Delaware ACEs Action (DE)

PACEs Connection is excited to kick off our 2023 Creating Resilient Communities (CRC) Annual Accelerator Program. (Click here to review a brief description of each event. See below for event times).

The 16 hour CRC accelerator is focused on supporting and developing individual advocates and organizational agents of change in transforming their communities and organizations using PACEs trauma-informed awareness and resilience-building frameworks.

The CRC accelerator will cover fundamental topics such as understanding of PACEs science, community organizing, multi-sector collaboration, and strategic planning; as well as several special topics. See below for quick highlights.

Accelerator Program Highlights:

• The accelerator program consists of 16 hours of a mixture of both relevant interactive learning sessions and informative video modules.
• These events are FREE and OPEN to the public!
• Most events repeat on a monthly basis in case you are unable to attend one month.
• IMPORTANT PREREQUISITE!!! Every participant must FIRST attend the Introduction to PACEs Connection event, and then you may attend the remaining events at your own pace.

Getting Started

Once you have attended Introduction to PACEs Connection, confirmed participants will be sent an email containing the registration links for the following events. Register for any, or all, of the events that interest you.

Introduction to PACEs Connection, offered:

Apr 19, 2023 10:00 AM (PST) / 1:00 PM (EST)

Apr 27, 2023 10:00 AM (PST) / 1:00 PM (EST)

May 1, 2023 1:00 PM (PST) / 4:00 PM (EST)

May 11, 2023 9:00 AM (PST) / 12:00 PM (EST)

May 23, 2023 6:00 AM (PST) / 9:00 AM (EST)

Creating Resilient Communities Topics

Introduction to PACEs Science

PACEs Science and Social Justice

Is PACEs a Movement?

A PACEs Science Lens on Organizing for Social Justice

Organizing For Resilient Communities

Restorative Justice: What's Next?

Introduction to PACEs in Education

Environmental Justice 101

Creating Partnerships on the Path to a Just Society

Click here to review a brief description of each event.

REMINDER: Register here for the REQUIRED first event in this series: Introduction to PACEs Connection. There are several options available; you only need to attend this initial event one time.

➤ Stay tuned for a post with additional dates for this series!

➤ Questions about this series? Email Kahshanna Evans, Director of Resilient Communities: kevans@pacesconnection.com

PACEs Connection is excited to kick off our 2023 Creating Resilient Communities (CRC) Annual Accelerator Program. (Click here to review a brief description of each event. See below for event times).

The 16 hour CRC accelerator is focused on supporting and developing individual advocates and organizational agents of change in transforming their communities and organizations using PACEs trauma-informed awareness and resilience-building frameworks.

The CRC accelerator will cover fundamental topics such as understanding of PACEs science, community organizing, multi-sector collaboration, and strategic planning; as well as several special topics. See below for quick highlights.

Accelerator Program Highlights:

• The accelerator program consists of 16 hours of a mixture of both relevant interactive learning sessions and informative video modules.
• These events are FREE and OPEN to the public!
• Most events repeat on a monthly basis in case you are unable to attend one month.
• IMPORTANT PREREQUISITE!!! Every participant must FIRST attend the Introduction to PACEs Connection event, and then you may attend the remaining events at your own pace.

Getting Started

Once you have attended Introduction to PACEs Connection, confirmed participants will be sent an email containing the registration links for the following events. Register for any, or all, of the events that interest you.

Introduction to PACEs Connection, offered:

Apr 19, 2023 10:00 AM (PST) / 1:00 PM (EST)

Apr 27, 2023 10:00 AM (PST) / 1:00 PM (EST)

May 1, 2023 1:00 PM (PST) / 4:00 PM (EST)

May 11, 2023 9:00 AM (PST) / 12:00 PM (EST)

May 23, 2023 6:00 AM (PST) / 9:00 AM (EST)

Creating Resilient Communities Topics

Introduction to PACEs Science

PACEs Science and Social Justice

Is PACEs a Movement?

A PACEs Science Lens on Organizing for Social Justice

Organizing For Resilient Communities

Restorative Justice: What's Next?

Introduction to PACEs in Education

Environmental Justice 101

Creating Partnerships on the Path to a Just Society

Click here to review a brief description of each event.

REMINDER: Register here for the REQUIRED first event in this series: Introduction to PACEs Connection. There are several options available; you only need to attend this initial event one time.

➤ Stay tuned for a post with additional dates for this series!

➤ Questions about this series? Email Kahshanna Evans, Director of Resilient Communities: kevans@pacesconnection.com

Looking for another opportunity to join or attend additional events in the Creating Resilient Communities (CRC) Accelerator Program? See below for June event times. And please comment below if you attended- all feedback welcome!

Click here to review a brief description of each event. A new event has launched, Bridge to Growing a Resilient Community, for those interested in learning more about enrolling an existing PACEs initiative, or starting a new one, on PACEs Connection.

SUMMARY

The 16 hour CRC accelerator is focused on supporting and developing individual activists and advocates in transforming their communities and organizations using PACEs and resilience frameworks.

The CRC accelerator will cover fundamental topics such as understanding of PACEs science, community organizing, multi-sector collaboration, and strategic planning; as well as several special topics. Participants who complete all events in the series will receive a Certificate of Completion.

HOW TO ATTEND EVENTS

NOTE: If you have already completed the required event, Introduction to PACEs Connection, please check your email for links to the May events in this series.

If you DID NOT yet take Introduction to PACEs Connection, please visit this link and select ONE option. Once you attend this event, you will receive an email with the links to each event in the series.

If you miss the June events, all events will repeat monthly in 2022. Stay tuned for the next monthly blog post for event times.

Once you have attended Introduction to PACEs Connection, confirmed participants will be sent an email containing the registration links for the following events. Register for any, or all, of the events that interest you.

Introduction to PACEs Connection, offered:

EVENT DATES (Event Links available via email pending confirmed attendance at Introduction to PACEs Connection)

Introduction to PACEs Connection: NOTE: For this event, click registration link to choose from multiple options

Click here to review a brief description of each event.

REMINDER: Register here for the REQUIRED first event in this series: Introduction to PACEs Connection. There are several options available; you only need to attend this initial event one time.IF YOU ALREADY ATTENDED, YOU WILL RECEIVE LINKS FOR MAY EVENTS VIA EMAIL.

> Stay tuned for a post with next month's dates for this series!

> Questions about this series? Email the CRC Coordinator: CRC@pacesconnection.com

Has the pandemic stressed you out?

Want to learn the self-soothing skills of Mind Matters: Overcoming Adversity and Building Resilience directly from the author, Dr. Carolyn Curtis?

Good news! The Dibble Institute has received generous funding for scholarships to the online, full 12-lesson series, Mind Matters Now. The course helps teachers, social workers, medical professionals, and others manage their stress by building resilience skills and practices for mental well-being. (CEUs are available for $40.)

Complete the application here to apply for one of the Mind Matters Now scholarships (value $49). If approved, you will then be emailed a coupon code.

If you have questions, please email us.

Please join us for our new series entitled: Trauma-Informed Criminal Justice. This monthly virtual Zoom series will feature conversations facilitated by Dr. Porter Jennings-McGarity, PhD/LCSW, PACEs Connection’s criminal justice consultant, with special guests to discuss the need for trauma-informed criminal justice system reform. Using a PACEs-science lens, this series will examine the relationship between trauma and the criminal justice system, what needs changing, and strategies being used in this area to create positive systems change.

December 2021 session, Thursday, December 2^nd, 2021, 1:00 pm – 2:00 PM CST – “Trauma-Informed Criminal Justice with Special Guest, Becky Haas, Pioneer in Developing Trauma-Informed Judicial Initiatives”. Known for her contagious enthusiasm, Becky Haas is an international presenter of trauma-informed care and the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study as well as a pioneer in successfully developing trauma-informed communities.  Her training experience includes presenting to state leadership at the invitation of the Delaware First Lady, as well as courts in the Juvenile Justice system in Virginia and Tennessee.  She developed Trauma-Informed Policing training which is certified in multiple states for officer in-service credit and has delivered it to the Oklahoma City Police Department, Delaware State Police, as well as precincts within Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.  She worked in partnership with the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police (TACP) to make Trauma-Informed Policing Training available to officers statewide. She will join us in December to talk about trauma-informed judicial initiatives and share her expertise related to building trauma-informed communities.

To register for this event, please click here*

*Note: If you are unable to join us live, please register for the event to receive a video recording of the session as well as any related copies of presentation slides, handouts, etc.

The Dibble Institute is pleased to present an introductory webinar by Rev. Dr. Bryant T. Marks Sr. of the National Training Institute on Race and Equity, which will provide foundational information on implicit bias. It will focus at the individual level and discuss how implicit bias affects everyone. Strategies to reduce or manage implicit bias will be discussed.

Broadly speaking, group-based bias involves varying degrees of stereotyping (exaggerated beliefs about others), prejudice (dis/liking others), and/or discrimination (unequal treatment of others) that occur above or below conscious awareness. Scholars have labeled the subconscious form of group-based bias implicit or unconscious bias. Implicit bias is primarily seen as an attitude or stereotype held about social groups below conscious awareness. Implicit bias has become very important to understand given the decreased frequency of Americans to freely and openly express negative thoughts, feelings and behaviors regarding other racial groups. Implicit bias is everywhere and affects everyone. We all have implicit bias. The impact of our implicit bias on others, however, significantly depends on our social and professional roles in society. Bias held by educators, police officers, physicians, prosecutors and criminal court judges can significantly affect the life outcomes of large segments of society.

Research has revealed that many Americans show a positive implicit bias toward White Americans vs. African Americans, young vs. old and fit vs. obese. Showing a preference for or against any particular group does not mean that a person is prejudiced or will discriminate, but it does suggest that s/he has been repeatedly exposed to certain associations between specific groups and specific traits/characteristics and have stored them in memory. These associations are often very strong and difficult to undue without deliberate effort or ongoing training. It is possible, however, to implement practices or policies that reduce the likelihood that implicitly biased beliefs will lead to biased behaviors.

Objectives:
Participants will understand:

• What is implicit bias?
• What does implicit bias look like in the real world?
• What causes implicit bias?
• How is implicit bias measured?
• How does implicit bias affect the person who holds the bias?
• How does implicit bias affect the attitudes and behaviors of the target group?
• How can implicit bias be reduced/managed at the individual level?

Presenters: Rev. Dr. Bryant T. Marks, Sr., Professor, Morehouse College
When: Wednesday, November 10, 2021, 9:00 am Pacific/12:00 pm Eastern
Duration: 3 hours
Cost: $35.00 per person

The pandemic has had a lasting effect on youth mental health. Moved by a desire to reduce youth’s toxic stress and increase their resilience, The Dibble Institute, in partnership with a team of students and alumni from ArtCenter College of Design and author Carolyn Curtis, PhD, is releasing Me & My Emotions—a new, free adaptation of our beloved Mind Matters Curriculum.

The mobile-friendly Me & My Emotions website features engaging graphics and bite-sized lessons teens can access and practice any time. This digital experience for teens aligns with the same skill sets available in Mind Matters:

• Self-Soothing and Mindfulness Practices
• Managing Stress Effectively
• Developing Empathy
• Developing a life of Intention
• Building and Using a Support System

Check out Me&My Emotions today and share widely!

A webinar offered by the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP)

Thursday, September 30, 1:30 - 3:00 pm EDT Register today.

Addressing the mental health needs of child care providers and children in care is vital in the face of the pandemic, a population-level traumatic event. CTIPP is offering a "plug and play" framework to ease the process of developing a continuum of training, reflective coaching, and consultation to build the capacity for supporting relational health throughout early childhood care and education systems. Funds from the American Rescue Plan can be used to implement this continuum in your state or locality. This webinar will share the framework, describe examples of its effectiveness, and help you get started. You are encouraged to invite a team of decision makers and stakeholders to join you for this webinar.

Featured speakers:

• Suzanne O’Connor, Senior Advocate, Trauma-Informed Region, United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, and CTIPP Board Member

• Jillian Adler, Program Manager, First Up (NAEYC Chapter, Greater Philadelphia)

• Dr. Amy Lynch, Associate Professor, College of Public Health, Temple University

• Drs. Kaitlin Mulcahy and Gerry Costa, Center for Autism and Early Childhood Mental Health, Montclair State University

• Moderator - Marlo Nash, Advisor to CTIPP and Co-Chair of the National Trauma Campaign

Register today. Questions? Contact Marlo Nash or Suzanne O’Connor at earlychildhood@traumacampaign.org.

Becky Antle, Ph.D., Professor of Social Work and esteemed University Scholar at the University of Louisville, won The Dibble Institute’s national competition to evaluate Mind Matters: Overcoming Adversity and Building Resilience in 2019. As a result, Dr. Antle and her colleagues have conducted a randomized controlled trial to examine the impact of Mind Matters on a host of outcomes related to trauma symptoms, emotional regulation, coping and resiliency, and interpersonal skills for at-risk youth in a community-based sample. Youth in the study reported high levels of childhood trauma and related trauma symptoms upon entry into the program. Following provision of this evidence-informed program by trained providers within community-based organizations, youth reported a reduction in trauma symptoms and improvement in resiliency despite a number of complicating risk factors and across multiple demographic groups.

Join the researchers on this project as they discuss their most recent findings from the pilot of Mind Matters with high-needs youth in the Louisville community. They will focus on youth-related outcomes, lessons learned, and tips for implementing the Mind Matters curriculum in a variety of settings with at-risk youth.

Objectives:
Specifically, webinar attendees will learn:

1. How Mind Matters is being implemented in community partnership for at-risk youth with fidelity
2. How Mind Matters is being evaluated using rigorous process and outcomes evaluation methods
3. How Mind Matters is making a difference in the lives of youth served
4. How to use effective implementation and facilitation skills to provide Mind Matters to youth across a variety of settings to achieve positive outcomes

Presenter: Becky Antle, Ph.D., MSSW, MFTA, Professor and University Scholar, Director Center for Family and Community Well-Being, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY.

Who should attend: Program managers, educators, practitioners, community workers, evaluators, policy makers, advocates, counselors, trauma workers, curriculum reviewers, and anyone interested in working with youth.

When: Wednesday, October 13, 2021, 4:00 pm Eastern/1:00 pm Pacific

Duration: 60 minutes

Cost: Free!

^{Representative Valerie Longhurst (l) and Senator Marie Pinkney (r) of Delaware}

A bill to address the mental health needs of children in Delaware (HB 100) passed both the House and Senate unanimously in June and now awaits Governor John Carney’s signature.

Strong support for the bill came from the Delaware State Education Association (DSEA), said Deb Stevens, director of instructional advocacy at DSEA. DSEA and the Department of Education collaborate on PreK-12 trauma/resilience issues and work closely with Trauma Matters Delaware (TMD), said Leslie Brower, TMD director.

The bill establishes a “mental health unit” for Delaware elementary schools that requires a ratio of 250 full-time equivalent students grades K-5 for a full-time school counselor, school social worker, or licensed clinical social worker. Employment of a full-time school psychologist is required for 700 full time equivalent students for grades K-5. Mental health services are defined as “prevention, response, and coordination services delivered to students in elementary schools.”

DSEA is hopeful the governor will sign HB 100 soon, despite his concerns about the cost of the bill. Dwyer says his heart is supportive but his deep convictions about fiscal responsibility have dampened his enthusiasm for the legislation.

Kristin Dwyer, DSEA director of legislation and political organizing, says the bill is a game-changer for addressing trauma.

"For every 250 elementary students in a local education agency (LEA)—a district public school or charter—the LEA earns a unit of funding that can be used to hire elementary school counselors, licensed clinical social workers, or school social workers," she explains. "For every 750 elementary students in a LEA, the LEA earns a unit of funding for either a school psychologist or licensed mental health therapist. The LEA ultimately decides what position to use the unit for. The bill goes on to add that if there are fractional units earned (for instance if a LEA earns 1.5 units), the LEA can use the fractional (.5) as cash to support mental health services district wide regardless of age.”

The bill will create about 300 positions in elementary schools around the state at a cost of $26 million, Dwyer says, aligning with Executive Order 24 that pushes out trauma-informed practices in all state policies. She says it will provide teachers with the ability to access the expertise of mental health professions when student needs require more than simple de-escalation. In addition to students, school personnel from the principal to the office secretary, often the first contact with families in crisis, will benefit from this expertise and support, she says. A bridge to services to address needs such as homelessness and food insecurity, which have been exacerbated by COVID, is enhanced by this additional capacity in schools.

Dwyer says the bill has wide support among Democrats and Republicans who reported that they have seen the need in their communities whether urban, suburban, and rural.  She gave “1000% credit” to the bill sponsors—Representative Valerie Longhurst and House Majority Leader and Senator Marie Pinkney, a trauma social worker for a healthcare organization. She said that hundreds of supportive communications sent to legislators and an ad on the bill received thousands of page views. Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings also penned an op-ed in support of the bill, addressing the need for mental health services as a strategy to reduce justice-involvement by young students.

The preamble of the bill includes several statements that recognize the pervasiveness of trauma and its impact on learning. It says students come to school with “significant unmet needs that impact the students’ ability to learn in school, such as hunger, homelessness, trauma, mental health issues” and “without adequate resources to support our students, these challenges manifest as frequent, and at times severe, disruptions in school that impact learning and affect all our students.”

This bill will provide significant financial support for needed mental health expertise, boosting the work already done in Delaware through the Compassionate Schools Program and other initiatives in individual school districts. One example in the Colonial School District in New Castle illustrates how trauma-informed practices are being embedded in school environments in the state.

An example of practice to policy

Trauma-informed approaches are foundational to the work of Khayree Bey, 2021 Colonial School District Teacher of the Year. A July 19 article by Cris Barrish for WHYY, reported on a meeting organized by the Delaware Lt. Governor, Bethany Hall-Long, that featured Bey’s work to teach mindfulness and yoga to students and educators in the Colonial School District.

“Our kids come to school with an invisible backpack," said Bey, "and in that invisible backpack, a lot of time, is trauma.’’

The event included educators, politicians, and child advocates, and showcased the district’s commitment to the social and emotional well-being of its students, according to the article. The Colonial School District is one of 19 school districts in Delaware and is located in the city of New Castle. New Castle is one of three counties in the state.

In his District biosketch, Bey is described as being proud of “his equity work with the District, and co-facilitates numerous equity-based trauma and poverty informed book studies, zoom lectures, and more saying, 'I believe this is important because our students arrive at school with a tremendous amount of trauma from toxic stress. This trauma directly impedes their ability to excel academically, physically, socially and emotionally.'”

Bey addressed a panel that included Amy and Patrick Kennedy who live in New Jersey but have close ties with people in nearby Delaware. Amy Kennedy is a former teacher in New Jersey and Education Director of The Kennedy Forum founded by Patrick Kennedy, a former U.S. congressman from Rhode Island, that focuses on mental health advocacy, with an emphasis on insurance parity for mental health services. In addition to The Kennedy Forum that has a national reach, there is The Kennedy Forum Illinois (KFI). Recently, Jane Stevens, founder and publisher of PACEs Connection, moderated a webinar sponsored by KFI with support from Aetna and Trilogy Behavioral Healthcare. Here is the link to the webinar “Beyond Employee Assistance Programs: How Organizations Can Take Care of Those, Taking Care of Others.”