We met in the Thomson/Walker Room in the Yolo County Dept of Health Services, at 137 N. Cottonwood St, in Woodland. (Next time I WILL remember to take a photo!!!!) Attending:
Natalie Audage -- Child abuse prevention coordinator, Yolo County Children's Alliance
Tracy Fauver -- Executive director, Yolo County CASA
Terresa (Tessa) Smith -- Family partner for Yolo County Dept. of Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health, Mental Health First Aid Instructor
Jane Stevens -- Founder, editor ACEsTooHigh.com, ACEsConnection.com
Anna Sutton -- Public health nurse, perinatal program, Yolo County Dept. of Health & Human Services
Connie Valentine -- Incest Survivors Speakers Bureau
We worked on the assets map, and realized that the only two trauma-informed organizations that we know of are Cherie Schroeder's program for foster parents at Woodland Community College (Trauma, Brain and Relationship: Helping Children Heal), and Karleen Jakowski''s work at Communicare with the Yolo County probation services (trauma-focused CBT). (Tracy suggested that we tell the stories of organizations or communities that have developed resilience-building practices, and suggested the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation as a good start.)
So, we decided to divide the assets map into categories and start identifying organizations that, if they're not trauma-informed, are good candidates. Jane will take care of that [DONE] and have it ready by the next meeting in November. And toward that goal, Anna and Tracy planned to recruit Edie Dornbush and Trish Stanionis at the Yolo Family Service Agency to join the group. (Edie's already a member of ACEsConnection.) Anna sent email invitations to them while we talked about it. Also, Gail Kennedy and Jane will be meeting on Nov. 13 with Jen McNeil, Emerson Junior High vice principal, and Cara Messmore from Da Vinci.
We turned to funding for the lunch 'n learns. Lunch for 20 works out to about $200, so if we did the equivalent of 20 lunch 'n learns in 2015, we'd reach quite a few people. Tracy suggested local organizations that might be willing to provide $2,000 in funding (that the California Endowment will match) include the Soroptomists, Rotary, Odd Fellows, Wynant Foundation and Valente Foundation. Tracy will contact Valente. Jane be doing a presentation to the Sunrise Rotary in Davis in December, and will make a pitch then. Does anyone know a person at Wynant?
We talked about providing a certificate for organizations that have participated in a lunch 'n learn, and, since Teri Barila at the Children's Resilience Initiative in Walla Walla, WA, says that most organizations need two or three or even four presentations before they become involved, perhaps we can figure out what four different presentations are, and award a certificate for completing all four. Jane will contact Teri to ask if they did different presentations for the same organization. [DONE]
This is what Teri says:
2nd or 3rd presentations to same group were shaped to that group and to what was covered the first time. Sometimes it was just more in-depth coverage and/or conversation, and/or we did more on the resilience strategies and hands-on tools.
We never came up with a certificate, although I have been playing with the idea of recognizing champions at a community event, or somehow ringing their bells publicly. We did this through the MOU and the City Council process, but I want to do something more personal. We are talking about it perhaps being a little care package of sorts that they could then use in their own self-care practice. Especially after Avis Smith’s trip, Jim and I feel we need to do more emphasis on the self-care via active action.
Before we make an official appeal for funding, we need to choose about 10 organizations who are willing to participate in a lunch 'n learn, which can be a breakfast 'n learn, too. Tracy volunteered her CASA team for a lunch 'n learn. Anna and Tessa plan on checking out the health department. We want to pick organizations from which we can draw champions who'll join this group, and then do presentations to organizations similar to theirs. E.g., find someone in a police department who does presentations to other police departments in the area. We may be able to combine this with identifying organizations as we go through developing the assets and growth opportunities maps.
Connie Valentine made a terrific offer. We know at some point that it would be a good idea to have a county-wide ACEs summit of some sort. Connie's been running a child sex abuse conference for the last 20 years, and is ready to turn it over to someone else. She's also willing to broaden the focus, and we batted around a couple of different titles, including "Trauma & Recovery", "Trauma & Resilience", "ACEs & Resilience". Because the child sex abuse conference never charged to attend, she rented the Veteran's Memorial Center in Davis for free. She needs to reserve the room -- it's usually the first weekend in April. But April 4, 2015, is the day before Easter, so it would have to be a different weekend.
This is a wonderful opportunity. The question is: Do we have to person power to put something like this together? We did a half-day last April, and it was pretty successful and helped us get our toes in the water.
We can talk about it amongst ourselves and decide at our next meeting.
If I've left anything out, please add it in the comments.
Thanks!
Cheers, Jane
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