Tagged With "End of Year"
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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,...
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Building Community Health
Dr Sandy Escobar is transforming healthcare in East Palo Alto, one family at a time.
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Building Resilience Through Understanding Substance Use Disorders and Their Impacts on Others
The reach of substance use disorders in America is far more significant than people think. 21+ million Americans struggle with substance use disorders. Their substance use and addiction-related behaviors impact 100 million more Americans. These are the moms, dads, husbands, wives, children, brothers, sisters, grandchildren.... Together, these two groups represents more than one-third of the American population!
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Building Trust Cuts Violence. Cash Also Helps. [NYTimes.com]
DeVone Boggan could teach a class on the art of making a statement. In 2010, he invited a group of the most dangerous gun offenders in Richmond, a Bay Area city of about 100,000 residents, to a conference room at City Hall. At each seat was a name card starting with “Mr.” and an information folder labeled “Operation Peacemaker.” Wearing a suit and his signature fedora, Boggan began the meeting by apologizing on behalf of the city for not reaching out to the men sooner. Peace in Richmond, he...
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Built Environment Policy Advocacy Fund (BEPAF) Program Overview [preventioninstitute.org]
By Prevention Institute, January 2020 The BEPAF Request for Proposals was released on January 8, 2020 and can be accessed in the list of Resources on this page. The BEPAF Informational Webinar for Applicants will be held on January 13, 2020, from 10:00-11:00am. Register at www.tinyurl.com/BEPAFLOIWebinar . A recording of the webinar will be posted here on January 14. Please contact BEPAF@preventioninstitute.org for additional information. Built Environment Policy Advocacy Fund (BEPAF)...
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Bullying Takes Financial Toll on U.S. School Districts [Consumer.Healthday.com]
Bullying can come with a hefty hidden cost for U.S. schools, a new study finds. California loses about $276 million each year in attendance-based public school funding because bullied children are too afraid to go to school, researchers report. Data revealed that 10 percent of students missed at least one day of school in the previous month because they felt unsafe. That translates into an estimated 301,000 students missing school because they didn't feel safe, leading to hundreds of...
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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 announces robust perinatal depression prevention for Medi-Cal recipients
Melinda Coates experienced a tumultuous pregnancy. “I was really mentally upset literally from day one (of the pregnancy),” she says. (Melinda Coates is a pseudonym. To protect her and her children’s privacy and safety, we are not using her real name.) Coates had hoped to get counseling last October, when she was seven months pregnant. That’s when she enrolled in the state’s Medi-Cal program, shortly after she and her abusive husband moved to California, “but nobody was able to get me in...
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CA Governor's 2020-21 Budget Proposal Summary
Governor Newsom proposed his 2020-21 budget on Friday. Here are some highlights from the perspective of support for children and families from Children Now. See attached for the full summary report that summarizes funding related to child welfare, health, K- 12 education, early childhood, emergency preparedness and response, and adverse childhood experiences. The Governor’s budget proposes a number of initiatives, investments, and restructuring to transform the health care system to better...
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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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CA Reducing Disparities Project, Implementation Pilot Projects - TRIBE
CA Dept of Public Health's partner in the California Reducing Disparities Project, Implementation Pilot Projects (IPP). The one described below features the community defined evidence practice of the African American IPP: Whole Systems Learning. The Turning Resilience into Brilliance for Eternity Program (TRIBE) is a 5-year program that takes a public health approach to prevent mental illness, by promoting health in a scientific way, for African American foster and adjudicated youth. The...
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CA Senate unanimously approves ACEs reduction resolution
On August 18, the California Senate unanimously approved Concurrent Resolution (ACR) No. 155 to encourage statewide policies to reduce children’s exposure to adverse childhood experiences. As reported on ACEs Too High , the resolution is modeled after a Wisconsin resolution that encourages state policy decision-making to consider the impact of early childhood adversity on the long-term health and well being of its citizens. Since the resolution does not require...
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Cal Facts 2018 [lao.ca.gov]
From Ed Source : Each year the Legislative Analyst's Office publishes the essential facts about California – the state of its health, finances, housing and population – in graphics. This year's edition of Cal Facts includes 12 pages about education, including national rankings, demographics and other data on K-12 and higher ed. To read the report, go to https://lao.ca.gov/reports/2018/3905/calfacts-2018.pdf
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AB 494 (BERMAN) SIGNED: CALFRESH ACCESS SIMPLIFIED IN RECOGNITION OF HOUSING CRISIS [CAFB]
By Becky Gershon, July 16, 2019 for California Food Bank Association The law will help Californians, especially newly eligible SSI recipients, quickly access & maximize CalFresh benefits. On July 12 th , Governor Newsom signed into law AB 494 – authored by anti-hunger champion Assemblymember Marc Berman. The California Association of Food Banks was a co-sponsor of this legislation, in partnership with the Western Center on Law and Poverty, and the Coalition of California Welfare Rights...
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Access to civil justice in California remains elusive. It could be an opportunity (calmatters.org)
More than half of California households had problems last year that are civil legal issues, but nearly 70% of them received no legal help. That is one of the stark findings of the State Bar’s California Justice Gap Study . The study, which surveyed nearly 4,000 California adults, spotlights a harsh reality: There is an enormous gap between the need for civil legal services and most people’s ability to access legal help. Think this is only a problem for low-income Californians? Think again.
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ACEs | Alcohol's Harm to Others | Secondhand Drinking
It is likely most readers know someone or they are the someone who has personally experienced alcohol's harm to others | secondhand drinking. The tragedy is we hardly talk about it in ways that can change the lives of those affected -- especially the lives of children. In other words, we hardly talk about it in ways that can prevent, intervene, or treat adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Alcohol’s Harm to Others | Secondhand Drinking and the ACEs Connection One of the 10 ACEs measured in...
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ACEs Aware Webinar: Trauma-informed practices to address stress from COVID-19
How can health care providers take care of themselves, their colleagues and their patients during this COVID-19 pandemic? First and foremost is recognizing how the pandemic can stir up trauma from the past, said Dr. Alicia Lieberman, a psychologist specializing in trauma. “COVID19 is reawakening traumatic reminders in many of us and in the families we work with. And that often makes it difficult for parents to protect themselves and their children,” she noted. Lieberman, the director of the...
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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...
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ACEs Science Champion Series: Dr. Angela Bymaster: This Faith-Based Physician Integrates ACEs Science with Healing Arts
Dr. Angela Bymaster, a family physician at Washington Elementary School in San Jose, CA, operates her clinic in a portable unit on the school property.
Because the unit faces students as they are dropped off by their families, she gets to “pick up the kids” before they are sent to the clinic, practicing “upstream medicine.”
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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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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...
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ACTION NEEDED: Oppose Adjusting the Federal Poverty Line
A proposed rule change to the Official Poverty Measure by the Trump Administration will negatively impact millions of children and families in our state, where, according to 2016 California Poverty Measure estimates, 21.3 percent of California's children live in poverty. If approved, the change would affect children and families' eligibility for federal programs that provide health care, nutrition and basic assistance, effectively reducing or eliminating their access to these needed...
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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...
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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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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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!
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Analysis: Lack of Beds Keeps Homeless on the Streets Longer [thesungazette.com]
By Reggie Ellis, The Sun-Gazette, February 5, 2020 Visalia has the highest percentage of homeless people with highest need in the entire country. The Sun-Gazette reported last week that Tulare and Kings County, where most of the homeless population lives in Visalia, had the highest percentage nationwide of unsheltered, chronically homeless people, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2018 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress. Nearly one-third of the...
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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...
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Are California’s Mental Health Dollars Helping Kids? [CaliforniaHealthline.org]
California schools get hundreds of millions of dollars a year from the state to identify and assist disabled children who have mental health problems. But we don’t know how the money is spent or if it is helping the kids perform better in school. That’s the main finding of a recent report by the California State Auditor, and it will be on the agenda Wednesday at a hearing of the Senate’s mental health committee. “It appears we give all this money to the schools,...
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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 California Fire Seasons Worsen, First Responders And Their Loved Ones Navigate Difficult Terrain (capradio.org)
As California fire seasons worsen, organizations serving first responders are trying to spread the word about the need for mental health services. And they’re encouraging family members and loved ones of firefighters to seek help, too. “It’s that vicarious trauma,” said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Nikole Schutz, speaking during last year's Camp Fire. “Seeing things on social media or being exposed to it all the time, knowing they’re gone for a length of time, just those exposures or the...
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As Homelessness Rises in Many Parts of California, Counties Search for Solutions [calhealthreport.org]
By Alyse DiNapoli, California Health Report, July 17, 2019. Many California’s counties reported having more homeless residents this year, according to the 2019 Point in Time surveys, which aim to count the number of people experiencing homelessness on a given night. The surveys are completed once every year or two years depending on the county. San Francisco and San Jose counties reported increases of 17 percent and 42 percent in the last two years, respectively. Los Angeles County...
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As schools adopt social-emotional programs, a new guide offers help [EdSource.org]
Parents, teachers and students streamed into the library of Palo Alto’s Gunn High School on a warm evening this spring to hear about a new plan , coming this fall, to help high school students develop empathy and coping skills through “social and emotional learning.” For starters, the audience wanted the answer to a question that has dogged the jargon phrase for years: What is social and emotional learning and why should schools get involved in it? The term is bedeviled by abstractions, but...
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As the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools turns 10, a new report shows this unique turnaround model is driving big gains at struggling campuses (laschoolreport.org)
The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools is a unique school model that focuses on turning around the lowest-scoring schools with the highest dropout rates in the toughest neighborhoods of Los Angeles — Boyle Heights, Watts, and South Los Angeles. LA Unified invites the Partnership into struggling schools, which then benefit from more freedoms, community resources, and organizational support. Teachers and principals receive intensive professional development, and principals are sometimes...
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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...
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At $75,560, housing a prisoner in California now costs more than a year at Harvard [LATimes.com]
The cost of imprisoning each of California’s 130,000 inmates is expected to reach a record $75,560 in the next year. That’s enough to cover the annual cost of attending Harvard University and still have plenty left over for pizza and beer Gov. Jerry Brown ’s spending plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1 includes a record $11.4 billion for the corrections department while also predicting that there will be 11,500 fewer inmates in four years because voters in November approved earlier...
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At This Sanctuary, Animals and At-Risk Teens Come Together to Heal [nationswell.com]
By Monica Humphries, Nationswell, August 9, 2019 A FORESTED RETREAT IN COASTAL CALIFORNIA PROVIDES MARGINALIZED KIDS THE OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN COPING SKILLS — COURTESY OF WILD ANIMAL “TEACHERS.” Nine times a year, cohorts of young people from San Jose and San Francisco pile into vans and head out for the fresh air and redwood-dotted forests of nearby Half Moon Bay. These are city kids, bonded by a shared experience of growing up in urban centers. But something much darker that bonds them,...
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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...
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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...
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California Advocates Celebrate as Governor Signs Law to Address Overuse of Suspensions in Schools! [fixschooldiscipline.com]
By Fix School Discipline, September 16, 2019 SB 419 will help keep students in school, increase student success, and increase high school graduation Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation to eliminate suspensions for minor misbehaviors and protect California students from discriminatory and harmful school climates. Under Senate Bill 419, which was introduced by Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), school districts will no longer be permitted to use defiance or disruption, as justification...
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California Assembly Health Committee OKs ACEs resolution 16-0
The California Assembly Health Committee today approved, by a vote of 16-0, a resolution to encourage statewide policies to reduce children’s exposure to adverse childhood experiences. California took a page from Wisconsin’s playbook with the introduction of legislation ( California Assembly Concurrent Resolution (ACR) No. 155 ) on May 28. It drew upon ideas from Wisconsin’s legislation ( Senate Joint Resolution 59 ), approved by the legislature this early this year. Both...
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California bill would fund trauma and mental health services for students [AsianJournal.com]
CALIFORNIA schools will once again be able to offer mental health programs for students in kindergarten and grades one to three who are struggling with anxiety and other trauma or stress related symptoms, if a bill introduced in the legislature earlier this week passes. AB 1644 was introduced by Assemblymember Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) and is co-sponsored by Children Now, a statewide youth advocacy organization headquartered in Oakland, and by state Attorney General Kamala Harris. “The...
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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...
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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...
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California, Climate Change and the Trauma of the Last Decade [latimes.com]
By Deborah Netburn, Los Angeles Times, December 26, 2019 The wildfires were more destructive. The drought was the longest on record. And the storms, when they finally came, unleashed more water than our dams could contain. To live in California over the last decade has meant enduring a steady procession of weather-related disasters, each one seemingly worse than the last. Five of the 10 largest fires in state record books have occurred since 2010. So has California’s third driest year since...
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Coronavirus Complicates The Budget Picture for California Lawmakers [capradio.org]
By Nicole Nixon, CapRadio, March 27, 2020 There are a lot of uncertainties over the coronavirus, but for California lawmakers, one thing remains the same: Their constitutional mandate to pass a budget by June 15. Asm. Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, said lawmakers will “absolutely” meet that deadline, though the budget will likely look “very different” than the $222 billion proposal Gov. Gavin Newsom laid out in January. Ting chairs the Assembly’s budget committee. While the governor proposed...