In case you haven't checked it out yet, the Washington State Family Policy Council and Department of Social and Health Services have put together a 3.5-hour online course called “The High Cost of Childhood Abuse.”
About 10 years ago, Washington State was the first in the nation to embrace the recent scientific discoveries in brain science, the CDC’s Adverse Childhood Experience Study, and resilience. It distributed that information across the state through its community networks that reached every corner of the state. When people in juvenile justice, schools, criminal justice and child welfare agencies and organizations in these communities learned about ACE concepts, often their first reaction was: “Oh my god, our systems just further traumatize already traumatized people.”
People began applying the new knowledge in different settings: child crisis nurseries, juvenile justice departments, parent training, schools. When agencies and organizations began seeing an unmistakeable shift in how people were helped with this approach — decreases in school drop-out rates, fewer foster parents returning children, more successful turn-arounds with kids in the juvenile justice system, etc. — the demand for training skyrocketed.
Eventually, word spread outside of the state, and even with 40 trainers, the Family Policy Council couldn’t keep up with the demand. Hence, the debut of the course last October. About 50 people have enrolled, and the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation has purchased a block of 518 course enrollments for distribution to counselors and partners.
I posted more information about the course on the ACEsTooHigh News site.
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