"These are some of my favorite people and me at from a recent conference," said PACEs Connection monthly donor Kerrie Ackerson. From left to right—Ginger Healy from the Attachment Trauma Network, Kerrie's sister "my (little) big sister Stacey (our family’s brave teacher)", trauma informed educators and advocates Jim Sporleder, Lara Kain, Jodi Place, and Ackerson.
The number of donors giving to PACEs Connection with a monthly gift is increasing.
“While we’ve added about 15 new monthly donors recently, and we are grateful for them, it would be good to see more of our members -- and visitors -- supporting our work to prevent and heal trauma," said Ingrid Cockhren, PACEs Connection CEO.
With more than 58,000 members of this networking community, and with the staff needed to support the site, the communities, the newsletters, our podcasts, webinars, and conferences, Cockhren is asking members to sign on to make a monthly donation.
"If just ten percent of you made an automatic monthly donation of $10, you could help us cover a substantial portion of our budget," said Cockhren.
Please consider following in the footsteps of supporter Kerrie Ackerson, who shares below her reasons for making a monthly gift to PACEs Connection.
- Name: Kerrie Ackerson
- Occupation: Writer
- Connection to PACEs Connection/PACEs science? Survivor, foster mom, adoptive mom, auntie, wife of a nurse who survived COVID.
- Do you work in the field? My career started as a literacy volunteer in an institution for adults who committed violent crimes and were found “not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.” From there I worked at a maximum-security prison for adults who were too violent and/or actively psychotic to be placed in a “normal” prison. Later I worked in county human services and ran the juvenile court division including a shelter facility, a secure detention center, youth probation offices, and a diversion program. My most recent 12 years were spent at an educational service agency in Wisconsin working in the areas of youth mental health and school safety.
- How did you find out about PACEs Connection? One day I got an email inviting me to a webinar that was being done by a woman named Lara Kain from Los Angeles. SHE BLEW MY MIND with PACES science. I was telling my sister about this fabulous woman, and she said –“That’s funny, I used to work with someone with that same name in Madison.” It was the same person! Crazy, small, world. We both have followed Lara ever since (including following her during her time at PACES Connection).
- Were you surprised to find this resource? Yes. The best contacts I have ever met are all followers of PACES, and I was shocked to find such a wonderful source of important information AND such fabulous humans all in one place.
- What part of PACEs Connection do you like best? I like it all. I’ve benefitted from Ingrid’s regional historical perspectives on racial trauma, Mathew’s podcasts, countless webinars, blog posts, and now every time I get my weekly PACES email I end up losing a LOT of time reading the stories and “clicking deeper.”
- How do you use PACEs Connection? There is so much valuable information, research, resources and more that PACES puts out. As a grant writer, reading the weekly RoundUp keeps me at the front of the field and keeps information at my fingertips.
- Do you read the Weekly RoundUp (enewsletter)?Yes.
- Do you share stories from the Weekly RoundUp? Yes.
- Do you belong to a resiliency initiative? I do not. I help to run a Trauma Training Project for school professionals across Wisconsin in partnership with Dr. Bruce Perry’s Neurosequential Network, and I find that quite energizing. But I don’t belong to a formal resiliency initiative…unless you count my 16 person “Trauma Peeps” text group which provides a safe haven where we can say things that could get us in trouble if we yelled them out into the universe. 😊
- What prompted you to support PACEs Connection with your gift?The incredible value that I get from PACES made me a supporter. When I heard the initiative was truly self-funded and needed support, I wanted to do what I could.
- What keeps you giving as a monthly donor? The value of the content and the people.
- What would you tell others, to encourage them to support PACEs Connection on a monthly basis? Please help this AMAZING resource stay strong. If you aren’t involved, get involved, it is life-changing.
15. What is your greatest hope for what happens with PACEs science? That we end child abuse? Create equity? Eliminate racism? Do away with poverty? Create a trauma-informed and healing-centered planet? Gosh, I’d like it if ANY of those things could happen. As I now know (thanks to PACES) all of those things are intricately connected. If I could wish one thing for all humans, it would be true connection. As I just heard Dr. Perry say the other day on a podcast, “Connection is at the core of all human success, and all human need—to be connected and belong to a community of people.” We are in a pandemic of loneliness and disconnection, and the state of our world reflects that. PACES works every day to change that, and I am so appreciative of the work you all do.
Ackerson encourages fellow members of PACEs Connection to join her in making a generous, tax-deductible donation to PACEs Connection here.
If you'd prefer to mail your gift rather than give it online, here's how... Make 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
Making a wire transfer or need Tax ID information?
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