Photo above is of the PACEs Connection staff as we said goodbye to Jane Stevens, PACEs Connection founder and former CEO and publisher, on her transitioning to her new role as publisher of ACEsTooHigh, which was spun off from PACEs Connection on May 1. The eight staff members left in this photo curate and maintain the website, calendar, enewsletters, podcasts, webinars, maps, schedule of Creating Resilient Communities classes, membership profiles and more! They are, top row, l-r, Kahshanna Evans, director of Creating Resilient Communities; Carey Sipp, director of strategic partnerships; Jane Stevens, founder and former CEO, now retired; second row, l-r, Ingrid Cockhren, CEO; Rafael Maravilla, network manager, and Mathew Portell, director of education and outreach; third row, l-r, Jenna Quinn, program coordinator, environmental justice consultant; Porter Jennings McGarity, director of continuous quality improvement and community data, and Tawana Irvin, chief administrative officer.
“As long as I have worked here, I've only met two of my colleagues in person. There will always be a barrier that exists when the only way you are able to communicate with someone is through a screen.”
Did you know PACEs Connection …
- Is a community of communities that’s raised awareness of the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) for 11 years? In 2020, when we changed the name to PACEs Connection, we started cementing the importance of positive and adverse childhood experiences (PACEs) across all sectors, including journalism, policy and legislation, medicine, education and law enforcement, as well as the faith-based, parenting, LGBTQAI+ communities, and more. Our community of communities is now almost 60,000 strong!
- Is home to 400 cross-sector (involving at least three sectors, such as education, healthcare, communities of faith, government) geographic, and 40 interest-based sub-communities. Tied together by our site, the communities help members find each other, promote their work on their respective free websites, leverage the network, use our social media tools, and more, to learn and share information.
- Brings you the latest news on PACEs science viaour e-newsletters, the stories we write, the plethora of articles, videos, and resources we curate and post daily, and the monthly Research Corner, filled with the latest peer-reviewed scientific journal articles shared with us by Dr. Harise Stein, a medical doctor and Stanford University professor. We also create and share our ownwebinars andconferences, our History. Culture. Trauma. podcasts, our Historical Trauma in America series, plus the 25 Creating Resilient Communities (CRC) educational webinars staff members present each month. We also offer – again, at no charge – our Resource Center, modeled after those used in public libraries, and offering a wealth of free resources (many in Spanish and English) used by schools, parenting groups, community outreach programs, colleges, universities, physicians’ offices and more.
- Connects members of our Cooperative of Communities for our coast-to-coast think tank, and gives members access to your posts, questions, conference and event promotions, comments, and more. It’s a platform we monitor closely to keep as a safe space for our members – including ourselves. It’s also a tool members use to calendar, market, and build businesses, promote themselves as subject matter experts, and promote podcasts, workshops, conferences, goods and services. We are delighted to have played a role in your success! With that thought in mind, this is also where we recently shared news of our own offerings in professional development and consulting, and invited you to reach out to Ingrid Cockhren, our CEO, for more information on our services, which started with diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging work.
- Is actually run by a lean and scrappy team of just eight dedicated individuals? That’s right. All of this work, and more, is done by just eight people!
Surprised?
We know this work is important to many of our almost 60,000 members, because you, too, share blog posts about your work, your events, your experiences.
We are your conveners, offering this home to post and process, to relate, to learn how to regulate, and reason, and to find members in your own state – and possibly right down the street – who care about the same concerns you do!
Here, each month, there are more than 2.5 million page views!
Some of our members may well have been able to launch or sustain businesses in large part because PACEs Connection has helped them get the word out about trainings, podcasts, webinars, books, public speaking, recovery programs, and more.
Again, this is a service we have loved to provide – with no subscription or membership fee – since 2012.
It’s time, though, for us to make a special request of you. It’s not a heavy lift.
You see, we’d really like to meet each other in person! And we’re hoping you, our readers, members, frequent users, and friends, will support this request by making a tax-deductible contribution to PACEs Connection that will help us connect, in person, later this summer.
Half of us have never met another staff person! And most of us who have met each other haven’t seen each other in five years. Truth? We would deeply appreciate the time to meet each other, connect, work together on some important planning, and have some recreation and restoration time together. All so we can keep improving what we deliver to you, every day.
When asked why they are eager to have a staff retreat, comments included:
“Fresh ideas come when folks can hang out for some team building and fun. Spending time in 3-D is really important for developing trust and bonds with each other.”
“We've accomplished so much on a strictly virtual platform. We need to have some in-person bonding. The pandemic showed the world that having human interaction every now and then is necessary; this retreat will support that!”
“We need a work retreat to support healthy team collaborations, to have the opportunity to step away from our daily routines and stresses, and allow many of us to talk face-to-face for the first time ever, build understanding, and foster a stronger, more cohesive team culture.”
“Empirical evidence underscores the importance of investing in practices to foster healthy team building, especially in non profit organizations. Such activities help unite a team, which helps the team fulfill its mission.”
With your help, we’re hoping to raise about $20,000, enabling staff from California, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, and Tennessee, to travel and connect for three days of strategic planning, solution seeking, getting to know each other, and bonding.
Would you be willing to help us connect as we work to improve the work we do for you, our members and readers?
Your donation is tax deductible. You may donate online, or to mail your donation, please make your check payable to: TSNE (Third Sector New England, our fiscal sponsor) and write PACEs Connection Donation on the memo line.
Mail check to:
PACEs Connection, c/o TSNE, 89 South Street, Suite 700, Boston, MA 02111
To wire transfer funds, or if you have questions or comments, please email me, Carey Sipp, director of strategic partnerships, at csipp@pacesconnection.com, or email Ingrid Cockhren, our CEO, at icockhren@pacesconnection.com with the subject line: In-person staff meeting.
Thank you in advance for your support!
Your support of our work is greatly appreciated. Please click here to donate today.
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