Blog

As we step into the holiday season, let’s commit to each other to do it wholeheartedly. What does this mean? Often our minds are off and running and it’s only when we bring ourselves back to the present moment that we experience life as it’s really happening. This is when we realize that what is important is right in front of us! This is the point when our minds and our hearts connect. When we live from a heart-centered place it fosters equanimity and peace within that extends outward,...

By Catherine E. Schoichet, Photo: Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald/Getty Images, CNN US, December 7, 2021 Deqa Dhalac saw it in their faces when she started campaigning. Some people, she says, seemed scared to open their doors when she knocked. Others saw her hijab and assumed she didn't speak English. But Dhalac kept knocking and telling her story. And she says a lot has changed since those days back in 2018, when she first ran for City Council in South Portland, Maine -- and won. On...

By Campbell Robertson, Photo: Michelle Gustafson/The New York Times, The New York Times, December 1, 2021 Early in the November school board meeting, a few of the departing members made farewell remarks, talking of things that they believed still need addressing: more special education programs, mental health initiatives, a program for high school students to take college classes. There was a long list, but over the past two years other things had gotten in the way. When the meeting opened...

By Anne Branigin, Photo: Teresa Crawford/AP;iStock;Washington Post illustration, The Lily, December 6, 2021 The day she introduced the “Momnibus” in March 2020, Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.) warned of a public health crisis that would not abate unless lawmakers took action: Black birthing parents were dying at unacceptable rates, she said. “While maternal mortality rates continue to drop around the world, they are rising in the U.S., leaving behind devastated families and children who will...

By Tatiana Flowers, Photo: Olivia Sun/The Colorado Sun, 9News, November 28, 2021 Five years ago, Denver made a list of people most often involved with jail, detox centers and emergency rooms — and then offered them housing. The program was so successful at keeping people in stable housing and out of jail, that the U.S. Treasury Department has offered the city more than $6 million in new federal aid, if the program can demonstrate a comparable drop in Medicare and Medicaid billings over the...

By American Medical Association, Image: American Medical Association, December 1, 2021 In this episode of Making the Rounds, Priya Shah, fourth-year medical student at Harvard and AMA Research Challenge finalist, discusses her passion for transforming medical education and the curriculum she developed, based on her research, to improve trauma-informed care. Danan: The AMA Research Challenge is the largest national, multi-specialty research event for medical students and residents. Hello, I’m...

Please join us for December installment of Education Upended: Talking Out of Turn . This monthly series features a conversation facilitated by Lara Kain, PACEsConnection Education Consultant , with special guests on education related current events and hot topics. We will use a trauma-informed and PACEs science aware lens to examine what is going on K-12 education, what needs changing, and strategies being used in the field to disrupt harmful policies and make positive changes in the system.

By Guest Author, 12/7/21, positiveexperience.org/blog The 2022 HOPE virtual summit - Building HOPE - will take place on March 8, 2022. Stay tuned for more information about speakers, sessions, and registration. Add your email to our 2022 HOPE Summit interest list for updates and be the first to know when registration opens. The Summit will start with a keynote speech from Dr. Wendy Ellis ! Dr. Ellis is the creator of the concept of Adverse Community Environments – the pair of ACEs . Her...

Join Julie Beem & Ginger Healy of ATN's Podcast - Regulated and Relational - where their guest for Episode 16 is Cissy White. Cissy is a self-proclaimed Joy Stalker and Truth Teller, and boy, is she ever! Her passion is to make trauma informed changes for survivors of trauma who are parenting with ACEs. With Julie and Ginger, Cissy discusses her path to healing. She says, “Trauma informed change must be led by survivors” and ATN could not agree more! In 2013, Cissy began her blog, Heal...

As early as this week, the National Governors Association (NGA)—the premier organization representing the nation’s governors—is expected to release a new report providing guidance to the states on preventing and mitigating the effects of adverse childhood experiences and promoting resilience in children and families. The report marks the culmination of a learning collaborative launched early in the pandemic involving five states—Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wyoming. The...

What if healing ACEs and preventing compassion fatigue and burnout were one in the same? This free webinar is designed for direct service providers (social workers, teachers, case managers, supervisors, behavior coaches, therapists) who work with marginalized communities suffering from the effects of ACES.

Our interview for this profile took place over two continents, from the U.S. to Lima, Peru, where Lourdes Valdez, pediatrician in Butte County, California, for 23 years, was attending to family affairs after the death of her mother. Valdez grew up in Lima, and later earned her medical degree in Peru before moving to Iowa City, Iowa, in 1992 for her residency. She said her mother helped make her a resilient person. Although working full time as an economist and statistician, her mother made a...