Pre-pandemic, educators said we were facing challenges not experienced by older generations. This pandemic makes that notion truer than ever. This pandemic is a rapidly emerging collective stress that is reshaping the structure and fabric of experience in most every facet of life, but especially in education. It pushes us to adapt creatively and to think outside our typical “box.” And yet, in every crisis opportunity lurks. Three nationally recognized trauma-informed consultants have...

Welcome to the COVID-19 Resources for Healthcare Providers! We have four topic-specific resource lists related to COVID-19 and ACEs Science. All four are updated weekly. They are as follows: ACEs in Education & COVID-19 COVID-19 Resources for Healthcare Providers Parenting with ACEs in a Pandemic Practicing Resilience During Social Distancing We hope these lists, and the resources, practices, and information in them, are helpful and easy to use. Please let us know if you have ideas,...

By Stacy Steinberg, The New York Times, May 7, 2020 Children may be processing the disruptions in their lives right now in ways the adults around them do not expect: acting out, regressing, retreating or even seeming surprisingly content. Parents need to know that all of this is normal, experts say, and there are some things we can do to help. “Our natural response to scary things is biologically to release stress hormones,” said Dr. Nadine Burke Harris , a pediatrician and surgeon general...

Elaine Miller Karas , key creator of the Community Resiliency Model (CRM), will be joined by CRM trainers from Wilmington, NC, Allison Wine , behavioral specialist, and Kelly Purcell , instructional coach and multi-tiered support specialist for this free, two-part training. Register now for two, FREE 90-minute sessions May 7 from 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. EST and May 14 from 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. EST (The complete overview requires attendance at both sessions. Registration link below registers you...

From ACEs Aware, May 13, 2020 This webinar will focus on building understanding and identifying primary care and telehealth strategies and tools to address the secondary health effects of the COVID-19 emergency. Widespread stress and anxiety regarding COVID-19, compounded by the economic distress due to lost wages, employment and financial assets; mass school closures; and necessary physical distancing measures can result in an increase of stress-related health conditions. These secondary...

The Hampton Roads Trauma-Informed Community Network (HRTICN) is one of over 20+ community networks championing resilience in their community during this time. These networks raise awareness, conduct trainings, create and implement trauma-informed practices across an array of sectors, including schools, faith communities, courts, community services, and more. Audravette Jackson serves as the Hampton Roads Trauma-Informed Community Network coordinator, and the Children’s Hospital of King’s...

By Latanya West, San Diego Voice, May 15, 2020 In January 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Dr. Nadine Burke Harris as California’s first-ever Surgeon General. An award-winning physician, researcher and advocate, Dr. Burke Harris’ career has been dedicated to serving vulnerable communities and combating the root causes of health disparities. Her work is equally dedicated to changing the way our society responds to one of the most serious, expensive and widespread public health crises of...

Registration open at https://www.traumaresearchfoundation.org/trauma-conference/2020 For the past three decades our conference has brought together leaders from the fields of neuroscience, attachment research and innovative trauma treatments. We provide a unique place for a dialogue between scientists and clinicians, and an opportunity to become familiar not only with the latest advances in brain science as it pertains to clinical work, but also with a range of evolving treatments for...

What could it look like to try something like this in Louisiana?

Jarvis DeBerry, columnist, Nola.com - APR 6, 2019 About two months ago, a 16-year-old high-school senior sat at a computer to find out for herself why her father is at the Louisiana State Penitentiary and how long he’ll be gone. Sun’Shyne Mathieu was 6 months old the last time her daddy was free. Her whole life she’s asked her family when he was coming home. Her whole life they’ve said, “Soon.” “I never knew why, I never knew what, I just knew where,” that is, where her father is, Sun’Shyne...

By Lutona Giwa, Guest Writer, HuffPost - May 31, 2020 Today is my due date, and I can’t stop thinking about George Floyd . I keep telling myself I shouldn’t be thinking about “things like this” right now, that the moments before I give birth should be spent in meditative relaxation. Surely, now is the time to reflect on the beauty and hope of new life, not the pain and ugliness of this world. But my mind keeps wandering back to a Black man’s face being flattened into the ground by the weight...

We post this resource in honor of African American parents and caregivers who, in the face of unremitting racial injustice and trauma, show courage and strength as they seek to create to safe and nurturing homes and communities for their children. We lift our voices in solidarity with African American communities across the country. https://youtu.be/0Qtn2ZFx6ZM Media coverage of community racial trauma and civil unrest can cause children to experience fear, worry, sadness, confusion, and...

People’s response to the great chasms of structural inequities glaringly laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic have been further inflamed by the murder of George Floyd and deaths of other African Americans in recent weeks. The acute emergency of the pandemic has eased, but the violence inflicted on racial minorities and now those who are protesting the inequities in our society has compounded the outrage. Right after the pandemic began running riot across the US, I often heard people ask: When...

My Story People say all the time that you don’t have to let your past, family or your childhood define who you are. I don’t believe that is necessarily a bad thing. I let my childhood define who I am by defying the odds. It was expected that when I grew up, I would be a teenage mother living in the trailer park. But that wasn’t the life for me. I am successful. Not because I am rich, but because I am not a stereotype. I rose above my circumstances and made my life the best it could be.For me...

Self-care does not have to look like it does in the magazines. Self-care can be improvised, it can be momentary, it can be “catch-as-catch-can.” And that’s okay. It’s actually great! Why? Because it means self-care is actually possible.

By Brandon Stratford, Child Trends, July 28, 2020 Regardless of whether students return to school in person or via distance learning , education leaders and policymakers across the country must equip schools to address the social, emotional, and behavioral effects of the ongoing pandemic. To address these issues, many policymakers are turning to school-based mental health services as a key strategy for supporting student wellness. Although mental health services are a critical, often...

Monica McCasklill, left, and her daughter Kena Johnson, at their home in Greenwood, Missisppi. They respectively lost their grandmother and great grandmother, Ethel Huntley, to Covid-19. Huntley lived in a nearby nursing home and the family allege failings in her primary care. Photograph: Rory Doyle/The Guardian. By Oliver Laughland, The Guardian, August 5, 2020 Poor access to healthcare, failed political leadership and the endurance of segregation and racism have contributed to a surge in...

Cecil J. Picard Center for Child Development & Lifelong Learning, March 2020 The landmark Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study, co-sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and the Kaiser Permanente Managed Care Consortium in San Diego, CA (Felitti et al., 1998) demonstrated that cumulative adversity in childhood is associated with significant long-term consequences for adult health and well-being. The “ACE Study” findings have been replicated in numerous studies and the research...

PACEs Connection's Race & Equity Workgroup will be examining historical trauma in the United States of America and its impact on American society in a series of virtual discussions. This series will highlight each unique region within the United States and outline how unresolved historical trauma has impacted every aspect of American life and directly shapes the socio-political landscape of today as well as the overall well-being of Americans. Discussions will make connections between...

Have no fear, the dads are here! Michael LaFitte Jr. said he was one of several parents who felt compelled to take action after nearly two dozen students got arrested, suspended, or expelled within three days at Southwood High School in Shreveport, Louisiana, according to Good Morning America . Wanting to find a way to stop the violence, LaFitte Jr. sat down with four other dads in his office and came up with the idea to start a crisis intervention team at their kids' school called " Dads on...

Join us next Wednesday for two excellent CTIPP CAN presentations to begin our 2022 lineup. Baltimore Councilman Zeke Cohen will discuss the work, started by the late Congressman Elijah Cummings, that is making the city of Baltimore trauma-informed. Claudia Remington will describe new trauma informed initiatives by the State of Maryland, including legislation that created a Commission to develop a comprehensive strategy to make the State trauma informed. We will also report on the first...

This is the third of three stunning illustrations showing how PACEs (positive and adverse childhood experiences) affected the family of Cendie Stanford, graphic artist and founder of the nonprofit ACEs Matter. This one looks at her positive childhood experiences. The day before her 16th birthday, Cendie Stanford’s older brother was shot and killed by a young man who, just two years earlier, had been her boyfriend. “I was heartbroken that two people I loved were out of my life forever,” says...

By Kaylee Poche, Staff Writer, www.nola.com/gambit/news April 4, 2022 Amanda Schroeder saw a lot during her time as a school counselor in New Orleans. Schroeder, who now works as the president of the nonprofit Communities in Schools, recalls the time a decade ago when she worked in a public school in New Orleans East. A kindergartener at the school would abruptly bolt from their desk, running out of the classroom without warning. Sometimes, he’d run out of the school building altogether.

PACEs Connection is excited to kick off our 2023 Creating Resilient Communities (CRC) Annual Accelerator Program.