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READING, MA — The only sound that could be heard in Maria Simon’s first-grade classroom one December morning was the soothing hum from a vibrating Tibetan singing bowl. Her students had gathered on a brightly colored rug at the back of the classroom, sitting with their eyes shut, their legs crossed, and their arms extended outward palms up. Each time a classmate struck the small bowl with a mallet — releasing a low sounding gong — the students breathed in. Then as the...

“The Journey ” Support Group This is an 8 week closed support group for women who have experienced intimate partner violence, who ended their relationship, and are currently managing the transitions involved past this relationship. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Journey Support Group is both a process and educational group that will focus on general as well as topics of interest of group members including (but not limited to): transition challenges and coping,...

We have exciting news: Empower Yolo is now bigger and better than ever as we have merged with Center for Families so as to increase and improve reach of services in our community! A huge thank you goes out to everyone who has supported these two agencies in the past, we look forward to sharing more good news as we move through this first year as one agency.  The press release is attached. If you did not receive it by email, please consider joining our list serve. You can send a request...

Flyer attached. Caregivers whose children have experienced sexual abuse may experience: -­‐conflict with family members or their spouse -­‐reminders of own abuse from childhood -­‐difficulty navigating legal and child welfare systems -­‐feelings of distrust, guilt, shame You are not alone.

Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) is offering four free webinars from January 12-20th on When Terrible Things Happen: Helping yourself and your community address trauma and build resilience.  https://carolynyoder.leadpages...webinar-information/   These webinars offer: Insights that will help you keep going when the going gets tough. Knowledge and skills of a trauma-informed lens to increase the impact you and your organization have.

Read full article  which mentions ACEs study (but author doesn't make the connection between kids with high ACE scores and the impact of stress on those kids). But it is great that it was mentioned in connection to this issue...

Rebecca Pepper Sinkler- former editor of The New York Times Book Review and editor of SafeKidsStories shares the perspective of staff who attended a course given by the Institute for Family Professionals (IFP) , an organization based in Philadelphia that, since 2003, has provided training for professionals who work with children and families. Using recent research on brain theory and the effects of childhood trauma, IFP provides researched and proven best practices on topics such as...

See attached a brochure for this innovative program in San Francisco. Might we be able to replicate something like this in Yolo schools?

Davis Joint Unified School District has joined a growing list of districts nationwide instituting later morning start times so that teen students can get more sleep. Trustees on Thursday night asked the district staff to plan for school start times of about 8:30 a.m. for junior high and high school students by the 2017-18 academic year, said spokeswoman Maria Clayton. The change could give the district’s high school students up to 45 extra minutes to get ready in the morning. The...

"improving mothers’ mental health and economic security will reduce parenting stress and result in vastly improved outcomes for their children" It is Maslow's heriachy of needs, it is creating safety and connection...the hallmarks of a trauma informed approach.  Read more about this innovative approach to helping moms by targeting their mental health, which in turn will improve their own functioning and therefore their childrens!   Read about the MOMS Partnership ...

Mind Over Stress Podcast On this episode Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's (RWJF) Pioneering Ideas Podcast explores resilience and using mindfulness to manage stress with Amit Sood ( @AmitSoodMD ), MD, MSc, FACP, professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic College and Chair of Mayo Mind Body Initiative , and Mike Painter ( @paintmd ), RWJF senior program officer.   Together they discuss what Amit and his team are doing to improve health through teaching compassion and utilizing the...

Here are our steering committee notes for December 10, 2015. They're also attached. Introductions & Announcement - Several new members / guest - Tara Thronson, Works with Don Saylor Sara Gavin, CommuniCare Robb Davis - mayor pro-tem Davis 2. YRN website - Gail Reconfiguration of website, ongoing changes, not quite done. Want to add - logo Groups change sunflower to logo Post - at bottom of each post can can like and share on facebook / twitter / google. Can email to someone...