I am ever so grateful for the opportunity to sit down with Ingrid Cockhren, ACEs Connection Midwest Regional Community Facilitator, and Sue Fort White, Executive Director of Our Kids, Inc. Thank you, Ingrid and Sue, for the incredible work you are both doing to help create a more trauma-informed world and helping those who are on the healing journey.
Paul Reviere is sheriff of Lincoln County, a rural area with just under 8,000 people two hours east of Atlanta. In addition to maintaining safety, he gives what he calls “50-cent tours” to out-of-towners, showing off downtown Lincolnton. And there are lots of out-of-towners — people come to enjoy the nearby state park, the Savannah River and the 160 historic buildings. But Lincoln County is distinctive for something beyond these charms. It has the highest rate of firearm fatalities in...
W hen I first started to write this, I was crying. I was flying back from Dilley, Texas, the site of the largest family-detention center in the United States. It is 75 miles from the Texas-Mexico border. The center is actually a prison—an internment camp. I see the faces and hear the voices of the women and children I just left. Nearly every woman I saw seeking asylum came from the northern triangle of Central America: Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. They had come, primarily, not to...
In Acacia WoodsChan’s ethnic studies class at Castlemont High School in Oakland, California, students chat with each other in Spanish, Arabic and Mam, a Mayan language from Guatemala. The students have only been in the U.S. for a few weeks or months. Some are from Yemen and many are from countries in Central America — Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Last year, WoodsChan became concerned when she started hearing the Spanish-speaking students laugh when their classmates spoke Mam or...
Almost 2,500 ACEs Connection members signed up to watch the Broken Places documentary online on March 21st, which was made available for Vimeo streaming all day. We are grateful to KPJR Films for sharing this documentary and helping make this event happen (special thanks for the hard work of @lynn waymer, Keely Badger, @Gail Kennedy, and @Carey Sipp. Following the event, we had a one hour chat with featured guests and many of you have asked...
By K. Hecht, A. Hosack, & P. Berman Court resumed. Claire was seated back between the Carson’s. The other witnesses were heard. The waitress looked scared whenever she glanced towards Larry. He thought she must be crazy. He was the one facing jail time, not her. Larry didn’t think of himself as violent, and he couldn’t imagine why the waitress would be afraid of him just because she saw him punch Claire. Larry didn’t know it, but it had taken support from the whole dinner staff to get...
Purchase Your Tickets NOW! Early Bird Ticket Pricing ENDS April 1, 2019! Join us for the latest information, and strategies to build RESILIENCE! CRI is honored to have expert presenters in their fields to showcase a diverse selection of sessions revolving around the BPT Conference theme, "Building Resilience Across the Life Span." Conference Session Descriptions and Presenter Biographies are now available for review! Buy Tickets Now! The 2019 Beyond Paper Tigers Trauma-Informed Care...
Young people run away or become homeless for a variety of reasons, many of which can be linked to psychological and emotional trauma. Whether it’s abuse, the consequences of living in poverty, a lack of empathy and support for their self-identity, or some combination of the three, runaway and homeless youth (RHY) often experience significant challenges to their happiness and well-being. Many confront this situation even before they encounter the perils of setting off on their own. Once they...
The number of children killed by guns has risen at an alarming rate and to epidemic proportions in the past two decades, according to researchers. More children were shot dead in 2017 than on-duty police officers and active duty military, a study published in The American Journal of Medicine showed. The team at Florida Atlantic University's Schmidt College of Medicine assessed the most recent data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics and found that 38,940 children aged...
On a blazing hot day in late July, Lissa Yellowbird-Chase drove her black SUV, license plate "SEARCH", to a muddy landing on Lake Sakakawea. It was a remote entrance to the water on the northern edge of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota - not much more than a rickety dock at the end of an uneven gravel road. Hitched to the back of Yellowbird-Chase's truck was a 14-foot boat with a half-broken motor and a set of fishing sonar. By her own admission, she was not a particularly...
When Paul Barr was 16 years old, a priest asked him to the rectory of the Sacred Heart church in Niagara Falls, New York. Barr remembers that the priest handed him a beer, suggested that he lie down, and then touched his groin. Four decades later, Barr learned that his story was worth $45,000. In January, Barr got the offer from the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, as he sat at his desk at his law firm a few blocks from the Canadian border. Barr was prepared for disappointment; he was accustomed...
Darrell Jobe had a rough start in life. Raised in Richmond, California, Jobe dropped out of school in eighth grade, joined a gang, and was in and out of juvenile detention as a teenager. At age 14 he was incarcerated for stealing cars, he says, and later did time for possession of a stolen gun. By 23, he promised himself that he would turn his life around and be a better father to his kids than his absentee dad had been for him. “I remember my gang days, and being in shootouts, and in and...
Infant mortality rates for Native Americans and Alaskan Natives are 60 percent higher than rates for white babies. Hispanic children are more likely to be obese and African-American mothers experience the highest rates of preterm births . Children living in rural areas are more likely to have complex diseases and live further from hospitals; while children in urban areas experience the highest rates of morbidity from asthma. Health in the U.S. is not equitable. Not everyone has access to...
Interview by Suzanne Wilder. Photography by Stacy Wegley. | When we arrived at Lydia’s House, we found a scene familiar to new parents: Janell Roberts was making a sandwich in the kitchen, hoping to eat a quick meal while her infant slept in a nearby room. She chewed a little quicker as her baby fussed, then gratefully accepted our offers to hold her daughter so that she could eat with two hands. Her daughter was at the developmental stage – with impossibly tiny toes and fuzzy hair – when...
Abuse and neglect in childhood can leave a lifelong residue of guilt for things that were never our fault. This same fuzzy thinking can ALSO make us numb to the awareness that we HAVE actually hurt someone. This can make it painful to decide whether to stay connected -- or cut off contact -- with those who abused us in the past. In this video I talk about ways to free yourself from unnecessary guilt, while listening to the voice inside that tells you when you've made a mistake. If you'd like...