April 2021

Throughout the nation, for over 150 years, some of America’s finest universities have been instilling education, facilitating research, and providing direct services to their communities, all on lands that were stolen from Native tribes and peoples. Now, universities are beginning to recognize their land’s original inhabitants, acknowledge the truth of their histories, and explore ways in which reparations with Native people can be made. In a new project toward truth and reconciliation,...

Since 1993, April has been designated National Child Abuse Prevention Month. This year’s theme for the national campaign is “Every day, we help positive childhood experience take root!” Positive childhood experiences (PCEs) is an idea we should all support. As leaders, how can we help that idea take root?

Apply for a Scholarship In this new video PJI Director, Rachel Allen shares some exciting information regarding what you can expect at the upcoming Conference! Register for the Conference Conference Overview: The Peace and Justice Institute at Valencia College, the Early Learning Coalition of Orange County, the Creating a Resilient Community Network and Title Sponsor, Orlando Health, are excited to invite you to register for the Third Annual Creating a Resilient Community (CRC): From Trauma...

CALIFORNIA ACES ACADEMY LIVE WEBINAR with FREE CME/CE Educate, Inspire, Connect HOPE: Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences presented by Dr. Robert Sege Thursday, April 22, 2021 | 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm (PT) This interactive session will describe how ACEs screening can be enhanced by also considering HOPE: Healthy Outcomes from Positive Childhood Experiences. Children’s brains develop in response to their experiences, both adverse and beneficial. Just as adverse childhood experiences can...

(Becky Haas and Dr. Andi Clements) Since 2015, I’ve been a regular contributor in PACEs Connection providing updates on the growth of the Northeast Tennessee Trauma Informed System of Care with the hopes that these updates would serve to encourage others doing this work in their communities. By keeping the message simple, urgent and conveying an expectation of use by the hearers, thousands of cross sector professionals in Northeast Tennessee have received training resulting in many of them...

Chloe Yang, 4/5/21, positiveexperience.org/blog Registration for our HOPE Summit on April 9th closes TODAY at 5:00 PM ET! REGISTER TODAY! We are happy to announce that we will now be offering Social Work Continuing Education Accreditation (CEU, 4.5 hours of credit) for those who attend both the morning and afternoon portions of the Summit! You must attend both the morning and afternoon to receive credit. Those who have already signed up for both the morning and afternoon will receive more...

By Jessica Flores, San Francisco Chronicle, April 4, 2021 Hopeful. Alive. Connected. Joy. Those were all words used to describe how a group of Bay Area residents felt during a closing circle after kayaking in Richmond’s Marina Bay on a recent Saturday. Some attendees had kayaked before. For others, like Marisa Brown, it was their first time. The group was part of a local meetup hosted by Outdoor Afro , a national organization founded in Oakland that connects Black people to nature and...

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN, April 1, 2021 How's it going in that boiling lobster pot of stress? The last year of living in a pandemic has stretched human coping skills so thin that experts fear many of us may soon snap, leaving people around the world coping with a mental health crisis of catastrophic proportions. In the United States alone, a recent analysis by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found reports of anxiety or depression climbed from 36% to 42% in the six months...

By Samantha Pires, My Modern Met, April 1, 2021 A new project by ICON combines two things that tend to interest architecture lovers: 3D-printed buildings and tiny living. The firm has created a 3D-printed tiny home and is doing some good for the community at the same time. Tim Shea, a 70-year-old man who has struggled with housing insecurity, is the first to benefit from this cost-effective construction technique. He is also the first person to live in a 3D-printed tiny home in the United...

By Sabrina R. Liu, Katherine E. Grimes, Timothy B. Creedon, et al., American Psychological Association PsycNet, April 2, 2021 Abstract It is now well understood that exposure to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) is negatively linked to health and well-being across the lifespan. In an effort to disrupt ACEs exposure and its effects, there is a nationwide movement to screen for ACEs in primary care, despite a lack of well-established guidelines for assessing and responding to risk within...

Today is an opportunity for you to live on your terms. You are the person in control of your life. No one but you is going to be the HERO of your story. It's OK to be scared. IT'S NOT OK TO QUIT ON YOURSELF. Think about all the times in your life that you have been terrified of something you knew would make your life better. Why is that? Why do we get so scared of the idea that we can live on our terms, be the hero, and do things we want to do because WE WANT TO DO THEM? For many of us, it's...

Peggy Green is a mother, teacher, survivor, speaker, and leader who has overcome the odds. She is an Amazon bestselling author who has experienced the loss of not just one child but two. Her first child by accident in 1991 and her son by suicide in 2018. Her mission is to make an impact and help others grieving the loss of their child.