Tagged With "Brain Works Forget"
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A Welcome Message from the Commissioner of New Jersey's Department of Children and Families
Dear NJ Resiliency Coalition Community Members, One of my favorite quotes is from Maya Angelou. She said “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” This statement gives permission and grace for us to change our thinking, change policies, and change the world we live in. During my earlier work as an Assistant Commissioner with the Department of Children and Families (NJ DCF), and then in my work at Casey Family Programs, research about adverse childhood...
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New Jersey Appoints National ACEs Expert to Head Office of Resilience
June 9, 2020, Trenton, NJ – The New Jersey Department of Children and Families (DCF) today announced that Dave Ellis has been named as Executive on Loan to the State of New Jersey, functioning as the first Executive Director for the Office of Resilience within DCF. Ellis will share his expertise with the state and coordinate statewide efforts to prevent, protect against, and heal from the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). ACEs are stressful or traumatic events, including...
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The Relentless School Nurse: America's School Nursing Crisis Came at the Worst Time
This article from The Saturday Evening Post shares a brief history of school nursing from one pandemic to the next, and I (Robin Cogan) am honored to have my work included. I never spoke directly to Nicholas Gilmore, the journalist. He listened to a podcast I did on RN-Mentor and read recent blog posts about COVID. It has taken a pandemic for the nation to understand the importance of school nursing. I can only imagine what the original school nursing pioneers, Lillian Wald and Lina Rogers,...
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Weekly Highlights
Neighborhood conditions associated with children’s cognitive function November 4, 2020 U.S. National Institutes of Health A study published today in JAMA Network Open shows that children from poorer neighborhoods perform less well on a range of cognitive functions, such as verbal ability, reading skills, memory, and attention, and have smaller brain volumes in key cognitive regions compared to those from wealthier neighborhoods. While multiple studies have shown that household socioeconomic...
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A Statewide Vision to Address the Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences: A Conversation with New Jersey’s Office of Resilience Leadership
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) — such as abuse, neglect, exposure to violence, family dysfunction, and racism — can negatively impact a child’s developing brain and body, as well as long-term health and social outcomes. In New Jersey, over 40 percent of children are estimated to have experienced at least one ACE, with 18 percent experiencing multiple ACEs. Given the prevalence of ACEs and their potential life-long consequences, New Jersey is coordinating a statewide strategy to...
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Weekly Highlights
Native American Heritage Month When COVID-19 hit the Navajo Nation, it limited students’ educational opportunities after schools closed, eliminated essential school services, exposed ongoing inequities, and made health and economic hardships families face worse. Navajo health officials said COVID-19 started spreading across the nation after a tribal member attended a basketball tournament in early March then went to a church revival the next day in Chilchinbeto, a small community south of...
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Weekly Highlights
Helping Children Heal: Resilience; The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope December 4, 2020 December 7, 2020 https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/4504282835155688464 Attorney General Gurbir Grewal and DCF Commissioner Christine Norbut Beyer invite you to watch this documentary and engage in an interactive conversation about how New Jersey can address Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in our children. Watch: December 4, 2020 , You will receive a link to watch the documentary...
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NJ medical school program requires all first-year students to learn about ACEs science
In 2015, Dr. Beth Pletcher, a pediatrician and associate professor specializing in genetics, was at the annual conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics in Washington D.C. when she heard two speakers that forever changed her work with medical students. Dr. Beth Pletcher “I went to two talks on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) that were so mind-boggling to me that I decided on my drive back to New Jersey that I had to do something about it,”says Pletcher, director of the Division...
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Healing-Centered Schools
By Amanda Adams Imagine pulling into a school parking lot and seeing a garden full of flowers, fruit and vegetables, a spacious playground and well-paved walkways to several building entrances. As you get out of your car and approach the building there is clear signage, in multiple languages, to help you find the main entrance with welcoming and uplifting messages for students and their parents. When you walk in the building there is soft music playing over the intercom and someone is near...
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The Brain Architects: Connecting Health & Learning Part I: The Science
How do our biological systems work together to respond to chronic stress? What do these responses mean for early learning and lifelong health? And when we say that early experiences matter, what do we mean by early? This episode of The Brain Architects podcast addresses all these questions and more! To kick off this episode, Center Director Dr. Jack Shonkoff describes the body’s stress response system, how our biological systems act as a team when responding to chronic stress, and the...
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Nicholson Foundation Funding Efforts to Address ACEs and Build Resilience in New Jersey on Multiple Fronts
Since 2018, The Nicholson Foundation has been working hard to make New Jersey a leader among states in how it addresses, treats, and prevents Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)—traumatic events that can cause children lifelong physical, mental, and social damage. Over the past two years, The Nicholson Foundation has invested $3.5 million in efforts that directly prevent ACEs or build resilience to their effects and complementary programs and services that support healthy child development...
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Nashville’s Purposeful Twist on ACEs: All Children Excel
In 2015, the pieces that became ACE Nashville began to fall into place. A five-year Community Health Improvement Plan included the support of mental and emotional health as one of its three goals. A core team of individuals from the Metro Public Health Department (MPHD), Prevent Child Abuse Tennessee and the Family Center, a non-profit focused on breaking generational cycles of child trauma, began to meet weekly. And a citywide “consensus workshop” in April of that year—drawing 44...
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*NEW PUBLICATION* Chronic Disease Among African American Families: A Systematic Scoping Review
Chronic diseases are common among African Americans, but the extent to which research has focused on addressing chronic diseases across multiple members of African American families is unclear. This systematic scoping review summarizes the characteristics of research addressing coexisting chronic conditions among African American families, including guiding theories, conditions studied, types of relationships, study outcomes, and intervention research.
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Self-Healing Communities Model, Co-Hosted with CTIPP, Second in a series
Self-Healing Communities Model, co hosted with CTIPP Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, 3-4:00 ET (Noon-1:00 PT) Second in a series on state-to-state best practices featuring the self-healing community model Self-Healing Community Model , Washington, developed networks that promoted collaboration across sectors and empowered local leaders to think about whole systems. The use of data helped prioritize efforts and learn what was working. Beyond Washington State, numerous other states are using the...
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NJ DCF Commissioner shares thoughts on National Day of Racial Healing
Dear ACEs Connection community, Today is the 5th Annual National Day of Racial Healing. This commemoration was established in 2017 by leaders in social services, faith-based organizations, government and private corporations from around the country to raise awareness and to recognize the need for racial reconciliation. These last several months have certainly shown us that equity among races is a goal not yet realized. The pandemic has disproportionately impacted individuals and families of...
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National Day of Racial Healing hosted by W.K. Kellogg Foundation - Streaming TODAY 1/19/2021 @ 3PM EST.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is hosting an event on their National Day of Racial Healing which is January 19, 2021. We highly encourage you to attend the events hosted by the foundation, find events near you, and explore creative ways to bring racial healing to your community. To learn more about #howweheal, please visit their website here . THE NATIONAL PREMIERE IS 01.19.21 Mark your calendar and join us for essential and timely conversations on racial healing, equity and justice. As we...
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Healing-Centered Engagement Event
Healing-Centered Engagement Learn more about a new pilot program to help NJ schools address adversity and trauma NJPSA/FEA invites all public school superintendents, school and teacher leaders, and family/community organizations to attend an Information Session on February 4 to learn about an exciting and innovative initiative. In partnership with over 100 education and community leaders across the state, the NJPSA/FEA-led team has researched and designed a school framework to address adult...
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NJ Takes Another Step to Support Youth and Address Racial Equity in Juvenile Justice System
December 22, 2020 The significance of Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal’s directive to further reform the juvenile justice system is worth highlighting. Advocates for Children of New Jersey (ACNJ) views this directive, which takes effect January 11, 2021, as another step towards building a juvenile justice system that gives youth the support they need as well as addresses racial equity. A key function of the juvenile justice system is to rehabilitate youth, rather than act punitively, and...
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NJ ACES ACTION PLAN SOCIAL MEDIA KIT
We’re asking for your help to spread awareness about the ACEs Action Plan. Below are links to graphics and a video for download, suggested post copy for social media and flyers that can be shared digitally or printed out for display. Please join us in sharing these materials across your social media accounts, via email, websites, newsletters or blog posts. Graphics can be downloaded here: https://www.nj.gov/dcf/news/publications/aces.html Remember to use #ResilientNJ and/or #ACEsAction...
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PreventingACES.pdf
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Black history explains why COVID-19 has ravaged that community | Opinion
By Star-Ledger Guest Columnist By Hamid Shaaban Black History Month is often observed by commemorating Black excellence and honoring the remarkable achievements and contributions of Black people in the United States and around the world. This month, I propose to all my colleagues in healthcare and medicine to promote and advance education about the history of medical racism. That history is Black history and it is often neglected and remains largely unacknowledged. It’s important to...
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Re: Download NJ ACEs Action Plan.pdf
Congratulations to all involved and special thanks to the many residents of New Jersey who provided such wise counsel as the Action Plan was coming together! Here we go together making New Jersey a leader in addressing and preventing ACEs and becoming more healing-centered. The Nicholson Foundation is so happy the Plan is dedicated to our dear colleague, Colette Lamothe-Galette. She lives on through all whose lives she touched and will touch through this work.
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How are law enforcement leaders using ACEs science to change policing?
Eleven years ago, Pennsylvania Executive Deputy Attorney General Robert Reed learned about the landmark Adverse Childhood Experiences Study , which linked childhood trauma to a higher risk of aggression, substance abuse, suicide and many life-threatening mental and physical diseases later in life. For him, it was a revelation. “The [ACE Study] gave me the language to understand what I felt, but didn’t have the language to express,” Reed said. “I had been in law enforcement for 30 years and...
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Happy Birthday Alice Walker
Alice Walker Alice Walker is one of the most admired African American writers working today. She has written at length on issues of race and gender, and is most famous for the critically acclaimed novel The Color Purple for which she won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Born in Eatonton Georgia, on February the 9th, 1944, just before the end of World War II, Alice Malsenior Walker was the eighth of eight children to Minnie Tallulah Grant Walker and Winnie Lee Walker. Her father, who was, in...
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ACEs Action Plan to make New Jersey a “trauma-informed/healing centered state” launched on February 4 by Governor Phil Murphy and other key officials
Growing up with trauma inextricably linked to racism in southern Illinois, working as a state employee in Minnesota, training folks about ACEs and diversity and equity in several states—these are just a few of the life experiences Dave Ellis brings to the work he is now doing as Executive Director of the New Jersey Office of Resilience. Seven months ago Ellis took the job to head the Office of Resilience with the assurance that there would be a deep and meaningful focus on community...
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New Jersey's Own Whitney Houston
Today marks nine years since we lost an icon, the indelible mark Whitney Houston left on this world continues on today! With over 200 million combined album, singles and videos sold worldwide during her career with Arista Records, Whitney Houston has established a benchmark for superstardom that will quite simply never be eclipsed in the modern era. She is a singer’s singer who has influenced countless other vocalists female and male. Music historians cite Whitney’s record-setting...
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ACEs Action Plan launched to make New Jersey a 'trauma-informed/ healing centered state'
Growing up with trauma inextricably linked to racism in southern Illinois, working as a state employee in Minnesota, training folks about adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and diversity and equity in several states—these are just a few of the life experiences Dave Ellis brings to the work he is now doing as executive director of the New Jersey Office of Resilience. Seven months ago Ellis took the job to head the Office of Resilience with the assurance that there would be a deep and...
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Op-Ed: Training next-generation NJ pediatricians to address effects of childhood trauma
DR. SHILPA PAI AND DR. CHRISTIN TRABA | FEBRUARY 12, 2021 | OPINION , HEALTH CARE Gov. Phil Murphy released a statewide action plan on Feb. 4 to promote resilience and address the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in New Jersey. The Office of Resilience at the New Jersey Department of Children and Families will be leading the statewide implementation of this plan, but partners from all sectors — including pediatricians — have a critical role in ensuring its success. ACEs are...
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Dr. Natalia Tanner was the first African American board certified pediatrician in Detroit, Michigan.
Dr. Natalia M. Tanner, M.D: The first African American to be accepted into the residency program at the University of Chicago. The first African American woman fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The first African American on the staff of Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit. The first woman and African American to serve as president of the Michigan Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Natalia M. Tanner, M.D. built a long and distinguished career in pediatrics.
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Dr. Valerie L. Thomas - Inventor of the Illusion Transmitter (3D movies)
Valerie L. Thomas was born in February of 1943 in Maryland. She was fascinated with technology as a very young child. Around the age of eight, her curiosity about how things worked inspired her to borrow a book called, “The Boy’s First Book On Electronics," which she took home hoping that her father would help her take on some of the projects in it. After all, he liked to tinker with radios and television sets. But he did not help her. Thomas attended an all-girls high school that did not...
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Bass Reeves: The Real Lone Ranger Was Black
If you’re like me, you remember watching the popular television show, The Lone Ranger, where it depicted a white man who wore a disguise on a white horse and had a Native American counterpart with him named Tonto. The story we are most familiar with started out as a radio show, then a popular television show that ran from 1949 to 1957, then comic books, and several cartoons and big-budget movies. But like many things during slavery, history may have been obscured and the actual “Lone Ranger”...
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Gentrification vs. Revitalization
As we work towards healing communities, it is imperative we understand the difference between gentrification and revitalization. Gentrification is a term that people throw around a lot, but it’s often oversimplified as neighborhood revitalization. In an enlightening talk, urban planning scholar Stacey Sutton shows us the true costs of gentrification. Stacey Sutton teaches at Columbia University. She thinks deeply about our common misconceptions around gentrification. This talk was given on...
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Racial Equity and Philanthropy
“... Philanthropy is overlooking leaders of color who have the most lived experience with and understanding of the problems we are trying to solve.”
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Patricia Bath - Pioneer Ophthalmologist - Inventor of laser cataract surgery
Patricia Bath was the first African American to complete a residency in ophthalmology in 1973. Two years later, she became the first female faculty member in the Department of Ophthalmology at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute. In 1976, Bath co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, which established that "eyesight is a basic human right." In 1986, Bath invented the Laserphaco Probe, improving treatment for cataract patients. She patented the device in 1988, becoming...
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Elijah McClain - The Association Between Abusive Policing and PTSD Symptoms Among U.S. Police Officers
"I'm an introvert, I don't do those things. You all are beautiful and I love you. Please try to forgive me" were the last words spoken by Elijah McClain. He would have been 25. The Association Between Abusive Policing and PTSD Symptoms Among U.S. Police Officers Objective: Initiatives to curb police abuse in the United States are often viewed as “antipolice” or politically unpopular. Efforts to address police violence may be more acceptable if abusive practices are shown to have an adverse...
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Black History NJ: The Complete Series
Jersey Joe Walcott Arnold Raymond Cream, aka Jersey Joe Walcott, was born in Merchantville, NJ, on Jan. 31, 1914. He held the record for the oldest heavyweight champion for more than four decades. His father, an immigrant from Barbados, died when Walcott was 15, which forced him to go to work to provide for his mother and younger siblings. At 16-years-old, he began boxing professionally and adopted Jersey Joe Walcott as his moniker… Carla Harris Montclair resident Carla Harris is an author,...
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ACEs Connection: Healing Communities through Connections
The 90-minute professional webinar will introduce family support professionals to the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study and deepen their understanding of ACEs science which shows how toxic stress in childhood influences health for a lifetime. They will learn how using an ACEs science lens allows them to reframe behavior from “what’s wrong with you” to “what happened to you”. Participants will discover tools and resources available at ww.acesconnection.com , the world’s largest...
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Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. How Is It Different From PTSD?
How is Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome different from PTSD? Dr. Joy DeGruy explains how trauma can be passed on generation after generation. POST TRAUMATIC SLAVE SYNDROME As a result of twelve years of quantitative and qualitative research Dr. DeGruy has developed her theory of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, and published her findings in the book Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome – America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing”. The book addresses the residual impacts of generations of slavery...