Watch the video: Elizabeth Smith and Lifeworks Awareness Video This message was sent on social media platforms Tik Tok (I had to download the app), Instagram, and Facebook through Lifeworks Sonoma County to bring a voice to someone with lived experiences, giving me a seat at the table to be heard. Sept. 10 is World Suicide Prevention Day. Elizabeth Smith, LifeWorks volunteer, and community advocate for suicide awareness and prevention, shares the importance of having open conversations about...

As the season begins to wind down, I love to reflect on the impact made during the Peacetown Summer Concert Series. As a board member, Founder of the Peacetown Family Village, and took on a new role this year as Stage Manager for a youth led stage, it was a HUGE undertaking with more value than any price tag (thankfully because I do this uncompensated). Moving from a local park with one stage to The Barlow with 13 different music venues every Wednesday for 14 weeks during the summer. I take...

In April, Sonoma County PACES Connection partnered with 25 organizations to "Celebrate Parents as Heroes". Inspired by National Parent Leadership Month and April's Child Abuse Prevention Month, 150 parents were nominated and celebrated. This video was made to highlight the event. Enjoy!

I am going to give you a little context before I share the College Essay that prove PCEs DO mitigate ACEs. I was young when I had my first born and his life started off rocky. His father asked me to abort him when I was 8 months pregnant right after he was discharged from the military for being an alcoholic. We tried to make it work and the alcohol won. My infant son and I moved away across the country to start anew, never looking back. I struggled for a long time trying to get on my feet. I...

My son is old enough to remember me being a single mother and the two of us living in an apartment with cockroaches, wearing someone else's hand me down clothes, and standing in the long foodbank lines hoping nobody would recognize us. Granted this was a short time in our life, still a memory we both can recall. Even when we were living in poverty, my son and I together found joy in giving back often. It was a way for us to thank the community for taking care of us during our time of need,...

Sonoma County ACES Connection was one of 30 organizations to come together and take part in Sebastopol's [California] Peacetown Family Village to provide children and families opportunities to make positive social connections, promote awareness/outreach, and share resources and programming. This led to maximizing resources, building community, and exposing children to Positive Childhood Experiences. Enjoy the video and please feel free to share:

I recently read a quote that @Christine Cissy White (ACEsConnection) shared that says, "Trauma informed care isn't trauma informed, without the trauma survivor." No matter what degree, training, or book you acquire you can never really know how it feels to experience trauma unless you go through it. I remember when I first discovered I had an ACE score of 7; I had been serving the community by teaching resiliency, self-healing, and breaking stigmas around mental health. I came across the...

What does it mean to be a quality Family Strengthening and Support Program? What common language can we use for working effectively with families? How can managers, direct service staff, and families work together to develop and sustain quality programs? Based on the Principles of Family Support Practice and the Strengthening Families Framework and its research-based evidence-informed 5 Protective Factors, the nationally-adopted Standards of Quality for Family Strengthening & Support...

The Strengthening Families Framework helps ensure optimal outcomes for children and their families by implementing strategies that strengthen families, build protective factors, promote individual growth, help systems be more responsive to families and children, and strengthen communities’ capacities as safe and healthy environments. The workshop will cover: Introduction to the 5 Protective Factors that help keep a family strong and prevent child abuse and neglect Identify strategies and...

Join us for a FREE workshop exploring the Protective Factors Framework Introduction. The Strengthening Families Framework helps ensure optimal outcomes for children and their families by implementing strategies that strengthen families, build protective factors, promote individual growth, help systems be more responsive to families and children, and strengthen communities’ capacities as safe and healthy environments. The workshop will cover: Introduction to the 5 Protective Factors that help...

Tuesday, October 20, 2020, 3:00 to 4:30 PM ET As children, families, and caregivers struggle with ever-present adversity from COVID-19, generations of structural racism, acts of police brutality and racial unrest, and economic disparity - investing in the healthy social and emotional development of young children and families is vital. CSSP Senior Fellow Dr. David Willis and many other leaders and innovators in the early childhood field will be part of Transforming Well-being through Social...

I am interested in attending a training/webinar/have conversation OR offer a webinar on how this Pandemic is impacting our Children, Families, and Communities. I have been searching for this information and cannot seem to find, so I am open to collaborating and providing a webinar. The coronavirus has shattered the system that protects children, leaving some confined in troubled homes or lingering in foster care. The social/emotional effects have yet to be fully seen on how this is damaging...

I recently had the pleasure of attending via zoom, a Trauma-Informed Care training. I wanted to share some take always and encourage all to attend one. Hosted by Community Resilience Initiative, with trainer Rick Griffin. The trainer had such a lovely way of taking heavy topics that can feel uncomfortable to talk about and deliver them in a gentle, authentic way that provided the human touch with extensive knowledge. This being my first formal training on just Trauma-Informed care I learned...

Peacetown was always just a summer concert series with a vision to promote peaceful coexistence, kindness, love and joy. Peacetown is now a non profit with more room to expand and offer more to our community. Last year I founded The Family Village. This was a space sectioned off at the summer concert series where hundreds of families came through, played with their children, made positive social connections, and had a great time. Every week a different organization was invited to set up a...

Sebastopol's FREE summer concert series, Peacetown, usually attracts 800-1500 people every week. This year it is being done virtually. Last year a new element was added to Peacetown called The Family Village. This was a space sectioned off for families to play, access local resources, make positive social connections, and feel supported. This is one of the virtual Family Village videos https://youtu.be/wYXvScX1HEM