Tagged With "Building a Roadmap Towards Resilience"
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2018 CALIFORNIA CHILDREN’ S REPORT CARD - Children Now
A review of kids’ well-being & roadmap for the future. The 2018 California Children’s Report Card grades the state on its ability to support better outcomes for kids, from birth to age 26, through early childhood to higher education systems. This year's grades range from an A on Health Insurance to a D in several areas including Academic Outcomes, Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention, and Youth Justice. Overall, the state’s grades show a disappointing lack of investment and progress in...
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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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5 myths making it hard for veterans to land the right job -- and what you can do [
What if you spent years in a job gaining valuable experience and honing useful skills, yet every interview or job lead is a dead end? That's the unfortunate reality for many of today's veterans in Orange County. According to a report by the University of Southern California School of Social Work, more than 60 percent of Orange County veterans believe employers don't understand or value their skills, almost 30 percent of post-9/11 vets are unemployed, and three-quarters earn below the...
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A Black Immigrant Woman Is Now the Most Powerful Health Official in California [vice.com]
By Richard Morgan, Vice, July 18, 2019. It was an early summer morning at the San Ysidro Health Center, situated on the Mexican border. A flu outbreak gripped a nearby ICE detention center, where a larger humanitarian crisis continued to unfold, threatening the future of hundreds of children. In a small conference room, brimming with 20 or so of the San Diego area’s most diverse academic and activist minds, Nadine Burke Harris sat at the head of the table. The 43-year-old pediatrician from...
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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 Health Problem and An Opportunity: Screening for Adverse Childhood Experiences [medium.com]
By Dayna Long, Medium, May 19, 2020 A consensus of scientific research demonstrates that cumulative adversity, especially when experienced during critical and sensitive periods of development, is a significant contributing factor to some of the most harmful, persistent, and expensive health challenges facing our nation. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are highly prevalent, experienced in all communities, and are likely to increase during the COVID-19 emergency [i] [ii] [iii] [iv] [v].
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A MUST WATCH: Addicts Among Us - a hopeful documentary about ACEs and addiction in Humboldt County, California (YouTube Video)
I want to share this important documentary from Humboldt County with you and encourage you to make the time to watch it and share it with others in your organizations and spheres of influence. It is 52 minutes long, but well worth your time. The associate producer of the video, James Faulk - one of the central interviewees of the film - attended First 5 Humboldt's Town Hall on Adverse Childhood Experiences where the connection between early childhood adversity, mental health struggles,...
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A Pathway to Prevention: Understanding root causes to help break the cycle of domestic violence [Blue Shield of California Foundation]
From Foundation Program Manager Jelissa Parham: Recently, I was in Oakland’s Chinatown neighborhood when I heard a couple fighting across the street from me. As I looked on, the man lunged toward the woman and began to choke her while her young toddler watched the entire scene, clutching a small toy. Instinctively, before I had time to process the possible consequences, I called out: “No! Stop! Don’t touch her!” The man released his hold, and I briefly thought the incident was over. But I...
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A Smarter System: Addressing Social Determinants of Health as a Cost-Saving Measure
by Edward Schor, MD, Senior Vice President at the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health The importance of social factors in determining individuals’ health status and their use of health care services has been receiving increasing attention. A recent report from the Bipartisan Policy Center suggests that opportunities to control health care costs reside primarily in addressing patients’ social and behavioral care needs. The report lays out the arguments for integrating social and...
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A Special Opportunity to Invest in Our Communities with Proposition 64 Expenditures
California’s Proposition 64 (2016 marijuana legalization) presents a special opportunity to invest in community-based substance use education, prevention, and more for children, youth, families, and the communities they live in. There is a critical need to focus these efforts on effective strategies that address the underlying causes and conditions of substance use, including adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), adverse community environments, toxic stress , trauma and lack of proactive...
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Attorney general: compliance with tribal child custody law a ‘priority’ [Eureka Times- Standard]
A coalition of California tribal governments, including two from the North Coast, say the state has taken a ‘monumental’ step toward addressing systematic failures to protect tribal civil rights in child custody cases. The tribes’ comments Friday came after members of a tribal government task force presented California Attorney General Xavier Becerra with a report two years in the making detailing longstanding compliance issues with the U.S. Indian Child Welfare Act. The report drafted by...
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Briefing in Support of ACEs Legislation - WATCH LIVE (Today!)
MARC Advisor Wendy Ellis is moderating a Congressional Briefing today on the need to address childhood trauma. Co-hosts: Building Community Resilience, Rep. Danny Davis (IL-7), and the Congressional Foster Care Youth Caucus. Where and When: Wednesday, July 26, 10:30-11:30am (Eastern) HVC 200, Congressional Visitor's Center Watch a livestream of the briefing here . Read Wendy's original post on main ACEs Connection site here: ...
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Building Community Resilience, Volume II
Building Community Resilience, Volume II: State of Readiness: System and Provider Abilities to Respond This second volume in the Strategies 2.0 toolkit series describes the organizational capacity needed for a shared approach to building community resilience within an organization or network. The tools in this volume will assist organizations to: Build a logic model to focus the work Assess their level of readiness to implement BCR efforts Identify the steps needed to increase readiness for...
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CA ACEs Aware Initiative webinar provides roadmap for ACEs screening
What is the economic toll of ACEs in the State of California? $112.5 billion , said California Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris to attendees of a webinar on February 26. That cost, she said, was one clear reason that she and other early adopters of screening for Adverse Childhood Experiences are urging their fellow health care providers in California to join the ACEs Aware Initiative that launched at the beginning of the year. In January, the State of California put screening...
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CA Could Reduce Its Prison Population By 30,000, Says Report (witnessla.com)
A new report outlines strategies the state of California could employ that would reduce its prison and jail populations by 30,000 and save approximately $1.5 billion in prison spending. In 2016, there were over 200,000 people were locked in California’s prisons and jails. According to the report, lowering the incarcerated population by 30,000—by reducing the length of prison time for the majority of inmates by 20 percent—would make it possible for the state to close five prisons. The report,...
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ACEs champion pediatricians talk about life and practice in a COVID-19 world
With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare providers everywhere are changing how they care for their patients. I asked a few members of the ACEs in Pediatrics community what they’re doing differently. Dr. R.J Gillespie, pediatrician at The Children’s Clinic in Portland, OR. Dr. R.J. Gillespie Gillespie says that, as much as possible, they’re switching to virtual visits, which allows them “to comfort and reassure our patients face-to-face as much as possible without risking their...
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"ACEs Resilience and Recovery" presented at Marin Communications Forum
First 5 Marin Children and Families Commission featured Jane Stevens in a Marin Communications Forum event on Monday, May 15. Thanks to the hard work of host Michelle Fadelli of First 5 Marin, a full Embassy Suites ballroom of up to 180 Marin County service providers, from a variety of agencies, gathered.
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Adversity and resiliency: The case for integrating ACEs and Strengthening Families approaches
Attached is the PowerPoint that was presented by Diane Kellegrew, Jane Stevens and Katie Albright in a webinar April 16. And below is the slide that ID's the presenters.
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AG Kamala D. Harris Seeks to Better Serve Foster Youth (sdvoice.info)
Attorney General Kamala D. Harris Issues New Guidelines to Encourage Secure Sharing of Information Between Schools and Child Welfare Agencies to Better Serve Foster Youth Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced that the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Children’s Justice (BCJ), the California Department of Education (CDE), and the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) have jointly developed statewide guidelines for school districts, county offices of...
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Aiming to Help Homeless, UCLA Residents Practice ‘Street Psychiatry’ (californiahealthreport.org)
New programs begun in the last two years at UCLA include a resident-faculty group focused on community psychiatry, as well as health-system and community mentorships. There are also new clinical electives for psychiatry residents at the Los Angeles County Jail and the county’s Office of Diversion and Reentry . The Diversion office was created by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors in 2015 to develop and implement alternatives to the criminal justice system for people with mental illness and...
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An Alternative to Suspension with Trauma-Informed Dynamic Mindfulness: Building Stress Resilience, Emotion Regulation and Empathy
At the November 2019 Northern California Safe and Healthy Schools Conference at UC Berkeley, Niroga Program Managers Sam Weiss and Fatima Ahmed facilitated a session incorporating the theory and practice of Dynamic Mindfulness (DMind) to a standing room only crowd.
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Are ‘zero tolerance’ policies for misbehavior at Sacramento-area schools a thing of the past? (sacbee.com)
Local public schools suspended and expelled far fewer students last year as they continued to shift away from punishment and toward prevention and positive reinforcement, according to the latest figures from the California Department of Education. Sacramento County school districts issued about 27,000 suspensions during the 2016-17 school year, down by 18,000, or 40 percent, from the 2011-12 school year. Districts expelled 160 students, down by 108, or 40 percent, from 2011-12. Despite the...
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As Newsom rethinks juvenile justice, California reconsiders prison for kids (calmatters.org)
Though it’s not on the parchment, Moreno, 21, earned his Johanna Boss High School diploma over the past two years at a state prison for juveniles in Stockton. And as one of fewer than 800 remaining youths in the custody of the soon-to-be-shuttered juvenile division of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, he said, that accomplishment—behind razor wire—was more than just a step toward a future job or a rite of passage. “Being the first one [in the family] to graduate,”...
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California Coastkeeper Alliance Releases Climate Change Plan For Coastal Areas [kpbs.org]
By City News Service, KPBS, November 13, 2019 The California Coastkeeper Alliance released its Ocean Climate Resiliency Action Plan Wednesday, a roadmap to mitigate the effects of climate change and sea level rise on coastal areas like northern San Diego County. The plan includes objectives such as recycling 100% of wastewater along the coast by 2040, requiring the use of nitrate removal technology at wastewater treatment plants, establishing a state program for wetlands restoration and...
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California Department of Public Health has MCAH program that prevents ACEs!
In Federal-State partnership HRSA Maternal & Child Health the California Department of Public Health, MCAH have a home visiting program designed for families at risk for ACEs! The California Home Visiting Program (CHVP) is designed f or families who are at risk for adverse childhood experiences , including child maltreatment, domestic violence, substance abuse and mental illness. Home visiting is a preventive intervention that aims to promote maternal health, improve child development,...
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California Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative’s “Enhancing the Collective Vision” Slides Are Available and Opportunity to Participate in an Orientation Webinar
The California Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative convened more than 65 stakeholders on Friday, July 12, 2019 to assess the current state of collective action around adverse childhood experiences (ACEs); align EfC Initiative goals and project interventions with existing efforts; identify mutually reinforcing activities; and establish a collective agreement on how to strategically promote Safe, Stable, Nurturing Relationships, and Environments (SSNR&E), to prevent and reduce child...
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California issues update on state residents' ACE scores from 2011 & 2013 surveys
The latest adverse childhood experiences survey from the California Department of Public Health shows that 42% of the population has an ACE score of 3 or higher; 16% have an ACE score of 4 or higher. Those with an ACE score of 4 or higher are: 3x more likely to be current smokers 4x more likely to have a depressive disorder 2x more likely to have asthma 2x more likely to be obese 4x more likely to have COPD 3x more likely to have a stroke Here are a few other highlights from the six-page...
Calendar Event
Toward a Trauma-Informed Northern California, April 18th
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Updated Community Health Assessment now available [Humboldtgov.org]
The Community Health Assessment (CHA), a comprehensive overview of the health of the Humboldt County community, was presented at the Board of Supervisors meeting this afternoon. The Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) Public Health report looks at traditional public health measures of illness, mortality, nutrition and physical activity in the community. The CHA also includes data about income, housing status, community safety and access to care, as underlying...
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Webinar: Building Transformational Resilience for Climate Change Traumas and Toxic Stresses
Live Webinar: Building Transformational Resilience for Climate Change Traumas and Toxic Stresses Monday, October 28 th , 2019 12:00-1:30 PM PDT 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...
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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: New data on state early care and education quality initiatives on 2/26
Wednesday, February 26 @ 12:00 - 1:00PM Join the BUILD Initiative and Child Trends to learn about updates to the Quality Compendium ( https://qualitycompendium.org/ ), including new data, features of the website, and how researchers are using the data. The Quality Compendium ( qualitycompendium.org ) is a catalog and comparison of quality initiatives including Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) to promote thoughtful design, analysis and ongoing improvement in early care and...
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Webinar readies doctors for universal ACEs screening in Ca and beyond
Editor’s note: Governor Gavin Newsom set aside federal funds and funds through Proposition 56 that will reimburse health care providers for screening patients in the Medi-Cal program for trauma beginning July 1 using the CPT code 96160. Notably the Department of Health Care Services recommended in March that only California providers using the PEARLS tool to screen pediatric patients will be reimbursed. ACEs Connection has made repeated public records requests for public comments submitted...
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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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Webinar: Trauma-Sensitive Schools
Join the Center for Partnership Studies on Thursday, March 19, 2020 from 4 pm – 5:30 pm Pacific Time/ 7 pm – 8:30 pm Eastern Time for the Trauma-Sensitive Schools: Shifting to Partnership in Education and Society webinar — a timely online dialogue with Dr. Mary Crnobori, BCBA, Khayree Bey, BBSc, M.Ed. and Dr. Riane Eisler. Hear about what it takes to implement effective, compassionate, trauma-sensitive practices at all levels in public school systems, from whole-district initiatives to...
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Why Understanding A Student's Preschool Life May Be Key To Raising LAUSD Graduation Rates [laist.com]
By Mariana Dale, LAist, December 12, 2019 Almost 31,000 children attend some kind of early childhood program in the Los Angeles Unified School District, but that system isn't well connected to the district's elementary and high schools. That means it's hard for teachers to understand a student's background and where they need help when they enter K-12 schools. Now the district has a strategic plan to change that. LAUSD's Birth to Eight Roadmap recommends new teaching methods, data collection...
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Wisconsin state agencies end year one of trauma-informed learning community; goal is to be first trauma-informed state
Here in California, many people think that it’s only liberal Democrats who have a corner on championing the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and putting it into practice. That might be because people who use ACEs science don’t expel or suspend students, even if they’re throwing chairs and hurling expletives at the teacher. They ask "What happened to you?" rather than "What's wrong with you?" as a frame when they create juvenile detention centers where kids don’t fight, reduce...
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Youth Advocates Eye 2020 for Revolution on Children’s Mental Health in California [Chronicle for Social Change]
There are about 6 million children enrolled in California’s Medicaid program. And although every single one of them is eligible for mental health screening and services, only four of every 100 received even one mental health visit last year. A coalition of youth advocates, health experts and philanthropists are pushing an ambitious goal: To completely revolutionize the largest children’s mental health system in America. The aim is to use a confluence of changes and opportunities around the...
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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SF Plans to Close Juvenile Hall, but a New Proposal Would Put More Youths There [sfchronicle.com]
By Jill Tucker and Joaquin Palomino, San Francisco Chronicle, September 16, 2019 Even as San Francisco moves toward the unprecedented closure of its juvenile hall to end the jailing of young people, a new proposal by probation officials could significantly increase the number of youths held there. The idea to create a “detention-based therapeutic program” shocked many city officials, who criticized the plan as an unvetted move by juvenile probation officials to fill empty cells and save the...
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(Siskiyou) County mental health stats presented to board of supervisors [SiskiyouDaily.com]
The Siskiyou County Behavioral Health Services Task Group presented important information at Tuesday’s board of supervisors meeting regarding mental health and substance abuse services needed by and available to Siskiyou residents. The presentation was an overview of the “Siskiyou County Behavioral Health Needs and Community Capacity Assessment” which was recently completed by the task group and Siskiyou Healthcare Collaborative. The assessment was largely funded by a Blue Shield of...
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Solano County launches its ACEs and resilience initiative inviting all to take action
Elizabeth Huntley recalls the day when her family’s life was turned upside down. “One day my mom woke up and she packed up all of our clothes, all five of us…and she took me and my younger sister who had the same father… down to my paternal grandmother’s house…and she left us there. She took my middle sister to a town near Birmingham, Ala., and left her there. She took my only brother and an older sister back to Huntsville and left them at a sister’s house. Then she went back to that housing...
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Solano County's (CA) ACEs initiative, a robust community effort, makes room for input from all
In a house called “Johanna’s House” on a tree-lined side street in Vallejo, Calif., four women are filling out the adverse childhood experiences (ACE) survey given to them by Maria Guevara, the founder of Vallejo Together, an organization that serves homeless residents in Vallejo. The house was named for Johanna Dilag, a homeless woman who was found dead along with her dog.
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Spirituality in Post-Traumatic Growth
One of the five domains of post-traumatic growth is spirituality. Helping us understand the role of spirituality in recovering from trauma at the Echo Frontiers of Resilience conference is Shaun Tomson . If you think the name and face look familiar then perhaps you know him from his days as a world champion surfer. Shaun needed every single one of the lessons he had learned about facing challenges in the form of towering waves and overcoming wipe-outs when he lost his 15-year-old son to a...
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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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Statewide meeting of public health officials focused on ACEs!!!
The Road to Resilience: A Public Health Approach to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) I was privileged and excited to present Neurobiology of Trauma and Resilience to this powerful and attentive group of over 200 state health workers on May 10. We talked about childhood brain development, effects of ACEs, genetics and epigenetics, and neurology of stress, trauma and resilience. From this conference I anticipate statewide action, hopefully impacting thousands if not millions of California...
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CA communities fund "rapid rehousing" and decriminalize homelessness
By implementing a “rapid rehousing” policy, hundreds of communities around the U.S. are moving from blaming, shaming and punishing the homeless, to understanding, nurturing and providing homeless people a safe place to recover and heal. In California, Orange County is changing its policy from putting people in temporary shelters to providing them permanent subsidized housing. So is Los Angeles — where 25,000 people are homeless. Instead of trying to force people who are...