Tagged With "Power of You"
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
ACEs Connection Information
This post has links to a quick welcome tour through ACEsConnection, a link to a How-To Directory where you can find easy steps to post a blog and many other cools things, a link to FAQs about ACEs Science 101, and an overview of the ACEs Connection Network, which includes ACEsConnection.com and our sister news site for the general public, ACEsTooHigh.com.
Blog Post
ACEs Connection “Map the Movement” now includes an up-to-date section on laws and resolutions
Photo credit: Texasarchitects.org An updated map of laws and resolutions addressing ACEs science and trauma-informed policies is now available in the “Laws and Resolutions” section of Map the Movement (you can also find "Map the Movement" on the navigation bar on the ACEs Connection home page). The earliest law on the map was passed in the state of Washington in 2011, creating an ACEs science public-private partnership. The data base of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) is...
Blog Post
ACEs Connection Network Confab -- Northern California, May 12, 2016
About 50 people drove in from north, east, west and south of Sacramento County, CA, for our first (but not our last) confab for members of ACEsConnection.com groups in Northern California. This was one of two confabs we hosted -- the other was May 10 in Southern California. Both confabs were organized with generous support from The California Endowment. (l to r) Ben Rubin, Charlotte Ormond, Carolyn Curtis, Imani Lucas, DeAngelo Mack, Carlina Ramirez Wheeler We were very fortunate to have the...
Blog Post
ACEs Connection Network Confab -- Southern California, May 10, 2016
(l to r) Sienna, one of the teens from Youth Voice from City Heights; Dana Brown, ACEs Connection Network regional facilitator and co-founder of Youth Voice; Francisco Mendoza, CEO, Mendoza Consulting; Jessica, Youth Voice; Lizette, Youth Voice; Talitha Thompson, Youth Voice co-facilitator; Joshua Aguirre, RISE Up Industries board of directors; Stephanie Linderman, Youth Voice mentor; Arturo Soriano, Youth Empowerment co-founder; (in front) Adrian, Youth Voice.
Blog Post
ACEs Connection's COVID-19 resources for parents, educators & people practicing resilience (all of us)
We are in uncertain times. Homelife has changed. School schedules have changed. Our communities are not the same. Work, if we have it, has changed, too. The world is different and we don't know for how long. We don't know what our lives will look like on the other side, either. We are worried about health, housing, security, and our loved ones. We generally have more stress and less support, as we are taking care of our families, ourselves, and each other. It’s a lot, and for those dealing...
Blog Post
ACEs gets a day at the (Sacramento) Capitol!
No matter where you are, be sure to follow the events of the day on twitter: Follow @acestoohigh and #4CAKidsDay17 to get live updates all day.
Blog Post
ACEs in Public Policy
Did you know that California is currently considering 4 pieces of legislation that seek to address trauma and childhood adversity? ACE's Connection members recently (July 2017) participated in a P olicy Maker education Day on Childhood Adversity . Jessica Hackwell, Karen Clemmer, Carla Denner, Nick Dalton, and two youth from Sonoma County partnered with the California Campaign to Counter Childhood Adversity (4CA) to ensure our policymakers understand the terms "adversity," "trauma," and...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
ACEs Within Tribal Communities
Mechuksus, As I write this I am trying to overcome the taboo's within California Tribal Communities that come along with asking the ACE questions. Our traditional societies had very strict factors on what we talked about between male and female relationships as well as outside of the community unit. Unless you work within the wellness realm or you have pursued your own healing many Tribal Communities are unaware of what ACEs are. This is something that my family has pledged to change. My 15...
Blog Post
Action Alert! Campaign for restorative discipline in schools deadline TOMORROW!
The Children’s Movement is helping to promote restorative justice practices in schools by eliminating suspensions or expulsions for “willful defiance” through Senate Bill 607 authored by Senator Nancy Skinner . You can view the letter at this link here , and sign on before the deadline tomorrow, Wednesday 2/21, at 5pm. Five years ago, California schools issued an astounding 709,702 suspensions, nearly half for “defiance/disruption,” a catch-all category used to justify disciplinary action...
Blog Post
Addressing Childhood Trauma, Center for Learning & Resilience [actionnewsnow.com]
By Deb Anderaos and Julia Yarbough, Action News Now, April 15, 2020 Butte County health representatives say they have long realized the need for coordinated mental health services for family and children dealing with trauma. The Camp Fire drove that point home and now the coronavirus crisis. Julia Yarbough recently spoke with the Executive Director of the new Center for Learning and Resilience. It’s a resource to help meet community needs. First of all, thank you for joining us, and tell me...
Blog Post
Advance Practice at the ACEs 2016 Project Showcase
From the organizers of the 2016 ACEs Conference , San Francisco, CA, October 19th -21st, 2016. Please consider submitting your project today! We know building connections and learning across fields is the best way to advance practices that support children. That’s why we’re very excited to invite you to submit your work to the 2016 Conference on Adverse Childhood Experiences Project Showcase . We’re looking to highlight research, programs, tools or other initiatives that: Highlight the role...
Blog Post
Advancing Parenting
Visit www.advancingparenting.org. We are all about taking the long view when it comes to preventing child abuse. What we mean is this. Unsupportive and harmful parenting is a risk factor for child abuse. That is...children who experience unsupportive and harmful parenting are at a greater risk for becoming adults who hurt children and others. In an effort to prevent unsupportive and harmful parenting five, ten, twenty, fifty years down the road we are pioneering a new kind of parenting...
Blog Post
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.
Blog Post
Advocacy tools for influencing policy at the national, state, and local levels
The level of policy activity at all levels relating to ACEs-trauma-resilience has increased significantly over the last few years. The California Campaign to Counter Childhood Adversity (4CA) held its third Policymaker Education Day this year and has created a number of resources (included in this widget) designed to expand legislators’ knowledge of ACEs science and promote approaches to reduce and heal childhood adversity. In addition to California specific information on legislative and...
Blog Post
Advocate for Early Childhood Programs in Your School District
California’s funding model for school districts is known as the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). Under LCFF, school districts have flexibility—and an unprecedented opportunity—to spend district dollars on early childhood education. Researchers, economists, and educators all agree: early childhood programs set kids up for success in school and in life. Now is the time for district leaders to make sure that students in your community are getting off to a strong start. And you can help...
Blog Post
All hands on deck (from a distance): remote care for traumatized moms and babies
Dear colleague, Coronavirus is forcing providers and allied professionals serving mothers and babies to make unprecedented decisions. Should pregnant women needing care go through our hospital quarantine entrance? Should moms deliver without partners, family or doulas present? Be sent home early before key screenings or jaundice treatment are completed? To make matters worse, our systems aren't ready for basic remote care of mothers and infants now "socially distanced". Prenatal, post-partum...
Blog Post
ACEs Science Champions Series: Allen Nishikawa: ACEs Storyteller Helps People Develop Their Resilience
Sonoma County ACEs Connection members Allen Nishikawa and Lena Hoffman at California Policymaker Education Day, 2018 Allen Nishikawa, a sansei, or third-generation Japanese American, majored in political science and American history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he participated in antiwar (Vietnam) marches. But it was his experience as a military brat — moving from school to school across the U.S. and even to Japan as a child — that shaped his own childhood experiences and...
Blog Post
Alternative IHEBA with ACEs for California (and Other) Pediatricians
If you are a pediatrician serving Medicaid managed care patients in California, then you are required to use the Staying Healthy Assessment or an alternative IHEBA (Individual Health Education Behavioral Assessment) at all well-child visits. The bad news is that getting approval to use an alternative IHEBA is a tedious process. The good news is that as of October 27, 2016 the Whole Child Assessment (WCA) is available for use in English and Spanish. Most importantly, the WCA has been...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
An Opportunity the Office of Surgeon General Can't Pass Up
I don't know about you, but I've talked to dozens of people applying for the ACEs Aware RFP, due Feb. 10. Watching myself and my colleagues hustle and brainstorm on how to work together to submit ideas for this opportunity has been very inspiring. Although we have no idea how many grant awards will be made, we know that only a fraction of what must be hundreds of RFP submissions will be funded this year. It would be a tragedy to waste the efforts of those who will have spent many hours on...
Blog Post
An opportunity to shape the Children's Bill of Rights in California
The ACEs/Resilient Sacramento community is ideal for providing insightful feedback about the needs of California's children!
Blog Post
Announcement: Technical Assistance Grant [cdss.ca.gov]
From California Department of Social Services, December 19, 2019 The California Department of Social Services’ (CDSS) Office of Child Abuse Prevention (OCAP) is pleased to announce the availability of funds for a Technical Assistance Program. The Technical Assistance Program will provide technical assistance (TA) to counties and prevention partners participating in collaborative child abuse and neglect prevention initiatives in California for fiscal years (FY) 2020-23. The OCAP is seeking an...
Blog Post
Announcing a New Parenting and ACEs Blog from Stress Health, an Initiative of the Center for Youth Wellness
Research shows that the right kind of support and care can mitigate the impact of toxic stress in children and help them bounce back.
Blog Post
APPLY TODAY: Help improve jail conditions in California! (Board of State and Community Corrections) BSCC
Every couple of years, the Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) revises California's Title 15 and 24 regulations which set standards for the hundreds of local adult detention facilities across all 58 counties. This includes adult jails, temporary holding facilities, and court holding facilities. The standards cover everything from family visits to solitary confinement to nutrition. The revision process has started up again and our coalition is working to make sure a diverse set of...
Blog Post
As California Moves to Screen Children for Childhood Trauma, Poverty Has To Be Part of the Equation
In California, we are coming full circle in recognizing the connection between poverty and health.
Blog Post
Assemblymember Bonta hosts Raising of America's "Wounded Places" screening in Oakland, CA, Dec. 14, 2014
Assemblymember Rob Bonta sent out this email: As Chair of the Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color, I invite you to join Chair Assemblymember Reginald Jones-Sawyer and me for a screening and discussion of the moving documentary "Wounded Places" at the Elihu Harris State Building in Oakland on Monday, December 14th from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. " Wounded Places" describes how structural racism has ravaged communities and exposed children and families to multiple adversities...
Blog Post
Attending the 2018 ACEs Conference? Wondering how to Connect with ACEs Connection at the Conference?
Looking for your regional community facilitator? Seeking to meet and connect with people who are creating a more peaceful and trauma informed world? Have a book, webinar, conference to share? The ACEs Connection team will be at the 2018 ACEs Conference. We're eager to meet you, hear your ideas, support your work, and to learn and share the latest ACEs and Resilience Sciences. We'll be looking for you in San Francisco to help you Meet your Community Facilitator and others from the ACEs...
Blog Post
Cal WORKs Training Academy: Compassion Fatigue
Front-line and case workers for the TANF program (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) are at high risk for compassion fatigue. They hear approximately 30 stories of trauma, abuse and hardship each day. Complaints from workers vary from “How many stories of torture will have to I hear.” “It feels like I am spitting at a forest fire.” “After 12 years in the field, I am now on blood pressure medication.” This year the Cal WORKs Training Academy featured a workshop on compassion fatigue...
Blog Post
CalEITC 101: Expanded State Tax Credit Puts Cash into the Pockets of California’s Transition-Age Youth
John Burton Advocates for Youth (JBAY) invites you to partner with us in 2020 to support youth in care with filing taxes and claiming the expanded CalEITC. This webinar will include the California Franchise Tax Board and discuss strategies to help transition-age youth access the CalEITC. Description: In the 2019-2020 budget, the California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC), a cash-back tax credit that puts money back into the pockets of California’s working families and individuals, was...
Blog Post
California ACR 140: Positive Parenting Awareness Month, Jan 2020
Child advocates across the State of California are working on the passage of Assembly Concurrent Resolution 140 (ACR 140) authored by Assembly Member Mark Stone (D-Monterey Bay). The initiative seeks to designate January 2020 as Positive Parenting Awareness Month across the state and build upon the county-level proclamations that have spread from Santa Cruz County where it was conceived and launched 8 years ago. Positive parenting is a known remedy for the public health problem of child...
Blog Post
California Air Quality: Should You Wear a Face Mask for Wildfire Smoke [nytimes.com]
By Sarah Mervosh, The New York Times, October 28, 2019 With wildfires raging up and down the state of California on Monday, smoke filled the air in many places, ash fell from the sky, and residents were once again left to wonder whether the very air they were breathing was safe. The largest, the Kincade fire in Sonoma County north of San Francisco, nearly doubled in size in 24 hours and was just 5 percent contained on Monday, prompting volunteers downwind in the Bay Area to scramble to hand...
Blog Post
California Bets on Big Data to Predict Child Abuse [The Chronicle of Social Change]
California, home to the largest foster care population in the country, has publicly declared its intention to pursue the use of so-called “predictive analytics” to foresee and presumably prevent child abuse. California Department of Social Services (CDSS) Deputy Director Greg Rose, who oversees the state’s foster care system, says that the state’s new predictive risk modeling project is designed to give social workers better information about past child welfare cases when they first field a...
Blog Post
California Care Force offering free healthcare services!
California Care Force will be at the Cal Expo September 21st to September 23rd. California Care Force provides free healthcare services with no insurance and no co-pays required. Please see the attached flyers and distribute them as you deem appropriate.
Blog Post
California Child Trauma Advocates Eye Policy Impact
Jeremy Loudenback from the Chronicle of Social Change posted a story about last week's California Policy Convening on Childhood Adversity that the Center for Youth Wellness (CYW) hosted in San Diego. Here's the beginning: Last...
Blog Post
California Child Welfare Policy and Progress, Winter Issue [Insight]
The California Child Welfare Co-Investment Partnership Report This issue of in sights provides an overview of the latest legislative developments in California, including data and perspectives on the policy and practice transformation taking place with the Continuum of Care Reform (CCR). Beyond a comprehensive summary of child welfare state legislation, this issue also includes a discussion on the key provisions of the Family First Prevention Services Act. The issue concludes with...
Blog Post
California Community Reinvestment Grants Program [business.ca.gov]
The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) is pleased to announce the release of the California Community Reinvestment Grants (CalCRG) program Draft Grant Solicitation for public review and comment. The Draft Grant Solicitation consists of two sections: 1. The Guidance and Overview section provides an overview of the program, application requirements, application evaluation, and program administration. 2. The Scoring Criteria section provides an outline of the...
Blog Post
California Community Reinvestment Grants Program Workshop
The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GOBiz) recently announced a series of workshops on the new California Community Reinvestment Grants program. The goal of this new program is to provide grants to community based non-profit organizations and local health departments in order to serve communities disproportionately affected by past drug policies. The structure of the program and input and feedback from attendees will be discussed in order to further develop the...
Blog Post
California corrections chief aims to change prison culture [AP for SFGate.com]
California's new corrections chief plans to add training on diversity and leadership for prison employees and to examine what has been effective in other states to change employees' attitudes as he tries to alter a culture that often pits prison guards against inmates and outsiders. "They (guards) have worked under very difficult situations and we have to figure a way to get them engaged in the rehabilitation process and not just be somebody counting heads," Scott Kernan told The Associated...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
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,...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
California has Begun Screening for Early Childhood Trauma, But Critics Urge Caution [sciencemag.org]
By Emily Underwood, Science, January 29, 2020 On 1 January, California became the first U.S. state to screen for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)—early life hardships such as abuse, neglect, and poverty, which can have devastating health consequences in later life. The project is not just a public health initiative, but a vast experiment. State officials aim to cut the health impacts of early life adversity by as much as half within a generation. But critics say the health benefits of...
Blog Post
California healthcare providers adapt ACEs screening from in-person to virtual environment
Dr. Amy Shekarchi, a pediatrician based in Los Angeles, CA, was helping to lead the rollout of ACEs screening among 50 health care providers at six clinics affiliated with the L.A. County Department of Health Services when the COVID-19 pandemic hit—days before she was set to launch the effort. “We had trained everybody in doing face-to-face [ACEs screening], and when COVID-19 happened we thought, let’s not throw the screening out. Everybody was ready,” says Shekarchi, who is the pediatric...
Blog Post
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...
Blog Post
California Jails use Kinder Approach to Solitary Confinement [sfchronicle.com]
By Don Thompson, San Francisco Chronicle, December 27, 2019 An inmate in solitary confinement at a California jail was refusing to leave his cell. The jailers' usual response: Send an “extraction team” of corrections officers to burst into the cell and drag him out. But not in Contra Costa County, one of three in the state using a kinder, gentler approach in response to inmate lawsuits, a policy change that experts say could be a national model for reducing the use of isolation cells. So the...
Blog Post
California Legislation to Increase Supports in Schools
The HEARTS team met folks from Californians for Safety and Justice (CSJ) in April last year when they contacted us about AB2701 , a bill that sought to create a state-wide grant program for providers of school-based trauma services using the HEARTS program approach as a model. Dr. Joyce Dorado and I worked with the team just before it was presented and I was excited to testify at a hearing about the bill. I went to Sacramento the day before to see another hearing taking place, and spent...
Blog Post
California Looks To Lead Nation In Unraveling Childhood Trauma [californiahealthline.org]
Imagine identifying a toxin so potent it could rewire a child’s brain and erode his immune system. A substance that, in high doses, tripled the risk of heart disease and lung cancer and reduced life expectancy by 20 years. And then realizing that tens of millions of American children had been exposed. Dr. @Nadine Burke Harris, California’s newly appointed surgeon general, will tell you this is not a hypothetical scenario. She is a leading voice in a movement trying to transform our...
Blog Post
California Looks To Lead Nation In Unraveling Childhood Trauma [witnessla.com]
Imagine identifying a toxin so potent it could rewire a child’s brain and erode his immune system. A substance that, in high doses, tripled the risk of heart disease and lung cancer and reduced life expectancy by 20 years. And then realizing that tens of millions of American children had been exposed. Dr. @Nadine Burke Harris, California’s newly appointed surgeon general, will tell you this is not a hypothetical scenario. She is a leading voice in a movement trying to transform our...