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California PACEs Action

July 2019

Childhood adversity screenings are just one part of an effective policy response to childhood trauma [childtrends.org]

By David Murphey and Jessica Dym Bartlett, Child Trends, July 9, 2019. Exposure to adversity in childhood is widespread and can pose a serious threat to individual health and well-being over the life course. By age 18, nearly half (45 percent) of children in the United States have had at least one adverse experience; among young children and other vulnerable subgroups, the prevalence is much higher. Childhood adversity is defined as one or more stressful events or conditions that can...

Bay Area school redesigns its program to help students graduate [EdSource]

Theresa Harrington, July 9, 2019 Wen Jazhun Brown first transferred to De Anza High as a junior, poor grades made him an unlikely candidate to graduate on time. His GPA was low and he had failed biology. That changed after school counselors, college advisers and teachers helped him see he could reach his goal of becoming a police officer by retaking courses and working hard to successfully complete others. He graduated last month and will enroll this fall at Sacramento State University “My...

Far More Women Are Being Sent To Prison For Life Than 10 Years Ago, Especially In California [Witness LA]

June 27, 2019 by Taylor Walker California has the highest proportion of women serving life (or virtual life) sentences in state prisons–one out of every four female prisoners, according to a new fact sheet from the Sentencing Project. The state with the next highest rate of life imprisonment among women in prisons is Louisiana, where one in seven imprisoned women will spend her life behind bars. Nationally, one out of every 15 of the 111,000 women in prison in the U.S. is serving life...

Budget realities challenging California school districts’ restorative justice programs [EdSource]

By David Washburn, July 1, 2019 Legions of California educators have been trained in recent years in restorative justice, which is no longer considered an obscure alternative to traditional school discipline. Yet even in districts with well-established programs, finding and keeping funding for it remains a challenge. Earlier this year, for example, the Oakland Unified School District board approved a package of austere budget cuts that appeared to have dismantled the district’s program,...

A Historic Win For Students, Parents, And Advocates: LAUSD Officials Vote To End Random, Ineffective Searches In Schools [Witness LA]

June 19, 2019, by Taylor Walker In 2011, the Los Angeles Unified School District established a policy requiring schools to subject students at its 200 middle and high schools to daily “random searches.” School administrators pull kids out of class, search them with a handheld metal detector wand, and go through their bags and belongings looking for “contraband.” On Tuesday, after years of protest from parents, students, community groups, and others concerned about the practice, the LAUSD...

An inside look at Sacramento’s Youth Detention Facility, named best in nation after turnaround [Sacramento Bee]

BY CANDICE WANG cwang@sacbee.com Six boys dove into the water, passing volleyballs and footballs, in a recent scene that seemed more like a snapshot from an afternoon at a community pool, rather than from Sacramento County’s Youth Detention Facility. Only the barbed wire encircling the area showed the difference. The frequent use of the pool, built along with the facility in 1963, is now part of a series of progressive, rehabilitative programs that contributed to the 2018 Barbara Allen-Hagen...

Yuba County: Building a Structure for Sustained Action [Strategies 2.0 Newsletter]

Yuba County is ready for results. “Our county has ranked very low on health outcomes. This year we were 53rd out of 58 in California—pretty far down—on all health indicators,” laments Cathy LeBlanc, Executive Director at Camptonville Community Partnerships. Ms. LeBlanc and her colleagues have recognized this challenge for decades and have built their capacity to collaborate and align their work to push for solutions, from the formation of the Yuba County Children’s Wellness and Child Abuse...

Program offers hundreds of young men, boys safe space to heal from ACEs

Dennis McCollins recounts some of the experiences that caused him to harden against the world as a teenager. “There were times I went to more funerals than birthdays,” says McCollins, who is the clinical director of the School Based Health Center at Greenwood Academy in Richmond, Calif. And it took its toll: “I spent time homeless. I got expelled [from school]. I was so angry and upset and mad,” he says. Dennis McCollins Then a man that he met when he was sent to Job Corps as a teen turned...

Unprecedented childhood trauma hearing in U.S. Congress on July 11 to feature data from new state fact sheets on ACEs prevalence, impacts

A hearing of unprecedented scope and depth on ACEs science and childhood trauma — " Identifying, Preventing, and Treating Childhood Trauma: A Pervasive Public Health Issue that Needs Greater Federal Attention " — will be held this Thursday in the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. You can watch the live stream at 10:00 am ET through a link from the committee site. Along with testimony from trauma survivors, the hearing will include testimony on the prevalence and impact of adverse...

Trauma Informed Public Health Nursing Visits to Parents and Children (publication pending in Public Health Nursing)

Sonoma County Field Nursing's Liz George and Julianne Ballard have been busy! Together they lead an effort to develop a PHN home visiting model that integrates ACEs science! Their research will soon be published in The Journal of Public Health Nursing ! Here is the abstract: Trauma Informed Public Health Nursing Visits to Parents and Children (publication pending in Public Health Nursing) Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) research has demonstrated a strong correlation between a traumatic...

Report: California Immigration Facilities Failing Kids With Disabilities (kqed.org)

A report from the largest disability rights group in the country says that immigration facilities across the state are failing to provide enough care or education to children with disabilities in their custody. Investigators with Disability Rights California (DRC), who are authorized by the state to monitor conditions at any facility that houses individuals with disabilities, spent the past year visiting sites in California where the federal government is holding undocumented minors. DRC...

California's 1st Surgeon General Spotlights Health Risks Of Childhood Adversity (npr.org)

In an interview last year, after her book , The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity, was published, Burke Harris told NPR's Cory Turner, "We all need to be part of the solution. If we each take ... our little piece, it's nuts how far we'll be able to go, together as a society, in terms of solving this problem. California Gov. Gavin Newsom took Burke Harris up on her challenge, appointing her the first-ever surgeon general of California. Newsom cites the toxic...

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