February 2023

By Charles Bethea, Photo: Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press, The New Yorker, February 7, 2023 In late January, at Greenland Pines Elementary, kids attended a party for an annual event called Celebrate Literacy Week, Florida! There was an escape room and food trucks. Brian Covey, an entrepreneur in his late thirties, came to pick up his daughter, who’s in second grade, and his son, who’s in fifth. His kids looked confused. “Did you hear what happened at school today?” his daughter asked.

By Asher Lehrer-Small, The74, February 7, 2023 Growing up in northern Vermont, people who looked like Irian Adii were few and far between. She recalls that her all-white second-grade classmates spread the rumor that the young girl, who has a Black father and white mother, was sick and contagious. “No one would touch what I touched because they thought someone that looked like me must have been, like, riddled with disease,” Adii said. One peer told her to change her skin color like pop...

By Sylvia A. Harvey, Photo: Christina Ongjoco, The Imprint, February 5, 2023 There was, understandably, no sleeping the night before. So when 5 a.m. arrived, Cordell Miller was eager to rise. Wearing his bright orange institutional shorts, he brushed his teeth and performed the customary ablution. Next, he woke the other men on his unit of the D.C. Central Detention Facility, to kneel on colorful rugs in prayer. Miller converted to Islam a decade into his 97-year-to-life sentence. It was a...

By Sara Miller Llana, Photo: Melanie Stetson Freeman, The Christian Science Monitor, February 7, 2023 Because of Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, Christina Haugan’s husband is dead. But every April 6, she feels tugged toward the inexperienced semi driver who, on that day in 2018, barreled across the Canadian prairie through a blinking rural crossroad stop sign, and collided with the bus of the beloved Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team that her husband coached. Mr. Sidhu’s moment of dangerous...

Have you experienced these curveballs or resistance by parents you work with? Talks nonstop Non-stop blaming of their child Takes over your session Is Uninspired Will not engage If you answered “yes”, this lunch and learn is for you. Dr. Sells will use live dress rehearsals and audio clips to demonstrate how to use the Zen principle of and FST| Family System Trauma techniques such as “stick and move” to turn curveballs into victories. Come and enjoy the live interaction and Q & A!

Curious to know more about trauma-informed writing, or know a communication professional who would benefit from a trauma-informed lens before they publish their message?

Hello PACES Community!!! Xinachtli (Nahuatl for germinating seed) Youth Rites of Passage is a gender-responsive, culturally-based rites of passage philosophy, process, and curriculum that promotes healing, resilience, and leadership capacity of Chicana, Latina and Indigenous girls and gender expansive youth. The Xinachtli Facilitator Certification Training prepares new facilitators with the skills to provide a supportive process for young girls and gender expansive youth to develop a...

Hey Friends, check out this conversation I was lucky to have with Leslie from For Goodness Cakes. As I reflected with Leslie, on my career in Child Welfare and Health & Human Services, a renewed sense of pride emerged. It’s been a crazy, anxious, difficult, fulfilling journey, for sure. In reflecting, I know the work I have directly done, the relationships made with the staff and organizations I have led, have made a huge impact on me (and hopefully those I've had the privilege to lead!)...

Committing to trauma-informed work can be a real challenge. Most trauma-informed practices involve cultural changes and large-scale perspective shifts. On the individual level, that means changing your behaviors and thought patterns—which is a lot easier said than done. Trauma-informed work is inside-out work, which means most of the “work” you’ll do is not task-based, but behavior-based. It’s incredibly challenging, and it’s okay to feel like you’re struggling on this journey. This stuff...

By Donna Pisacano Brown https://www.liherald.com/stories/understanding-trauma-related-dissociation,138758? There was a time in my 30s, when I thought of myself as an “Ice Princess.” A nickname I had given myself in believing I was stronger than the early childhood abandonment wound I inherited — stronger than the devastating, tragic death of my young husband, leaving me alone to literally fight for my own life at age 23. An emotion that I now understand decades later was me living in...

The California Department of Technology (CDT) is creating our state’s digital equity plan and needs input from government agencies, nonprofits, experts, practitioners, funders, researchers, community organizers and California residents from every corner of the state. Once complete, the plan will support programs to help give Californians the access they need. Join the Health Outcome Area Working Group meeting to help close the digital divide in your community. Working groups will help...

Join us to hear how historical trauma impacts American society, including the socio-political landscape of today as well as the health of Americans. Ingrid will show us the links between historical trauma and the current mental health crisis, social determinants of health, and the disparities and inequities present in our communities today. Thursday, February 16th, 2023 12:00-1:00 PM ET >> Register Here<< Event is free and open to the public. Ingrid Cockhren , CEO of PACEs...