Blog

One out of five California adults with children living in their homes were beaten, kicked or physically abused when they were children, and one in ten were sexually abused, according to data released recently by a children’s health foundation. Experts believe that’s an undercount. “I think it’s probably a low estimate,” said Cassandra Joubert, director of the Central California Children’s Institute at California State University, Fresno. “I think these kinds of events within families are...

Connecting with professionals between sessions who are familiar with the effects of domestic violence Last week, I did a presentation about ACEs science and trauma for 150 people who attended Stanislaus County's 17th Annual Family Domestic Violence Conference in Modesto, CA. The conference participants work in family court, social services, education, law enforcement, and probation. (L to R) Dave Lockridge; Honorable Linda McFadden of Family Court; and Dick Monteith, Stanislaus County...

Hundreds of people committed to helping former offenders successfully return to their communities were energized and ready to get back to work after a recent event, when one state official paused to point out how far California has come in the past few years. “This is a mammoth shift,” Linda Penner proclaimed about how California’s governmental agencies are working with community-based organizations (CBOs) to ensure successful reentry from incarceration to the community. As chair of the...

People fleeing big coastal cities like L.A. and San Francisco in search of more affordable housing inland could be in for sticker shock. A new report released Tuesday reveals that inland, rural parts of California are increasingly unaffordable too. "That came as a big surprise because historically we have thought of the housing problem as being a focus in larger cities, but we found every city has this problem," said Jonathan Woetzel, director of the McKinsey Global Institute and a co-author...

California preschools are mirroring an alarming national trend, suspending or expelling children from preschools far too frequently. This is the judgment of a group of state educators, policymakers and representatives of public agencies, including the California Department of Education, who are working on a proposal that will offer solutions. The group is an unofficial committee that grew out of a project involving the Department of Defense and the WestEd Center for Child and Family Studies...

“Every one of us can play a role.” Eric Holder campaigns to reduce childhood trauma - The Washington Post

On behalf of California Essentials for Childhood, I am very excited to announce the release of a new Child Adversity and Resilience data topic on Kidsdata.org! This has been a collaborative effort between the CA Essentials for Childhood Initiative's Shared Data and Outcomes Work Group and the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health. I represent ACEs Connection Network on Essentials and am the co-chair of the Shared Data & Outcomes Work Group so I couldn't be more thrilled about...

Isn't that the most encouraging headline? Isn't that a wonderful photo? Too few articles about ACEs offer any hope about what can help. For so long, researchers, writers and activists have been trying to make the point and "prove" that ACEs matter, ACEs matter and oh yeah, ACEs really really do matter! There has been too little focus (and funding) on what can be done to counter the impact of ACEs, in general, as well as for parents, in particular. That's starting to change, in no small part,...

When I met up with school psychologists Donna Christy and Robert Hull at the Starbucks in Greenbelt, MD, they sparred good-naturedly about each other’s extra-curricular activities outside the school building—he says she is a big honcho with the National Education Association (NEA) and she says he will speak to any audience, anywhere (as long as his expenses are covered) on the subject of trauma and education. Both work for the Prince George’s (P.G.) County School District in nearby...

Love from California The Adverse Childhood Experiences Conference got underway tonight in San Francisco with many of the 450 participants attending a meet-and-greet at the Park Central Hotel. The conference focuses on moving from “Awareness to Action”, and includes representatives from education, early childhood, juvenile justice, child welfare, pediatrics, and many other dedicated professionals committed to the ACEs movement. (Left to Right) Michelle Allen; Vanessa Jackson (Parents...

Preschools around the United States and in California are deeply segregated, a new report from Penn State finds. Around the country, white children are overwhelmingly going to preschool with only other white children, and more than half of all black and Latino children under five attend preschool where 90 percent of the students are children of color. That's also the case in California, one of two states with the lowest enrollment of white children in public preschool programs. In fact, a...

The Office of Health Equity (OHE) is accepting applications for Implementation Pilot Projects in Native American communities as part of the California Reducing Disparities Project (CRDP). CRDP is designed to help reduce mental health disparities across the state among five multicultural communities. From the current solicitation, we will award up to two implementation grants, which will be in effect over the next five years. The grants will have a rural/tribal focus to bring balance among...