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Applications due June 18. Application link included in this post

Check out this exciting opportunity to support babies and strengthen families! Please join hundreds of other organizations in signing on to this letter urging our state leaders to fund critical home visiting supports for babies and families living in poverty. Children’s earliest brain development is the foundation for their lifelong health and success. Yet too often families, especially those who are struggling to make ends meet, don’t have the support they need during the stressful time of...

We hear you! With the phenomenal growth of ACEs Connection (we’re now at more than 22,200 terrific members), the volume of content has burgeoned, and email notifications from the site about the latest blog posts and comments can be (OK, OK...are!) overwhelming. Especially to those people (about 17,000 of you) who became members before October 2017, when we changed our system so that new members don’t automatically receive emails about blog posts and comments from ACEs Connection. So, here’s...

RESILIENCE is a one-hour documentary on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the birth of a new movement to treat and prevent Toxic Stress. Extremely stressful experiences in childhood can alter brain development and have lifelong effects on health and behavior. However, as experts and practitioners profiled in this documentary are proving, what’s predictable is preventable . Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, CEO and founder of the Center for Youth and Wellness in San Francisco is featured in...

I don’t want to be your friend. Stay away. I’m not going to share with you. These harsh statements are "very normal to hear at the beginning of the school year," for preschool teachers like Rafaela Campos. To push past those moments of mean, she and more than a thousand other early educators in the Los Angeles Unified School District now have a new tool. This school year, all 86 of the early childhood centers in the district started using a program called Sanford Harmony, which provides...

The California Campaign to Counter Childhood Adversity (4CA) invites you to participate in our 2018 Policymaker Education Day on Childhood Adversity. Last year, we had over 100 4CA representatives who participated in the day-long event. Policymaker Education Day is an opportunity to come together as advocates to educate policymakers about childhood adversity, the long-term consequences of childhood adversity on communities, and garner support for 4CA endorsed legislation. Please register...

Every evening, I try to engage my daughter in reflection, gratitude, and hope. I try to practice the same, but tonight, I felt the need to share with you all. Today I had the opportunity to attend the Toward a Trauma-Informed Northern California Summit 2018 – it was an incredible experience. We were welcomed with a moving, informative, and engaging keynote speaker, Dr. Isaiah B. Pickens , who laid the foundation for what would be a day of growth, reflection, connection, and peer support. He...

The Issue In the first three years of life, children achieve remarkable advances in social and emotional development (SED) that establish a foundation for later competencies. Yet even in the first three years, these achievements can be threatened by exposure to elevated stresses of many kinds. Family poverty, marital conflict, parental emotional problems, experiences of trauma, neglect, or abuse and other adversities cause some infants and toddlers to experience anxious fearfulness,...

The California Campaign to Counter Childhood Adversity (4CA) is hosting its second annual Policymaker Education Day in Sacramento on May 22nd, 2018 with guest speaker Assemblyman Dr. Joaquin Arambula! Policymaker Education Day is an opportunity for advocates from all over California to come and educate their policymakers about childhood adversity, the long-term consequences of childhood adversity on communities, and what they can do to help. Please register by April 30 at http://bit.do/peday...

Are lockdown drills trauma informed? We have outlined three easy to implement recommendations. Please share with your fellow teachers!

Trauma Informed Practices are the link to academic achievement and social/emotional success for students who’ve experienced toxic stress and trauma. Due to repeated triggering of the fight or flight system, the neurology of these students is different than their grade level counterparts, and taking in new knowledge can often be challenging. Navigating social/emotional situations can also be difficult. Trauma Informed Practices help teachers and students to be better regulated, which...

Laura Dennis wrote about why so many adoptive parents, as well as teachers, survivors, and advocates, were glued to the TV last night. Here's an excerpt: