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PACEs Connection launches Cooperative of Communities

 

Like most of you, when I learned about the science of adverse childhood experiences, I was blown away! A huge missing answer in my professional life clicked into place, and the disconnected puzzle pieces that comprised my personal life merged into a clear picture. It was a double AHA! moment.

Another AHA! that hit me not too long after I launched PACEs Connection was that the transition to healing-centered cultures based on PACEs science was not a three- or four-year endeavor. Depending on the community, it’s at least a 20-year transition, and more likely, a 30- to 40-year transition.

This is one of the reasons we’re launching the PACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities today. We want to continue to contribute to the PACEs movement to grow and support people, families, organizations, systems and communities for as long as it takes to create a worldwide healing-centered culture based on PACEs science. We want that to take hold in this world in the same way electricity has — we only notice it if it isn’t there.

First, a clarification: Nothing on PACEsConnection.com changes! Membership is and remains free! Everything — the guidelines for starting and growing PACEs initiatives, the presentations tracker, interaction with community facilitators…everything — that our current 300+ communities use is free. And it will remain free for initiatives that want to start communities on PACEsConnection.com.

So, what’s the Cooperative of Communities, then? It’s an addition to PACEsConnection.com. It’s for PACEs initiatives that have progressed to the point where they’re ready for more tools and services. Specifically, the PACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities is a program of PACEs Connection that provides special tools and services for PACEs initiatives in neighborhoods, towns, cities, counties, regions, states and countries. It’s affiliate-driven, which means that PACEs initiatives steer the course of the cooperative. Affiliates pay $5,000 a year to participate, an amount that is low enough so that the cost can be shared among organizations and individuals; organizations can take turns paying; initiatives can even crowd-source the funding; and it may not even require a line-item in a budget. They receive access to tools and services that cost them a fraction of what it would cost for them to develop those tools and services themselves.

An affiliate’s benefits include:

  • data-gathering tools and guidelines, including a Community Resilience Tracker (here’s a prototype of a tracker)
  • access to virtual think-tanks
  • eligibility for participation in cooperative committees and advisory committees
  • jobs bank
  • (coming later in 2020) fiscal pass-through for qualifying funds/activities


Who is eligible to become an affiliate in the cooperative? PACEs initiatives with:

  • demonstrated six-month history as an PACEs initiative (you don’t need to have had a community on ACEsConnection)
  • cross-sector representation of at least four sectors (e.g., education, law enforcement, healthcare, faith-based)
  • a committee responsible for interaction with PACEs Connection, to handle the affiliate agreement, payment, fiscal pass-through, etc.
  • an MOU or other similar agreement with participating organizations and individual members of their PACEs initiative
  • at least one community manager, paid or volunteer


Affiliates of the cooperative will guide the development of the cooperative; that’s another reason we’re starting it. Most foundations and agencies have a limited funding horizon, including the good people who support PACEs Connection. That horizon is usually two or three years, occasionally five or 10, but very rarely longer. (We’ve been very fortunate to have two of our funders support us for six years.) The question from funders that most nonprofits have to answer is: At the end of this grant, how will you sustain your work?

But, as I noted earlier, the transition for PACEs science to become integrated in most communities, and for communities to integrate practices based on PACEs science into most of their organizations and systems will take decades. Most of the world doesn’t know PACEs science from aardvarks; most people and organizations haven’t caught up to what PACEs science is or means. That’s just the nature of this change. It’s BIG — transformational on the scale of the Internet, electricity, the iPhone, social media and the concept of love. We’re moving from a world that by and large uses blame, shame and punishment to change human behavior — which has resulted in our burden of seemingly intractable health, economic and social problems — to one that uses understanding, nurturing and healing, which has been shown to solve our most intractable problems.

Some examples: By integrating healing-centered, trauma-informed practices based on PACEs science, an elementary school in San Diego stops suspending and expelling students. A health clinic in Pueblo, Colorado, sees a 30 percent drop in visits to the emergency room. A juvenile diversion program in Philadelphia reduces arrests from 1600 to 500 in three years. In San Diego, during the first year of a juvenile detention facility built to be trauma-informed from the ground up, there are no violent incidents whatsoever. Pediatricians say they have a better relationship with parents and their kids. They can address developmental problems and identify family violence earlier to prevent lasting damage. After one year, family courts that integrate the Safe Babies Courts approach see 99 percent of the kids suffer no further abuse. A family physician in Tennessee who treats people addicted to opioids sees that 99 percent of his patients are able to hold down a job, which is the best indicator of healing. Within 24 to 48 hours after a person recovers from an opioid overdose in Plymouth County, MA, a police officer visits and offers to take them to a rehab facility right then and there. And then says, “How about I treat you to dinner on the way?” Opioid deaths in the county drop 26 percent, while in the surrounding counties, death rates increase 84%. A batterer intervention program in Bakersfield, CA, sees recidivism rates fall from 60 percent to six percent. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation sees staff turnover decline from 21 percent to just 10 percent. In Cowlitz County, WA, youth suicide and suicide attempts drop 98 percent.

Big change — change that affects everything — takes time. But we have a plan to accelerate this change. By growing the cooperative, we hope and plan for PACEs Connection itself to become self-sustaining in about three years. That, in turn, will enable us to start funding new PACEs initiatives with the small amounts of money they need to get started. Those small amounts of funding are usually hard to come by while an initiative is getting organized; the cooperative will be in a prime position to identify and support nascent PACEs initiatives and give them the boost they need for a healthy launch, faster than most funders can. We also want to create a process and perhaps a fund that will support — and encourage local and regional funders to support — pivotal points in the growth of PACEs initiatives as their work becomes ever more integrated into all organizations in their communities. Both of these approaches will continue to accelerate the PACEs movement. We need to accelerate it. We’re facing some extremely challenging times as climate crises increase. It would make a lot of sense to have people better-equipped to handle these crises and to reduce our current problems so that we have adequate resources to address the new ones.

Because the cooperative will be affiliate-driven, PACEs Connection will be more closely guided by people who are working day-to-day in the movement, who have the experience to respond quickly to changes that occur in the movement, and the foresight to understand how circumstances outside the movement may affect it.

Even if PACEs Connection is fortunate enough to become self-sustaining, we still want to work with national and regional funders on a long-term basis on research and development. R&D projects include developing ever more complex data tools to measure progress; formulas to calculate economic savings in other sectors when one sector sees progress after integrating practices based on PACEs science, to encourage support of continued investment in change; and research to identify tipping points in sectors and communities, to accelerate the process of change.

We and others calculate that under 1,000 PACEs initiatives have been launched in cities and counties across the U.S. There are 34,000 cities and counties across the U.S.; each one will need to integrate practices based on PACEs science if they want to solve their most intractable problems.

We’ll be posting more information about the Cooperative of Communities soon. A couple of communities will debut their Community Resilience Trackers in a few weeks, so that you who are interested can see a tracker in action. If you have questions now, either leave them in the comments section, below, or if you’d like to talk with an PACEs Connection Community Facilitator, use this link to identify the person who can help you and contact them.

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Comments (10)

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Jane Stevens - The "Transition to Healing Centered Cultures" may be longer than 30-40 years - if there's a beneficial lesson in 1988 U.S. Congressional Resolution #331 - acknowledging the role of the Iroquois constitution in the development of our U.S. Constitution.

The Iroquois constitution's provision for "Generational Review" was possibly based on their 55 year 'Editing Process' reportedly began in 1095 A.D., and 'reaching consensus' in 1150 A.D. (Iroquois Women had the Rights to: Assert, Debate, VOTE, and Declare War). Greta Thunberg may have heard their echo.

Last I'd heard, the USA remained a 'Non-Signatory Nation' to the United Nations Convention on Children's Rights (194 nations ARE Signatories). How many of our PACESConnection membership reside in those nations? Might the content of the 'guide' of Tamarack Institute of Ontario province titled: "The Hippocratic Oath for Community Workers" offer any 'Helpful Hints' ?

I am very new to both the revolutionary facts discovered in this long overdue discovery, I myself have spent 20 years just searching and searching for data that would explain my horrifically dysfunctional life. I spent so many hours searching, learning and then it all came to me. I had figured out the A.C.E.'s discovery all on my own. Then I dug further and found that it had been discovered already while watching youtube videos and my heart dropped listening to Ms Nadine Harris tell the story how she figured it out. I LOVE that woman and all of you like her that are passionate to get this information out there and begin to heal even though the predictions in the timeline that it will take to truly get this into mainstream mental health care are discouraging, but the more of us who jump in and get busy with advocating the sooner the changes start. I am speaking of my area that actually resists the concept all together.  But I WILL be the score 10 survivor that WILL change this town and beyond. I am desperately seeking to learn how to get started and I promise I will dedicate my life to  this cause. Thanks  for allowing me to join.

Here you go, Charlena! our new Accelerator program is a great way for individuals to become involved and learn how to get their community involved in helping to prevent and heal childhood trauma; build resilience in ourselves, our families, our communities!

I love the puzzle concept in your visual front/  I use puzzles all the time, but puzzles of self,  therapy groups and resiliance and healing communities.  Our life is constantly looking for puzzle pieces, to add and deleate from our lifew picture.  Creating and completing our life picture is a great way to internalize needs and changes and discard pieces that do not fit in any more.  I am curious to know how to add my piece into your puzzle. 

Here's an answer to your terrific question, Hannah! Join us in our new program and learn how you can help be a part of this PACEs science movement to help prevent and heal childhood trauma; build resilience in ourselves, our children, our families our communities!

https://www.pacesconnection.co...-at-paces-connection

Dr. Williams: The Cooperative has 18 affiliates, with more in the process of joining. We're announcing a new leader of the Coop tomorrow, and it will also be published in our Weekly Roundup.

I love the puzzle concept in your visual front/  I use puzzles all the time, but puzzles of self,  therapy groups and resiliance and healing communities.  Our life is constantly looking for puzzle pieces, to add and deleate from our lifew picture.  Creating and completing our life picture is a great way to internalize needs and changes and discard pieces that do not fit in any more.  I am curious to know how to add my piece into your puzzle.  

 

Laura - yep we recognize that important things can get buried. We will be continuing to update the members about our Coop model AND we will be creating easy to access tools about the Coop on the Community Champions site here

Charlena - welcome to ACEs Connection! I will private message you to connect with you about how you can raise awareness in your community.

Be well, gail

I am very new to both the revolutionary facts discovered in this long overdue discovery, I myself have spent 20 years just searching and searching for data that would explain my horrifically dysfunctional life. I spent so many hours searching, learning and then it all came to me. I had figured out the A.C.E.'s discovery all on my own. Then I dug further and found that it had been discovered already while watching youtube videos and my heart dropped listening to Ms Nadine Harris tell the story how she figured it out. I LOVE that woman and all of you like her that are passionate to get this information out there and begin to heal even though the predictions in the timeline that it will take to truly get this into mainstream mental health care are discouraging, but the more of us who jump in and get busy with advocating the sooner the changes start. I am speaking of my area that actually resists the concept all together.  But I WILL be the score 10 survivor that WILL change this town and beyond. I am desperately seeking to learn how to get started and I promise I will dedicate my life to  this cause. Thanks  for allowing me to join.

Wow. This is exciting news. Can't wait to see what 2020 brings for ACEs Connection and the new Cooperative of Communities.

I realize you are going to be posting more about this new program, but I wonder if this particular post should be pinned to the top of the blog, at least for a while, if this site allows for such a thing. It was posted only yesterday, but already it's way down the blog past a lot of other things posted since.

 

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