November 2020

Click here to watch the recording of Supporting Early Learning Students Remotely: Implementing Relationship-Based Strategies During COVID-19. This presentation was offered from Rise to Resilience. Rise to Resilience was created to support individuals and organizations primarily within the education field, as well as others who serve children and families in varying capacities. For more information, visit www.risetoresilience.org and follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/resiliencetogether.

In the first week of the ACEs Changemaker Matching Grant Campaign, 32 very generous people donated $6,243! We are so very grateful. A very generous funder has given us a matching grant for $50,000!! So, if we can raise $50,000 from the ACEs Connection community, as well as from those who believe in ACEs science, this wonderful funder will match any contribution that comes through our donation button up to $50,000. Last week, I mentioned in general terms what the funds would spent on. I...

[Editor's note: Dr. Harise Stein at Stanford University edits a web site -- abuseresearch.info -- that focuses on the health effects of abuse, and includes research articles on ACEs. Every month, she posts the summaries of the abstracts and links to research articles that address only ACEs. Thank you, Harise!! -- Jane Stevens] Campbell KA, Gamarra E, Frost CJ, Choi B, Keenan HT. Childhood Adversity and Health After Physical Abuse. Pediatrics. 2020 Oct;146(4):e20200638. PMID: 32938778 From...

Dear ACEs Connection Members, It has been an honor to produce the A Better Normal Live Zoom talk series with @Jenna Quinn (ACEs Connection Staff) for ACEs Connection over the past 8 months. It has been comforting to come back to this community on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays and see familiar faces. Thank you for showing up, asking good questions, and especially asking, "how can I help my community become trauma and ACEs-informed?" We are looking forward to taking a holiday break to...

The Partnership for Resilience is an Illinois non-profit organization whose mission is to improve academic, health, and social outcomes for children by fostering trauma-responsive schools and effective family, school, health, and community partnerships. It now assists 26 school districts in south-suburban Cook County and rural southern Illinois, has an annual budget of $700,000, and employs 7 full and part-time staff and consultants. For more information see www.partnership4resilience.org .

Some people don’t want you to heal from your childhood trauma. You’ve probably noticed this. While there are all kinds of great people out there working for solutions and supporting people who want recover from the effects of abuse and neglect, there are are also some who want you -- who think they need you -- to stay damaged and a victim forever. I want to help you armor yourself against discouragers, naysayers and slayers who see your progress, who learn about efforts you’re making to...

Denise Presnell had been a social worker for public schools in North Carolina for many years before she found out about ACEs. She first learned about adverse childhood experiences during an internship while earning her master’s degree in social work. The experience, she says, was like “those moments of clarity in therapy when the earth moves and the light bulbs turn on.” At first, “I really didn’t want to know my ACE score,” she said. But once she did assess her score – a 9 -- at the request...

The nurses at Bon Secours St. Mary’s pediatric lung clinic were puzzled. A mother kept bringing her child in because of asthma attacks, even though the boy was regularly taking his prescribed medications. The nurses wanted to know if there was anything going on in the child’s life that might explain the attacks, says Blair Bell, a pediatric specialties nurse manager who oversees the lung clinic and five other pediatric clinics affiliated with St. Mary’s. Blair Bell “After talking to the boy,...

Nicole Daley (left), Director, Division of Violence and Injury Prevention, Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) and Lauren Cardoso, Epidemiologist, Child & Youth Violence Prevention, MDPH Nicole Daley and Lauren Cardoso were just a few months into their new positions with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) when COVID-19 and racial reckoning swept across the United States, creating both challenge and opportunity in their work. In this new environment, Daley...

You continue to make important changes to take care of yourself, your loved ones, and your communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is not easy. Gets tips for practicing resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic . ACEs, adversity's impact Sports radio host believes childhood sexual abuse led to gambling addiction and fraud conviction How to spot signs of trauma in children during COVID-19 The difficult road to intimacy: Living with complex post-traumatic stress disorder What is...

Hi Everyone! Welcome back. I am SO very excited to announce our special guest for this Thursday 11/19 12-1 PST. Please join us as we discuss everything school health and school nursing with rock star school nurse Robin Cogan. Along with all her amazing achievements in her bio below she has recently been featured on CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, and the NYT commenting on school health and the invaluable role of school nurses during a pandemic. Robin Cogan, MEd, RN, NCSN is a Nationally Certified...

The hardest battle we fight in healing trauma is against ourselves. I was driving 80mph across I-70 West, heading from Indiana, a place that I had called home for so long that I didn’t know anything else and I was terrified. Through the great plains, I saw incredible showcases of nature’s power in the form of lightning storms and, at one point, just within the boundaries of Idaho, a tornado that was so wide it could probably eat a city. The road West was long and lonely but gave me time to...