March 2020

By Jacqueline Garcia and Jackie Botts, Cal Matters, March 24, 2020 More than 2 million undocumented workers, who do not quality for many state and federal benefits, are among the hardest hit Californians as the economy is battered by the coronavirus pandemic. Congress is working to provide an emergency relief fund that could benefit U.S. citizens and permanent legal residents. However, undocumented workers are not included. Also, undocumented workers do not qualify for unemployment...

Rafael's note: This is an inspiring story brought to my attention by ACEsConnection staff member Carey Sipp. Thought this might be helpful to life spirits in this stressful and traumatic time. By Gina Loveless, Men's Health, March 24, 2020 Before he even entered middle school, Lamont Nash had gone through the most terrifying event he’d ever experience. “My dad tried to kill me by drowning me in a tub of hot water," Nash says. "I went into an orphanage at the age of five, then into my first...

By Karen Gross, Teachers College Press, March 20, 2020 Just as we are hearing about positive research efforts to combat the coronavirus in the relative near term, we are learning that some statewide school systems may stay closed through the end of the 2019–2020 school year. As of this writing, one state—Kansas—has affirmatively closed all its schools until the next academic year. Other states will likely follow in the coming days, including California, Arizona and Texas. The critical...

It all started for me about two weeks ago. Even though I heard about Coronavirus here and there, it was just a distant conversation happening on the background for me. Until one day, I got home from work, and my husband said we had to start stocking up for the crisis . "Crisis? Which crisis?", I asked. "The outbreak! It is serious. My company is preparing us to work from home for at least four weeks". "Get out of here," I thought. He is known for being anxious and controlling, so I scratched...

How can health care providers take care of themselves, their colleagues and their patients during this COVID-19 pandemic? First and foremost is recognizing how the pandemic can stir up trauma from the past, said Dr. Alicia Lieberman, a psychologist specializing in trauma. “COVID19 is reawakening traumatic reminders in many of us and in the families we work with. And that often makes it difficult for parents to protect themselves and their children,” she noted. Lieberman, the director of the...

Before the pandemic, grandparents raising grandchildren were already in a precarious situation. They were struggling to meet the needs of children exposed to maltreatment and trauma while also supporting the family financially. But now, we fear, things have made a critical turn for the worse while those grandparents become unemployed, sick, or in the worst-case scenario, die due to Corona Virus.

“I know from personal experience that trauma can be life-changing, but I didn’t know that talking about trauma could change my life. And the lives of others,” said Theresa Caldwell, member of the Southside (TICN) Trauma-Informed Community Network , which is supported by the Crater Health District under the leadership of Dr. Alton Hart and Brian Little. The Network works to foster healthy communities through disease prevention and control, health promotion, environmental protection, and...

I have been fielding requests about community resilience development and want to share with all of you a document that others are finding helpful. I initially created the document (below and pdf attached) for our host entities to distribute to their cohorts (1500-plus people) of N.E.A.R. Master Trainers embedded in 25 states and a province. Dr. Rob Anda, Laura Porter and I train Master Trainers in N euroscience, E pigenetics, the A CE Study, and R esilience; additional information can be...

We are not strangers to unusual challenges in the addiction’s world. We have lived with chaos and unmanageability before and we have learned to use program principals to create calm in a storm. We have also learned to accept and even embrace challenges as part of our spiritual growth. And we have found that embracing those challenges has ultimately led to our being happier, stronger and more resilient people. This current moment in time however, is giving “practicing these principles in all...

Hi ACEs Community, normally I post about healing from childhood trauma but THIS is a short video I made at home to help those of you who are working from home and using Zoom in new and bigger ways, or for the first time. Enjoy! Since COVID-19 changed our lives, I've been consulting to institutional and corporate clients re: new uses of Zoom for teams, meetings, marketing and leadership. If you'd like some help with that you can reach me at anna@crappychildhoodfairy.com

By Ryan Briggs, WHYY, March 19, 2020 Criminal justice advocates are calling for the early release of more than 100 children stuck in Philadelphia’s primary juvenile detention center during the COVID-19 pandemic. Communications obtained by WHYY indicated that 150 children were being held in the city-run Juvenile Justice Services Center on Monday. Marsha Levick, co-founder and Chief Legal Officer for advocacy group Juvenile Law Center called for the release of many of those children. “We need...

By Judson Brewer, Harvard Business Review, March 18, 2020 As my class began on Thursday (March 10 th ), I looked around at my undergraduate and graduate students. Their faces were somber. I asked how they were doing, but I already knew. Harvard and Princeton had, days earlier, announced that they were closing in response and as a precaution to the COVID-19 pandemic. My wife, a professor at Holy Cross, told me the night before that her students were informed they would have a week to pack up...