Tagged With "Well Path"
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2018 Community Stories from across the state
Thank you everyone for your help to create community stories highlighting the efforts happening to raise awareness about ACEs from across the state for 4CA’s 2018 Policymaker Education Day ! Attached find a 2018 version of the community stories detailing information about community ACEs initiatives from across the state. Please download and share. And see HERE for a list of CA ACEs Connection communities from across the state.
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37th Annual Child Abuse Prevention Symposium Recap
"Speak Out! Confronting the Culture of Child Sexual Abuse and Secrecy" was the theme of Santa Clara County's 37th Annual Child Abuse Prevention Symposium which featured a Keynote conversation with Olympic Gold Medal winning gymnast and current UCLA Assistant Gymnastics Coach Jordyn Wieber. Jordyn, and other athletes and survivors of former USA Gymnastics team doctor and serial child sex abuser Larry Nassar, earlier spoke to a U.S. Senate Subcommittee about a “culture of silence” more...
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A college education in prison opens path to freedom (calmatters.org)
Cal State LA’s Prison Graduation Initiative is the state’s only public bachelor’s degree program sending professors to teach behind bars. College programs like it were once far more common, and today advocates are hopeful the political winds have shifted enough to bring public dollars back to prison education. Federal legislation that would make grant aid available has bipartisan support, and in California, a bill to open the state’s financial aid program to incarcerated students is headed...
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'A hidden health crisis': Toxic stress driving up Kern death rates [The Bakersfield Californian]
An invisible disease has been killing middle-aged white people throughout the southern San Joaquin Valley at higher rates than ever before. The disease can’t be detected by a blood test or remedied with a prescription. It’s been referred to as one of the country’s greatest unaddressed public health crises and a rising “epidemic of white death.” The disease is toxic stress, a result of childhood trauma and other environmental stressors like poverty, food insecurity and basic living needs not...
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Board of State and Community Corrections Awards $96m In Prop 47 Grants
SACRAMENTO (June 13, 2019) – The Board of State and Community Corrections today approved grant awards from a voter initiative that reduces from felonies to misdemeanors certain low-level crimes and directs state savings to programs primarily focused on mental health and substance-use disorder treatment. It is the second round of Proposition 47 funding approved by the Board, to which voters allocated the bulk of the state savings for rehabilitative grants targeting Prop 47-impacted...
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Brown Signs Law to Ease Licensing Path for Relatives, Vetoes Foster Care Mobile Response Plan [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
As California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) prepares to leave office at the end of the year, the last round of child welfare legislation under his watch includes a new law to ease the path of relative caregivers under the Continuum of Care Reform (CCR), the major child welfare initiative developed during his time as governor. The Continuum of Care Reform is designed to reduce the state’s reliance on congregate care by placing more foster children with families, including more with relative...
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CA pediatrician develops, tests, gets state OK for whole-child assessment tool that includes ACEs
Over the last dozen years or so, many pediatricians, astounded by the ramifications of the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on the children they care for, began integrating this science into their practices. The most common approach has been to ask parents about ACEs using a questionnaire, and to use this information to counsel parents and identify resources for the family. Different practices have been using different questionnaires: Some ask parents for their ACE scores...
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CA pediatrician develops, tests, gets state OK for whole-child assessment tool that includes ACEs
[Editor's note: This blog was first posted in April 2017. Dr. Marie-Mitchell updated the assessment by modifying a few of the questions, so we are republishing with the new assessment, one in Spanish and one in English.] Over the last dozen years or so, many pediatricians, astounded by the ramifications of the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on the children they care for, began integrating this science into their practices. The most common approach has been to ask parents...
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ACEs screening in CA — a Q and A with Dr. Dayna Long
Last year, the California Department of Health Care Services rolled out its plans for universal screening for trauma among its pediatric and adult Medicaid population. Beginning January 1, 2020, California physicians were able to receive an incentive payment of $29 for each pediatric patient screened for ACEs using the PEARLs ( Pediatrics Adverse Childhood and Resilience Study) tool. Dr. Dayna Long talked with ACEs Connection staff reporter Laurie Udesky about ACEs science, what led to the...
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Affordable Housing, Healthcare for All Among Atkins Bills Advancing in Legislature (eastcountymagazine.org)
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday passed nine bills authored by Sen. Toni Atkins, including SB 2 – the Building Homes and Jobs Act – which would create a permanent source of funding for affordable housing. Also advancing out of the Appropriations Committee were SB 179 – the Gender Recognition Act – which would make it easier for transgender, nonbinary and intersex Californians to obtain state-issued identity documents that reflect who they truly are, and SB 562 – the Healthy...
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Amador County builds community college pipeline for mental health workers (calmatters.org)
Amador, along with a handful of other counties, is leveraging state funding to grow the ranks of peer mental health providers. The scholarship program relies on workforce development funds from California’s Mental Health Services Act, which established a millionaire’s tax for mental health prevention and intervention in 2004. Monterey and San Bernardino counties also use the funds to train community members with real-life experience, with the goal of hiring them in county-run mental health...
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California Could Create a Career Path for People With Mental Illness [kqed.org]
By April Dembosky, KQED, September 14, 2019 On her 21st birthday, Keris Myrick was in the cereal aisle of the grocery store. She was throwing boxes of Cheerios on the ground, yelling back at the voices in her head. Food is poison, they told her. If you eat you will die. “So I actually stopped eating for about four months,” Myrick said. “I just told my mother it was stomach pains.” It took years before Myrick admitted the problem was not in her stomach, but in her head. She was eventually...
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Vinnie Pompei wants you to know that we're all biased, and we can work with that [edsource.org]
Vincent “Vinnie” Pompei is director of the Youth Well-Being Project of the Human Rights Campaign, a national civil rights organization, and the chair of Time to Thrive, an annual national conference about LGBT student inclusion. He spent more than 10 years as a middle school teacher and high school counselor in the Paramount and Val Verde unified school districts in Southern California. Pompei is also a past president of the California Association of School Counselors. On Oct. 5 at the...
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We're All in This Together - COVID-19 Statement and Resources [childrennow.org]
From Children Now, The Children's Movement of California, March 18, 2020 Children Now is deeply concerned about the severe impact of the novel coronavirus on California’s children and families, especially children of color, families in poverty, families that are undocumented, and kids experiencing or who have experienced trauma. During this time, we are continuing to keep children and their families at the center of our work. We are diligently monitoring a range of national, state and local...
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WEBINAR: Fostering Equity: Creating Shared Understanding for Building Community Resilience
Struggling with how to Foster Equity Conversations in Community? Join the national partners of the Building Community Resilience Networks as we share our lessons learned in fostering equity as a strategy to prevent childhood adversity and build community resilience. Wednesday, February 26th 12pm-1:15pm Eastern More info at go.gwu.edu/EquityWebinar As a nation we have agonized over how to approach conversations on race, racism, inequity and racial justice. Too often we have opted to attempt...
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Webinar — Moving to universal ACEs screening: Findings from a CA advisory group on screening children for trauma
On April 23rd, 2019 from 12:00pm-1:30pm PST the National Pediatric Practice Community on ACEs (NPPC) , an initiative of the Center for Youth Wellness, will be hosting a webinar to support efforts to screen all children for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and additional adversities. This webinar will summarize the findings of a state advisory group assigned to review tools and protocols for screening children for trauma, and provide an introduction to two tools the advisory group...
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Webinar Slides and Recording: Transformational Resilience for Climate Change Traumas and Toxic Stresses with Bob Doppelt
Recorded live October 28, 2019. Find the slides attached below. The webinar recording: You will learn: how climate change creates personal, family, and community traumas and toxic stresses; how those traumatic stressors trigger feedbacks that expand and aggravate ACEs and many other person, social, community, and societal maladies; why current approaches are woefully inadequate to address what is already occurring and rapidly steaming toward us and why prevention is the only realistic...
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Whole People Series & Study Guide (www.pbs.org)
There's a fantastic five-part series, Whole People , done by PBS, " spotlighting the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) through personal and community stories. It explores the long-term costs to personal well-being and our society. While much work needs to be done, there are many innovative developments to prevent and treat ACES. We all play a role in becoming a whole people." It's amazing. The five topics covered are as follows: Childhood Trauma Healing Communities A New...
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Youth court banishes blame; leads with ACEs science
YMCA Marin County Youth Court in San Rafael, California In her opening statement, 17-year-old youth advocate Eva advises jurors how to proceed and summarizes her “client’s” good qualities. “As you will see, Julian is genuine, well-spoken and friendly. I recommend asking him about his friends and family, his future plans and his activities outside of school.” (First names only of all minors are used to protect their privacy.) Welcome to the YMCA Marin County (CA) Youth Court, one of 1,400...
Ask the Community
Anyone using MHSA or other funds in innovative ways to address ACEs or trauma?
Question: Please share examples of innovative uses of existing funding to address ACEs and trauma. For example, Mental Health Services Act has a funding category called "Innovative Projects" which might be a way to fund ACEs and trauma related efforts. Are you aware of any CA communities that have found ways to utilize MHSA or other funds in unexpected ways - that have the potential of addressing trauma and ACEs? See below and attached for more background re MHSA. Background: The CA...
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Should Los Angeles County Predict Which Children Will Become Criminals? [PSMag.com]
One of the primary goals of Los Angeles County’s child welfare system is keeping kids out of lock-up. But in this pursuit, the county took a surprising step: It used a predictive analytics tool as part of a program to identify which specific kids might end up behind bars. The process wasn’t incredibly complicated: It involved administering and assessing a questionnaire about a child’s family, arrests, drug use, academic success, and abuse history. But the goal was...
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Sick River: Can These California Tribes Beat Heroin and History? [nytimes.com]
WEITCHPEC, Calif. — For thousands of years, the Klamath River has been a source of nourishment for the Northern California tribes that live on its banks. Its fish fed dozens of Indian villages along its winding path, and its waters cleansed their spirits, as promised in their creation stories. But now a crisis of opioid addiction is gripping this remote region. At the same time, the Klamath’s once-abundant salmon runs have declined to historic lows, the culmination of 100 years of...
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State Dropping Ball in Dealing With Childhood Trauma, New Report Says [CaliforniaHealthline.org]
The lowest of 31 grades issued in the 2016 California Children's Report Card released on Wednesday was for dealing with the effects of childhood trauma. In Children Now's biennial assessment of the status of California kids, researchers gave the state a "D-" for how it deals with childhood trauma. The report contends that children who experience traumatic problems such as abuse, neglect and witnessing violence at home can suffer serious long-term consequences, including health...
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STATE HEALTH CARE STRATEGIES TO ADDRESS CHILDREN’S TRAUMA, EXPOSURE TO VIOLENCE AND ACEs
I found this document by Futures Without Violence to be a useful resource. From the forward: The health care system plays an important role both in identifying children who may be exposed to extreme adversity and violence, currently and in the past, and in providing the evidence-based interventions that can help children heal from trauma and prevent health conditions and other poor outcomes associated with trauma and ACEs. The health care system is also central in supporting the greatest...
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September 18, 2019 Sierra Region Learning Community: Highlights and Resources
The first Sierra Learning Community for the 2019-20 fiscal year focused upon Best Practices in Trauma Informed Care: Building Youth Resiliency. The power point and other materials distributed to attendees is available in the Resources Section. View the recording by clicking here: September 18, 2019 Sierra Learning Community ANNOUNCEMENTS Make sure to visit the Strategies2.0 YouTube Channel to access recordings of all the Strategies2.0 sponsored webinars and Learning Communities. The channel...
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The Economics of Child Abuse: A Study of California
While the impact of maltreatment on a child and their family is devastating, child maltreatment also has serious effects far beyond those for the victim. Maltreatment results in ongoing costs to taxpayers, institutions, businesses, and society at large. Local communities bear the brunt of these costs in the form of medical, educational, and judicial costs, though more tragic signs are seen in homelessness, addiction, and teen pregnancy. To create a concrete understanding of the widespread...
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The Racial Wealth Gap: What California Can Do About a Long-Standing Obstacle to Shared Prosperity [calbudgetcenter.org]
In the years since the 2007 Great Recession, economic commentary has veered between hailing the subsequent recovery and sounding the alarm about rising inequality. Income inequality is often identified as a sign of both the country’s underlying economic troubles and public policies that disproportionately benefit the wealthy. An alternative indicator of the nation’s social and economic health pertains to wealth, specifically the growing wealth gap among people of different races and...
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Trauma Screenings Advisory Group (AB 340) Hosts First Meeting
On Friday, April 20, 2018, the AB 340 Workgroup, otherwise known as the Trauma Screenings Advisory Group, met for the first time to discuss the legislative charge to update, amend, or develop, if appropriate, tools and protocols for screening children for trauma as defined, within the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) benefit in Medi-Cal. Both Children Now and Center for Youth Wellness were appointed members of the Trauma Screenings Advisory Workgroup, and we...
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Trauma Transformed launches regional effort in San Francisco Bay Area
Nearly 300 impassioned and committed people crowded into the Green Room at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center last week to launch Trauma Transformed. Known as T2, the regional effort representing the San Francisco...
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Undocumented students react with fear and anger to election results [EdSource.org]
Marcos Mohammad, a senior at Berkeley High School, had a question the morning after Donald J. Trump was elected president of the United States: “How will he find me?” asked Mohammad, an undocumented immigrant from Peru. He walked along a wooded path on the UC Berkeley campus with six of his high school friends, all of them undocumented immigrants, all members of the small Newcomers Program for immigrants at Berkeley High and all of them anxious. They carried signs — “Love still trumps hate”...
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Dozens of stakeholders representing thousands of practitioners send public comments on Calif. ACEs-screening plan
Update: We posted this story on Tuesday evening and received a response from the Department of Health Care Services Wednesday that clarifies additional information. DHCS information Officer Katharine Weir said that subject to budget approval by the legislature and the governor: The reimbursement rate will be $29. Federally Qualified Health Centers will also be reimbursed for screening pediatric patients for trauma through Prop 56 funds and federal matching funds. In response to a question...
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Dr. Ken Epstein Speaks About Trauma-Informed Work
In recognition of Child Abuse Prevention Month, the California Departments of Public Health, Health Care Services and Social Services, and multiple community partners welcomed Dr. Kenneth Epstein to speak about his work highlighting trauma and resilience-informed practices. The event was also co-sponsored by ACEs Connection Network, Kaiser Permanente, and UC Davis Medical Center. Dr. Epstein leads the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s (SFDPH) Trauma-Informed Systems Initiative,...
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DULCE helps pediatricians in Oakland, CA, prevent toxic stress in newborns
On a recent day in early March, Laura Lopez met a former patient of hers in the waiting room of Highland Hospital’s pediatric clinic in Oakland, CA. The patient had forgotten her Medi-Cal card and called Lopez asking for help. But in the brief conversation, Lopez, a family specialist with the DULCE program, learned about some dire changes in the patient’s life. Laura Lopez “Without me even asking, she shared with me that she had separated from her partner, that she needs to apply for food...
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Early Discount 20th Annual Families & Fathers Conference
Call to action- Fathers and Families Coalition of America is nearing the 20th Annual Families and Fathers Conference, March 4-7, 2019 in Los Angeles, California with a comprehensive program that hosts presenters from the United Kingdom, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Bolivia and throughout the United States. We are providing the conference information for your consideration to participate. We are asking you to share this conference information with your community...
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Emotional Well-Being and Coping During COVID-19 [psychiatry.ucsf.edu]
From Weill Institute for Neurosciences, UCSF, May 2020 These are unprecedented times. We need to work extra hard to manage our emotions well. Expect to have a lot of mixed feelings. Naturally we feel anxiety, and maybe waves of panic, particularly when seeing new headlines. A recent article by stress scientist and Vice Chair of Adult Psychology Elissa Epel, PhD, outlines the psychology behind the COVID-19 panic response and how we can try to make the best of this situation. Our anxiety is...
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Expand Fresno’s veterans’ courts to all of California (fresnobee.com)
(Image by John Walker: Arthur Casares, a homeless Desert Storm Army veteran admires his new pair of jeans during the Central Valley Veterans Stand Down in 2009 at VFW Post 8900 in Fresno.) .) Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article91362442.html#storylink=cpy “War is hell.” Most Americans who have never experienced the trauma of combat understandably cannot appreciate the full context or gravity of this statement. But to those with family, neighbors or friends...
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From One Survivor to Another, Helping Survivors of Human Trafficking Escape and Stay Safe [sandiegotribune.com]
By Lisa Deaderick, The San Diego Tribune, December 22, 2019 Marjorie Saylor remembers a woman who was looking for help leaving her trafficker. The woman was pregnant and waiting for a bed at a shelter to open up, but she had to wait on the street, alone and in the cold. Her trafficker found her and took her with him. “I never heard from her again. She only had a week left to go before her bed opened up, but the two weeks she toughed it out waiting on the street kept her in harm’s reach,”...
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Looking for online training and consulting?
Looking for tools to help your organization or community integrate a trauma-informed and resilience-building approach? At Origins, we offer training courses to support you from your aha moment to your action plan. It all starts with The Basics, a 90-minute online training that will provide you with an overview of the key concepts behind a trauma-informed approach. When you’re ready to move from aha to action, sign up for The Resilience Champion Certificate, a self-paced 6-week online training...
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March 14th Hearing at State Capital (Extended Cal Grant funding for foster youth) Educational opportunity on SB 940 - Bring foster youth.
Senator Jim Beall's office that on Wednesday, March 14, 2018 at 9am, a bill will be presented at the Capitol. The SB 940, (Extended Cal Grant funding for foster youth) will be addressed. Senator Beall's office would like to see as many foster youth present, as well as, supporters of foster youth to learn more. SB 940 will improve post-secondary achievement among foster youth by increasing access to California’s largest and most important financial aid program, the Cal Grant. This bill has...
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Medi-Cal Expansion and Children's Well-Being [ppic.org]
By Paulette Cha, Shannon McConville, Public Policy Institute of California, November 2019 Under the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA), California expanded eligibility for Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, to most non-elderly, non-disabled low-income adults. Although this change focused directly on improving the health and well-being of adults, it is likely that Medi-Cal expansion has had a dramatic effect on households with children. In recent years, as the federal government has...
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Mind Powers: Meditation Matters for Special Education Students [ChronicleofSocialChange.org]
While meditation has expanded in recent years from a zen-seeker’s path to higher consciousness to a best practice for hard-charging CEOs, it’s now gaining a foothold at a school in Southern California serving students with serious emotional and behavioral issues. Administrators at the Five Acres School in Altadena, Calif., are testing whether meditation and mindfulness can help students succeed in the classroom. A new mindfulness program implemented there in two semesters...
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Need 45 Trauma-Informed Practitioners or Clinicians For Study on Using a Brain Regulation Headband-Bellabee Designed To Help Trauma Survivors Regulate Their Brains.
Need 45 Trauma-Informed Practitioners or Clinicians For Study on Using a Brain Regulation Headband-Bellabee Designed To Help Trauma Survivors Regulate Their Brains. All trauma informed practitioners who are suffering with or who work with adults or children suffering with C-PTSD, PTSD, Developmental Trauma, Depression, Anxiety, ADHD & Sleep Disorders are welcome to apply to be considered for this study. The deadline to request and submit your application is: March 20, 2020 As a trauma...
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Need 45 Trauma-Informed Practitioners or Clinicians For Study on Using a Brain Regulation Headband-Bellabee Designed To Help Trauma Survivors Regulate Their Brains.
Need 45 Trauma-Informed Practitioners or Clinicians For Study on Using a Brain Regulation Headband-Bellabee Designed To Help Trauma Survivors Regulate Their Brains. All trauma informed practitioners who are suffering with or who work with adults or children suffering with C-PTSD, PTSD, Developmental Trauma, Depression, Anxiety, ADHD & Sleep Disorders are welcome to apply to be considered for this study. We currently have 41 applicants, and applicantions are approved on a first come first...
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Nevada County Team Leadership participating in Stepping Up initiative (theunion.com)
Nevada County is participating in a National initiative called Stepping Up, aimed at addressing the issue of mental illness in jail. Stepping Up is a National initiative to reduce the number of people with mental illnesses in jail, according to its website. Each year, there are an estimated 2 million people with serious mental illnesses admitted to jails across the nation. That’s equivalent to the populations of Vermont and New Hampshire combined. Almost three-fourths of these adults also...
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NEW: 2018-19 California County Scorecard of Children's Well-Being
Children Now is pleased to announce that we've just released our new 2018-19 California County Scorecard of Children's Well-Being! The latest edition is an interactive tool that provides a comprehensive snapshot of how children are faring in each of the 58 counties, over time, and by race and ethnicity. The tool's indicators cut across four domains of education, early childhood, child welfare and health. This updated edition of the Scorecard features significant enhancements including heat...
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New Study Shows Communities Can Reduce the Effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences [Mathematic Policy Research]
[ Ed. note: Following is a media release published yesterday by Mathematica Policy Research. This follows on the heals of the report, "Self-Healing Communities" that Laura Porter, Dr. Robert Anda and WHO wrote for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Both reports and executive summaries are attached to this blog post. Both reports are significant, because they show that community ACEs initiatives -- with "modest investments and limited staff" -- are solving some of our most intractable...
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Newsom Appoints Pediatrician and Public Health Expert to Lead CHHS [nbclosangeles.com]
Gov. Gavin Newsom Wednesday appointed Mark Ghaly, a practicing pediatrician and director of health and social impact at the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, to head the California Health and Human Services Agency. As HHSA secretary, Ghaly, 44, of South Pasadena, will help lead the administration's efforts to advance the governor's health care agenda, including proposals to lower prescription drug costs, provide coverage to young undocumented adults through Medi-Cal, and help...