mind. And until very recently, I had never heard of “this thing” called Human Design , a visual representation of how individuals function that names our feelings and provides insights into how we work as human beings.
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From Tory Henderson: ACEs and Resilience
ACEs and Resilience Hello! This email includes several resources on the ACEs Connection website: Webinar – Self-Healing Community Model, Laura Porter, February 28 (State-to-state best practices series) Recorded Webinar – New Alaska statute directs state policy to incorporate principles of brain development (State-to-state best practices series) ACEs Connection Update from Tory Starting an ACEs Connection Community Webinar Series – Growing Resilient Communities 2.0 Resources - ACEs Connection...
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Getting Tri-City kids to read is just what the doctor ordered [tri-cityherald.com]
For about 10 minutes, Aryanna Vargas sat quietly with her Curious George book. Then Dr. Saul Valencia walked in and began asking questions about the book. “Can you tell me what he’s doing in this picture?” he asked, pointing to a man making a phone call. “Who do you think he’s calling? Do you think he’s calling his mom, his dad, a friend?” Aryanna began laughing and filling in the pieces of the story. As they finished with the story, Valencia said, “That’s exactly how it works in the room.”...
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Got time for a little brainstorming with ACEsConnection?
On Friday, March 20, 2020, you're invited to join me to talk about how we, as a community, can continue to guide and educate ourselves about to deal with the effects of the spread of Covid-19, and how to continue those efforts with people who don't yet know about ACEs science. And, given this last week, how we can provide more support to stay in the front of our brains instead of feeding our amygdala.
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Growth through Trauma-Informed Strategies: Coaching and Consultation with Rick Griffin
There is a Chinese proverb that states, “If you want 1 year of prosperity, grow grain. If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people." The benefits are evident, yet the real question becomes, “how do you grow people?” This Big Idea Session, CRI’s Trauma Coaching and Trauma Consultation Training, answers this question. Schools, organizations, and parents are discovering that the traditional “command and control” style of working with...
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Hanging on to Hope
In a conversation this morning, like I know many are having, the question of staying hopeful amidst the pain and suffering so many are experiencing in this pandemic came up. It made me think of author Pauline Boss and her book Loss, Trauma and Resilience: Therapeutic Work with Ambiguous Loss. When first introduced to this book many years ago, I was intrigued with the term "ambiguous loss" and found that several events in my life fit Boss' statement that those who suffer losses without...
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Resource List - Self-Care
Self-care is a key element of a trauma-informed approach, at individual, organization, and community levels. This internet resource list includes links to introductions to ACEs and the ACE Study, self-care, secondary trauma and mindfulness. Self-Care - General Self-Care Starter Kit, School of Social Work, University of Buffalo http://socialwork.buffalo.edu/...are-starter-kit.html Relaxation Tool Kit, Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center...
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She’s the ‘street doula’ behind the Homeless Humans of Tacoma. ‘They’re just like you and me’ (Tacoma News Tribune)
For roughly 40 years, Patti Ramos was a doula, assisting with more than 3,000 births. Now, Ramos has something new to consume her. There’s no paycheck involved this time — the 66-year-old gets by on Social Security income — but the hours are still long and the connections are still intimate. Today, Ramos, 66 and retired, considers herself a “street doula.” That’s because Ramos is the one-woman force behind the Homeless Humans of Tacoma project . For the last four years, she has spent her...
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Solutions-Focused Reporting: The Role of Journalism in Community Engagement
“This is a rich vein of stories that is underreported,” Linda Shaw remarks. “There are more than just problems in the world, and it’s easy to forget [that].” Linda spoke at CRI’s 2018 Beyond Paper Tigers (BPT) conference about her network, Solutions Journalism. The Solutions Journalism Network (SJN) encourages journalists to add more balance to their coverage, to include how people are responding to a problem. It is not advocacy; SJN does not focus on intentions as much as the credible...
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Substance-abuse doc says: Stop chasing the drug! Focus on ACEs.
He says: Addiction shouldn’t be called “addiction”. It should be called “ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking”. He says: Ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking (what traditionalists call addiction) is a normal response to the adversity experienced in childhood, just like bleeding is a normal response to being stabbed. He says: The solution to changing the illegal or unhealthy ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking behavior of opioid addiction is to address a person’s adverse childhood...
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Talking ACEs and building resilience in prison
At Washington State Penitentiary, Tony McGuire talks to the inmates in his construction trades apprenticeship preparation (CTAP) class about ACEs, trauma and resilience every single day. Not only is he teaching the guys a trade, but he also teaches them how to be a healthy, happy and well-adjusted employee. Note: Becoming a healthy, happy, well-adjusted employee is way harder than basic carpentry, plumbing, electrical and HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning).
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The Rise of the Trauma-Informed Mothers
The next generation is less likely to wear predisposed shackles of trauma because as trauma-informed parents we are re-wiring the traumatically stressed DNA that was passed down to us.
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Tired Of Being 'Dope Sick,' A Drug User Gets Help From Police To Get Sober [NPR]
Two key ingredients came together for Shannon McCarty to get off drugs in late 2017: connections and timing. "The police showed up because they said they got a call that we were shooting up in the car," Shannon said. Everett police officer, Inci Yarkut walked up to window of the car where Shannon was living. "I explained who I was and what my role in the police department was," Yarkut said, and she gave Shannon a business card. "[I] said, 'Hey, if there's something that we can do for you —...
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We Have to Better Understand What Foster Parents Need [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
By Ross Hunter, The Chronicle of Social Change, October 11, 2019 As a new leader in the child welfare space, I thought it would be worth my while to do some listening before I made any big changes. So I went on a tour all over the state of Washington. I talked to caseworkers, foster parents, birth families, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and anyone else I could find who had an opinion. I got an earful. “Everything is broken.” “I had a great experience.” “The caseworker never called...
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Whole People Series & Study Guide (www.pbs.org)
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...
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Wisconsin state agencies end year one of trauma-informed learning community; goal is to be first trauma-informed state
Here in California, many people think that it’s only liberal Democrats who have a corner on championing the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and putting it into practice. That might be because people who use ACEs science don’t expel or suspend students, even if they’re throwing chairs and hurling expletives at the teacher. They ask "What happened to you?" rather than "What's wrong with you?" as a frame when they create juvenile detention centers where kids don’t fight, reduce...
Calendar Event
Oprah to discuss ACEs and trauma on 60 Minutes this Sunday!
Calendar Event
Teach Like Their Lives Depend On It
Comment
Re: Every Opportunity [4 minutes]
Sorry Pam - I had a lot of time today to work on the site. In the future there won't be so many emails in one day. I think the resource lists are more useful as separate documents.
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Re: PAPER TIGERS *Special Virtual Screening* scheduled for September 17th, 2019 (24-hour viewing link & passcode) *Registration Deadline: 9/15/19*
Laura - I'm sorry the post wasn't very timely. You might want to contact Cyndie Meyer with the Clark County ACEs Action Alliance. I think there is at lease one copy of the movie Paper Tigers in Clark County. Tory ACEs Action Alliance -- http://acesactionalliance.org/ Cyndie Meyer - Cyndie.Meyer@clark.wa.gov Clark County Public Health
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Re: Temple Grandin Has Some Great Tips to Help Kids With Autism Cope During the Coronavirus Quarantine (Parade)
One of the practices I have made a habit of in the last year is intentionally listening and deferring to voices from historically marginalized communities, including neurodivergent folks and autistic adults specifically. Something that I have had the opportunity to read about has been a criticism of Temple Grandin, and the reason I think that it is important to acknowledge is because the voices of these autistic individuals are often clear about the harm and trauma she has contributed to...
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Re: Resource list -- Communities' ACEs initiatives
I think there might be a link missing here. Or maybe I have dood vision....
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Mental Health Awareness: When Suffering Is Not an Illness
When I was an adolescent and young adult, I struggled with depression. As I reflect back on that time, so much of what I was experiencing was deeply tied to coming to terms with my sexuality. Growing up in the 1980’s in a relatively conservative town, I was closeted (even to myself) until I was a young adult. The pain and fear of being different, of not belonging, of being judged or rejected for who I was more than my adolescent brain could wrap its conscious head around.