Tagged With "’"
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Control, Predictability Can Help Counter Students' Trauma, Research Finds [blogs.edweek.org]
Interventions that help students think flexibly and feel more control over their learning may help counter the effects of disadvantage and trauma, suggests emerging research at the International Mind-Brain Education conference here. More than 1 in 3 U.S. children have experienced at least one major trauma—from abuse or neglect to the loss of a family member to death, prison, or drugs—by the time they enter kindergarten. By the end of their school years, nearly half have had at least one...
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Counselors Needed: Schools Struggle With New Wave of Trauma 6 Months After Camp Fire [ KQED]
The trauma specialists working in Butte County schools knew they'd start seeing kids act out around six months after the deadly Camp Fire, since anniversaries are known to trigger survivors into reliving moments of the traumatic event. But there aren't enough counselors to help all of the students, teachers and staff dealing with this second wave of trauma. “We have six schools that have requested help, and we can't bring help to them,” said Roy Applegate, who helps coordinate Recovery...
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COVID-19 and State Child Care Assistance Programs [clasp.org]
From CLASP, April 8, 2020 The bipartisan Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which was passed by Congress and enacted on March 27, 2020, includes resources specifically targeted to individuals and families with low incomes affected by the public health and economic crises. The package includes a number of provisions of particular importance to children and families and those who work with them, including policymakers and other stakeholders in child care and early...
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Data-for-Equity Research Brief [nichq.org]
Child care offers a safe space for children to grow and learn while their families are at work, making it a critical resource to support healthy development. However, child care is unaffordable for the majority of working parents, especially for low-income and black and Hispanic working parents. This research brief provides insight and analysis about the challenges families face in affording childcare, which can exacerbate inequities in early childhood health and development. [For more on...
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Day Care Centers For The Most Fragile Kids Struggle To Stay Open (californiahealthline.org)
Beth Kemplin said that for the first several months after the birth of her son, Bear, she had no idea he would be severely disabled. She started to notice something was wrong when, at 10 months old, he couldn’t sit up. He didn’t babble or meet her eye. He cried 20 hours a day. Now, at 5½ years old, Bear’s list of medical diagnoses is long: cerebral palsy, autism, a seizure disorder and pica, a compulsion to eat objects like rocks and toys. Kemplin had to quit a job to look after Bear when he...
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Dr. Marrow at Echo Changing the Paradigm Conference
I wanted to give the heads up to our ACESConnection friends about Dr. Monique Marrow who is one of the keynotes at Echo's March 21 & 22nd Frontiers of Resilience conference. Dr. Marrow will be speaking on “ Addressing Trauma in System-Involved Youth ," drawing on her extensive experience as a child psychologist in the juvenile justice system. She talks about the ' invisible suitcase ' that system-involved youth carry - a suitcase full of thoughts and perceptions about the world that have...
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Earlier always better? Child development reseachers question old assumption [CenterforHealthJournalism.org]
It’s always worth revisiting what we think we know. In recent years, there’s been a trend among early childhood researchers to keep moving the focus to earlier and earlier in children’s lives. The storyline might go something like this: Sure, grade school matters, but we need to think about high-quality preschools to level the playing field. Actually, preschool is too late — the interactions kids have with their parents in the first years of life are really what’s crucial for development....
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Early childhood educators learn new ways to spot trauma triggers, build resilience in preschoolers
A hug may be comforting to many children, but for a child who has experienced trauma it may not feel safe.
That’s an example used by Julie Kurtz, co-director of trauma informed practices in early childhood education at the WestEd Center for Child & Family Studies (CCFS), as she begins a trauma training session. Her audience, preschool teachers and staff of the San Francisco-based Wu Yee Children’s Services at San Francisco’s Women’s Building, listen attentively.
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Early Childhood Is Critical to Health Equity [rwjf.org]
The first few years of life are crucial in establishing a child’s path toward—or away from—health and well-being across the entire lifespan. This report, produced in partnership with the University of California, San Francisco, examines some of the barriers to health equity that begin early in life, and promising strategies for overcoming them. Key Findings Poverty limits childrens’ and families’ options for healthy living conditions. Poverty can limit where children live, and can lead to...
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Economic Empowerment Grant 2nd Edition (Grant Opportunity)
The California Department of Social Services’ (CDSS) Office of Child Abuse Prevention (OCAP) is pleased to announce the release of the Economic Empowerment Request for Application (RFA) for funding beginning September 1, 2018, and ending August 31, 2020. The OCAP is currently accepting applications to fund up to five qualified Applicants to implement grants per the purpose of the Grant Opportunity outlined in the RFA below. Economic Empowerment Grant RFA (PDF) Due Date: April 12, 2018 by...
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Educating the Whole Child: Improving School Climate to Support Student Success
Each year in the United States, 46 million children are exposed to violence, crime, abuse, homelessness, or food insecurity, as well as a range of other experiences that cause psychological trauma. These experiences create toxic stress that can affect children’s attention, learning, and behavior. Research on human development shows that the effects of such trauma can be mitigated when students learn in a positive school climate that offers long-term, secure relationships that supports...
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Emergency Child Care for Foster Families [saccounty.net]
By Sacramento County, SacCounty News, January 9, 2020 To recruit more loving families for children in foster care, Sacramento County is making it easier to find and afford childcare services for resource families. The Emergency Child Care Bridge Program’s goal is to increase the number of resource families for children in foster care by helping families find the right child care provider, connecting families to long-term child care subsidies, and by providing vouchers to pay for childcare...
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Even Toddlers, Preschoolers Need Trauma-Informed Intervention [youthtoday.org]
Benjamin Franklin once said; “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Nowhere is this axiom truer than in the field of children’s mental health. My years of education, training and experience as a school-based clinical social worker at The Guidance Center , working with children, their families and educators, has led me to realize the value of a trauma-informed lens. This means I have an understanding of how the brain forms and functions in relation to the environment, and that...
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Family Border Separation Policy Has Long-Term Effects on Child Health [medicalbag.com]
Despite a reversal of the Trump administration family separation policy, as of July 2018, more than 2000 children remain separated from their parents or legal guardians. 1 In an article published in JAMA, Howard A. Zucker, MD, JD, and Danielle Greene, DrPH, of the New York State Department of Health, suggest that child-parent separation during an already tumultuous and emotionally strenuous event may exert greater long-term physical and mental health effects on children than is currently...
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Federal funding opportunity primary prevention of abuse and neglect
The purpose of this FOA from the federal Administration on Children, Youth and Families - Children's Bureau is to fund cooperative agreements that support the development, implementation, and evaluation of primary prevention strategies to improve the safety, stability, and well-being of all families through a continuum of community-based services and supports. During the project period, grantees will address site-specific barriers and mobilize communities to prevent child maltreatment,...
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Five Things You Wish Your Community’s Early Childhood Programs Knew [CitiesSpeak.org]
By NLC Staff on May 10, 2019 Cities, towns, and villages are places of innovation and solution finding. If you want to improve early childhood wellbeing—local leaders are key partners. The Networks of Opportunity for Child Wellbeing (NOW) Learning Community is a program of Boston Medical Center’s Vital Village. The learning community’s goal is to support local early childhood coalitions and build their capacity to work together with the broader community to improve the wellbeing of our...
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Five Ways Mindfulness Meditation Is Good for Your Health [greatergood.berkeley.edu]
According to thousands of years of tradition, Buddhists meditate to understand themselves and their connections to all beings. By doing so, they hope to be released from suffering and ultimately gain enlightenment. In recent decades, researchers have been gaining insight into the benefits of practicing this ancient tradition. By studying more secular versions of mindfulness meditation, they’ve found that learning to pay attention to our current experiences and accept them without judgment...
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Five Ways to Help Kids Manage Frustration [greatergood.berkeley.edu]
When parents hold their newborn infants, they naturally want what’s best for them. They want to protect them, nurture them, and give them all the opportunities to have a happy life. At the same time, however, children must learn to cope with frustrations and disappointments. Luckily, there are frustrations from the very beginning of life, such as when babies want a bottle and have to wait even a few minutes while you are preparing it. Later, as toddlers, they have to wait until they can get...
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For Low-Income Youth in California, Much is Promised But Little Received with Mental Health Services (chronicleofsocialchange.org)
Mental health disorders in childhood and adolescence are extremely common. Studies estimate between 13 and 20 percent of American children experience a mental disorder in a given year. National survey data indicates that one in five children and teens will suffer a mental disorder that severely impairs daily life. Common mental illnesses include anxiety disorder, depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Yet research also indicates that many children in need of mental...
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Former Foster Youth Share Findings of Survey on Preventing Removals from Families [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
In early February, the National Foster Care Youth and Alumni Policy Council hosted a webinar on its most recent policy focus on preventing unnecessary removal of children from their families. Three former foster youth – Dani Townsend, David Hall and Nico’Lee Biddle – presented the group’s findings from their survey on the subject and recommendations that will be shared with federal stakeholders. Hall shared a few highlights from the survey, which included responses from 200 current and...
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Free online training for Early Child Educators (English and Spanish): Watch Me! Celebrating Milestones and Sharing Concerns
This free, one-hour training offered by the CDC provides tools to help child care providers work with families to monitor children's development, share concerns with families, and help families get connected to services and support that can make a real difference. This training is available in English and Spanish, and is approved for continuing education credit. To learn more, visit: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/watchmetraining/index.html
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Free Trauma Webinar
Therapists can be challenged to know the right tools when working with families with trauma histories. Dr. Scott Sells, the author of Treating the Traumatized Child: A Step-by-Step Family Systems Approach , is offering a free webinar on using feedback loops. Webinar: Convert Trauma Undercurrents Into Feedback Loops: How to Draw Out “Before” and “After” Feedback Loops for Your Clients Date: Tuesday, July 24, 2018 Time: 1:00-2:00 pm, Eastern Standard Time Cost: Free To register, Click here...
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Free webinar from Chandra Ghosh Ippen, PhD on "When We Are Scared..."
In this excellent free webinar, Chandra Ghosh Ippen, PhD, Associate Director of the Child Trauma Research Program at University of California, San Francisco, and Director of Dissemination and Implementation for Child-Parent Psychotherapy, talks about how to use her picture story book Once I Was Very Very Scared to help children and families heal from acute and chronic trauma. The webinar will be available in Spanish soon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcAPbDpgoso
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Free Webinar: How Boosting Emotional Intelligence Improves Your Ability to Effectively Lead Your ECE Program
How Boosting Emotional Intelligence Improves Your Ability to Effectively Lead Your ECE Program October 3, 2018 11 AM Pacific Time Presented by Barbara Kaiser Author, Consultant, Trainer EQ or Emotional Quotient, otherwise known as Emotional Intelligence, is the ability to recognize emotions to guide thinking and behavior, and adapt accordingly. It requires regulation of your own emotions and the ability to gauge the emotions of others, especially in the workplace. To be an effective high EQ...
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[Free Webinar] Teaching personal safety in early childhood: Tools for preventing abuse
They say it takes a village to raise a child. This proverb could never be more true than now. To create safe villages for children, every responsible adult—from parents & caregivers, to teachers, staff, aides, specialists, and administrators—needs to work together to understand and teach children the principles of personal safety within the context of developmentally appropriate practice. Join this powerful webinar to learn practical, actionable information, strategies and skills to...
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FREE WEBINAR: Trauma-Informed Advocacy: Practical Tools for Working with Vulnerable Populations
Working at the intersection of trauma, health equity, and law, attorney Sarah Hess will join the Illinois ACEs Response Collaborative in this free webinar to talk about ways advocates from all disciplines can use a trauma-informed approach to help their clients thrive...
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Free Webinar: Using Culturally Responsive Practices to Ensure Equity for All Children
The State Performance Plan Technical Assistance Project (SPP-TAP) invites you to a Webinar on Wednesday, June 12, 2019 12:00 noon - 1:30 p.m. (PST) Please join SPP-TAP as we welcome Dr. Rosemarie Allen for the upcoming webinar, Using Culturally Responsive Practices to Ensure Equity for All Children focusing on learning environments that are culturally affirming for students in preschool through early elementary grades. Proposed Audience: SPP-TAP invites school and central office personnel to...
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From Compassion Fatigue to Healing Centered Engagement: Turning Trauma Informed Values into Action
To pave the way for a truly strengths-based approach to full healing and recovery for both service users and burned out staff, we must educate them on (1) the central role of primal body responses to trauma (past and present), and (2) the early development of adaptive thoughts and behaviors in response to
traumatic experience.
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From Trauma-Informed to Asset-Informed Care in Early Childhood [brookings.edu]
By Ellen Galinsky, Brookings Institute, October 23, 2019 The focus on “toxic stress,” ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences), and trauma-informed care have been game-changers in the field of early childhood development. They have helped us recognize the symptoms of trauma, provide appropriate assistance to children, and understand that prolonged adversity in the absence of nurturing relationships can derail a child’s healthy development. Just look at the media’s and the public’s reaction to...
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Genentech Call for Grants Notification: Advancing the Science behind Childhood Adversity
Grant opportunity from Genentech, for communities deeply engaged in applying ACEs science.
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Gov. Newsom proposing to expand services for babies and toddlers [edsource.org]
Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to announce plans to spend big on babies and toddlers, significantly expanding a range of programs, from helping parents care for their small children at home to identifying developmental delays early. In his first budget proposal, which is due to the Legislature by Thursday, Newsom plans to propose $100 million to expand a home-visiting program — in which nurses and social workers visit young, low-income parents to give health and parenting advice — and another...
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Gov. Newsom's early childhood advisor describes 'whole-child, whole-family, whole-community' strategy [edsource.org]
For the first time, a California governor has created a position in his office focused on early education. Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Giannina Pérez as his Senior Policy Advisor for Early Childhood. Peréz previously worked for Early Edge California and Children Now, both well-known children’s advocacy organizations. As an advocate, she worked to expand training for preschool teachers and child care providers to better support children who speak languages other than English at home. She also...
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Governor Newsom announces Nadine Burke Harris to be CA's first-ever surgeon general
Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the appointment of Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, a national leader in pediatric medicine, to serve as California’s first-ever surgeon general. There is overwhelming consensus in the scientific community around early warning signs and childhood determinants of serious health outcomes. As surgeon general, Dr. Burke Harris will urge policymakers at every level of government and leaders across the state to consider the social determinants of health, especially...
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Great parenting resource for Strengthening Families 5 Protective Factors
Here is a great website from the Five for Families public awareness campaign that explains the Strengthening Families 5 Protective Factors to parents. It has parent-friendly language, videos, questions to consider, and parenting ideas. https://fiveforfamilies.org/
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Greener Childhood Associated With Happier Adulthood [npr.org]
The experience of natural spaces, brimming with greenish light, the smells of soil and the quiet fluttering of leaves in the breeze can calm our frenetic modern lives. It's as though our very cells can exhale when surrounded by nature, relaxing our bodies and minds. Some people seek to maximize the purported therapeutic effects of contact with the unbuilt environment by embarking on sessions of forest bathing , slowing down and becoming mindfully immersed in nature. But in a rapidly...
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Growing Resilient Kids
Resiliency is defined as the ability to bounce back from stressful events we encounter in life. When something we encounter is so overwhelming to us that we become stuck in it, that is one definition of trauma. Resiliency can be viewed as the antidote to trauma. In fact, when we effectively process trauma we have experienced, we often come out the other side far more resilient than before. Our nervous systems have a higher stretch capacity, so to speak. How do we help our kids stretch and...
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Healing Trauma Virtual Summit
Good morning, everyone! I wanted to share this Healing Trauma Summit with you - it's online, free, and there are different speakers presenting a wide range of topics. It starts today and continues every day until next Wednesday, June 13. A recording of each presentation is available on the website 24 hours after it ends. Some of the topics I think might be most relevant to your work: Understanding and Transforming the Legacy of Intergenerational Trauma - Wednesday, June 6 1:00PM Treatment of...
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Help public radio with a story: How did separation from your parents as a child impact you?
Please see the post below from Laura Klivans of KQED: KQED is the National Public Radio affiliate in San Francisco, CA. We’d like to hear from adults (18+) who were separated from their parents when they were children. Perhaps the separation was due to economic reasons, war and conflict, incarceration, foster care, or something else. How did that period of separation impact you in the long-run? How has it impacted your connection to others and how you build relationships? If you're a parent,...
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Helping Parents Develop Positive Relationships with their infants to toddlers (National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence,NPEIV).
Zero to Three Resource- extracted from website and with discussion text by Karin Hecht (September 14, 2018) Bonding activities between parent and child can be a great way to help a child’s development and strengthen the relationship. The Zero to Three website has great resources for child-centered activities to help little ones learn and grow. One particularly useful resource for parents and care providers are a collection of stage-by-stage age-based tips and what to expect as your baby...
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Hey, am I alone here? NO we are here to help!
Do you ever think, wow .... Am I the only one doing this work? And, how come it is so hard to find the resources I need to do my job? And, isn't there a better way to share and collaborate? YOU are not alone - and YES there are amazing people and communities that want to collaborate and share what they've learned! Where do I find these people? On ( clickable ) ACEs Connectio n ! Sign up for ACEs Connection and start collaborating with parents, professionals, well known researchers, and many...
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How a story about childhood trauma in Paradise became one of community trauma [centerforhealthjournalism.org]
My project for the Center for Health Journalism’s California Fellowship was focused on childhood trauma, zeroing in on a town in Northern California. In the fall, that town — Paradise, California — burned in a harrowing wildfire. The story quickly changed to one of community loss. The story of trauma in two counties My initial project was about Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs. ACEs are one way to quantify how much childhood trauma a person has experienced before the age of 18. Through...
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How Collaboration Fosters Safer Communities for Kids [RWJF.org]
Oct 3, 2018, 11:00 AM, Posted by Martha Davis Collaborative approaches can help ensure kids grow up with a solid foundation of safety and with a support system for those who are affected by violence. As the executive director of Philadelphia Physicians for Social Responsibility in the late 1990s, I worked closely with the local police department, the Women’s Law Project , and the district attorney. At the time, these forward-thinking professionals were frustrated. They were arresting the...
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How do you tell the story of a huge early childhood program over time? [centerforhealthjournalism.org]
Thanks — for nothing, Mr. Reiner. When I started my reporting on the 20th anniversary of California’s Proposition 10 — now known as First 5 — I fully expected to have filmmaker Rob Reiner’s quotations and retrospective as a central piece of the package . After all, he was the sponsor of the ballot measure that created the tobacco tax-funded system for programs serving young children from birth to age 5. And, he welcomed me into his Beverly Hills office for an interview when the measure was...
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How Does Toxic Stress Affect Low-Income and Black Children? [citylab.com]
John Singleton, the groundbreaking director who died last month at age 51 after suffering a stroke, grew up in South Central Los Angeles. In 1991, at first-night screenings in South Central for his debut film Boyz n the Hood, violence broke out. At least one man was killed. The then-23-year-old Singleton remarked about the stress of it: “I think I lost about five years of my life.” He was channeling a bit of conventional wisdom, that extreme stress has lasting effects on health and...
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How Governor Gavin Newsom’s Plan To Identify Early Childhood Trauma In Kids Might Make Healthier, Smarter Students [capradio.org]
Nurse @Wendie Skala worked with teens who were victims of street violence — and she always felt she was getting to them too late. Eventually, she learned about something called “adverse childhood experiences,” or ACEs : The idea that trauma early in life can cause disruptive and unhealthy behavior. And that’s when Skala says a “huge light bulb” went on. “Instead of saying, ‘What’s wrong with these kids?’ We could finally say, ‘What happened to these kids that they’re ending...
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How to Be Your Own Emergency First Responder! (3 minute read)
https://www.optimalbrainintegration.com/post/how-to-be-your-own-emergency-first-responder-3-minute-read How to Be Your Own Emergency First Responder! (3 minute read)
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How to Make Your Workday More Mindful [greatergood.berkeley.edu]
At age 40, Joe Burton was not a mindful leader. He was the COO of an $2 billion company, working 12-hour days and weekends and making more than half a million dollars a year. But his body was paying the price: He was suffering from insomnia, asthma, and eight years of chronic back pain that was so bad it sometimes brought him to tears. “I was frustrated, angry, competitive, and hurting,” Burton writes in his 2018 book Creating Mindful Leaders: How to Power Down, Power Up, and Power Forward .
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HUD Admits New Rule on Undocumented Immigrants Could Displace Thousands of Kids who are Citizens [thinkprogress.org]
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) submitted a proposed rule to evict all undocumented immigrants from public housing to the federal register Friday, setting in motion the first step towards finalizing a plan that could impact tens of thousands of undocumented parents and their U.S. citizen children. Under this proposed rule, HUD would be prohibited from “making financial assistance available to persons other than United States citizens.” The current rule allows for...
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“I Like to Move It, Move It!” – How Dance and Rhythm Can Reduce the Impact of ACEs (stresshealth.org)
As it is, more and more researchers studying the healing power of rhythmic movement on people who’ve experienced trauma from Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), such as abuse, neglect, or parental mental illness or substance abuse issues. Among these researchers is Dr. Bruce Perry, a psychiatrist and senior fellow at the Child Trauma Academy in Houston who advocates dance, drumming, walking and other rhythm-based movements to help kids with trauma. In a book about trauma and the power of...