Tagged With "Center for Youth Wellness"
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2019 April Task Force Agenda & Meeting Minutes
April 2019 Dutchess County ACES Task Force agenda & meeting minutes
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2019 February Agenda and Meeting Minutes
Agenda and meeting minutes for the February 2019 Dutchess County ACES Task Force.
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2019 June Task Force Meeting Agenda and Minutes
The agenda and minutes for the June 2019 ACEs Task Force Meeting.
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2019 March Agenda & Meeting Minutes
Agenda and meeting minutes for the March 2019 meeting of the Dutchess County ACES Task Force
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2019 May Agenda and Meeting Minutes
Agenda and meeting minutes for the May 2019 meeting of the Dutchess County ACES Task Force.
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2019 State Trends in Child Well-Being [aecf.org]
By the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The 30th edition of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT® Data Book begins by exploring how America’s child population — and the American childhood experience — has changed since 1990. And there’s some good news to share: Of the 16 areas of child well-being tracked across four domains — health, education, family and community and economic well-being — 11 have improved since the Foundation published its first Data Book 30 editions ago. The rest of the...
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75 Calm Down Strategies for Kids
I came across this webpage and wanted to share with my parent and caregiver small groups. My intern typed it up into a handout. Feel free to share.
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A Trauma-Informed Approach to Teaching Through Coronavirus - for Students Everywhere, Online or Not [washingtonpost.com]
By Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post, March 26, 2020 “Anxiety” is one of the words you hear frequently about our individual and collective reactions to the coronavirus pandemic — which has stopped public life in its tracks in much of the world. Kids are anxious. So are their parents and teachers and principals and superintendents and friends and elected officials. For those people who were anxious before covid-19, the sense of apprehension has only deepened. Given that, this post offers...
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ACEs Connection's Inclusion Tool makes sure nobody's left out
We developed ACEs Connection's Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Tool — called the Inclusion Tool, for short — to ensure that ACEs initiatives across the world focus on being inclusive when forming a steering committee, recruiting leaders, providing education about ACEs science, recruiting members, or providing resources and services within their communities. The more inclusive your ACEs initiative is, the more diverse it will be, giving your initiative a real shot at achieving equity and...
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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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An Athletic Coach-Delivered Middle School Gender Violence Prevention Program [jamanetwork.com]
By Elizabeth Miller, Kelley A. Jones, Lisa Ripper, et al., JAMA Pediatrics, January 13, 2020 Key Points Questions Does an athletic coach–delivered gender violence prevention program for middle school male athletes increase positive bystander behaviors and reduce relationship abuse and sexual violence perpetration among youth athletes? Findings In this cluster randomized clinical trial including 973 male athletes, athletes in schools with sports teams receiving the Coaching Boys Into Men...
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As crisis mounts, researcher explains what lasting stress does to our bodies and biology [centerforhealthjournalism.org]
By Ryan White, Center for Health Journalism, March 18, 2020 Think of the brain, honed by millennia of evolution, as a powerful predictive machine, constantly scanning the horizon for signs of what’s to come. Like an eager young scout, the brain relishes the state of readiness. But what happens when that future is shrouded in a thick fog of uncertainty? Or worse, when that veil conceals real threats to our safety and well-being that exceed our control? That’s essentially the situation we all...
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Bringing mental health care into pediatricians' offices works, finds five-year study [medicalxpress.com]
By Children's Hospital Boston, Medical Xpress, June 11, 2019. A five-year study at Boston Children's Hospital reports success with a program it started in 2013 to bring much-needed behavioral health services directly into primary care pediatricians' offices. As reported today in Pediatrics, the program improved children's access to behavioral health care, with only minor increases in cost, and got high marks from participating pediatric practices. Based on the findings, Boston Children's...
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Cabin Fever Tips for Stir Crazy Kids
Cabin fever grabbed the 3 yr. old boy relentlessly in the winter weather. Grumpiness took over until I offered him a big poster board on the floor and crayons-to-boot, suggesting he use his whole body to get all those tense feelings out. He jumped into the activity like a thirsty horse heading for water. His whole body swiveled and swerved, moving with the action of the crayons. He continued until he was out of breath, then leaned back and looked at his creative expression of tension leaving...
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California Considers Decriminalizing Truancy [Chronicle of Social Change]
By Mauricio Tellez-Sanchez, August 29, 2019, for Chronicle for Social Change California Assembly Bill 901 would instruct schools to refer habitually truant students in California to community-based organizations rather than juvenile court. The California State Senate will vote Friday on a measure that seeks to decriminalize truancy and limit the power of probation departments to work with youth who have not been charged with any crime through “voluntary probation” programs. Assembly Bill...
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Coaches and Team Sports Can Help Children Heal from Trauma
Recent media attention has been given to connection between sports and its powerful effect on youth, particularly the power of sport to help youth heal from trauma. A recent study published in JAMA Pediatrics by Molly Easterline has caught national media attention including the recent article in the New York Times “ Team Sports May Help Children Deal With Trauma ” (by Perri Klass) and NPR’s “Playing Teen Sports May Protect from Some Damages of Childhood Trauma ” by Susie Neilson. These...
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Doctors Warn of Health Effects of Trump Immigration Changes [sfgate.com]
By Sophia Tareen, Associated Press, August 18, 2019 Diabetics skipping regular checkups. Young asthmatics not getting preventive care. A surge in expensive emergency room visits. Doctors and public health experts warn of poor health and rising costs they say will come from sweeping Trump administration changes that would deny green cards to many immigrants who use Medicaid, as well as food stamps and other forms of public assistance. Some advocates say they’re already seeing the fallout even...
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Fighting ACEs Amid the Pandemic
When a pandemic hits, and suddenly nothing is the same, it’s a sobering opportunity to take a deep breath and to take stock. At Center for Child Counseling, we specialize in childhood trauma and Fighting ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and we'll keep doing what we so best...
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Homeless Students Suffer Consequences of Housing, Food Insecurity | Homeless, Butte County [chicoer.com]
By Natalie Hanson, Chico Enterprise-Record, January 16, 2020 At least 70% of Oroville’s high school students are considered socioeconomically-disadvantaged. In Chico, Between 400 and 500 children are categorized as housing insecure at any time during the Chico Unified School district’s school year. Across the county, thousands of students often rely on each district for help just to get to school and to get a meal. In these statistics a tragic side is seen in the Butte County homelessness...
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How Childhood Trauma Can Result in Workplace Violence
Considering the role of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in a person’s life can prove useful in understanding and mitigating the risk of workplace violence.
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How Early-Life Challenges Affect how Children Focus, Face the Day [Washington.edu]
By Kim Eckart, UW News, June 4, 2019 Experiences such as poverty, residential instability, or parental divorce or substance abuse, also can lead to changes in a child’s brain chemistry, muting the effects of stress hormones. These hormones rise to help us face challenges, stress or to simply “get up and go.” Together, these impacts to executive function and stress hormones create a snowball effect, adding to social and emotional challenges that can continue through childhood. A new...
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Introductory Trauma-Informed Care Videos for Medical Providers – in English and Spanish (chcs.org)
How do our experiences as children shape our health as adults? What does it mean to be trauma-informed, and what does trauma-informed care look like in a health care setting? Two videos, “What is Trauma-Informed Care?” and “Trauma-Informed Care: From Treaters to Healers,” developed by the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS), seek to answer these questions and shed light on why health care providers across the nation are embracing a trauma-informed approach to care. The 3-4 minute videos...
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Leading an Organization Through the COVID-19 Crisis [blog.boardsource.org]
By Phil Buchanan, BoardSource, March 26, 2020 Editor’s note: Running an organization is a huge responsibility on its own, but doing so in today’s environment is truly a different beast. We are in uncharted waters. This post, originally published as a series of tweets by Phil Buchanan — president of the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) and author of "Giving Done Right: Effective Philanthropy and Making Every Dollar Count" — touches on 15 things to keep in mind as you adjust to the many...
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Medical students' ACE scores mirror general population, study finds
A national survey published in 2014 revealed a disturbing finding. Compared to college graduates pursuing other professions, medical students, residents and early career physicians experienced a higher degree of burnout. Citing that article, a group of researchers at University of California at Davis School of Medicine wondered whether medical students’ childhood adversity and resilience played a role in their burnout, said Dr. Andres Sciolla, an associate professor of psychiatry and...
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New Findings Reveal How Early Life Trauma May Contribute to Functional Neurological Disorder [technologynetworks.com]
By Terri Janos, Technology Networks, February 15, 2020 In individuals with functional neurological disorder (FND), the brain generally appears structurally normal on clinical MRI scans but functions incorrectly (akin to a computer software crashing), resulting in patients experiencing symptoms including limb weakness, tremor, gait abnormalities and non-epileptic seizures. In some cases, childhood maltreatment may have been a contributing factor, yet links between risk factors such as...
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Parenting with ACEs Resources: Power Sharing & Sharing Powerfully
Sharing as a trauma survivor, parent (via adoption), writer, and advocate, I'm going to detail what I find crucial in any program or perspective geared towards those currently parenting with ACEs. Most important, is that any program be survivor and peer-led (or co-led). If that's the only change done, it's a good one. Who shares content, and how, is as important as the content being shared. So often, programs to parents are patronizing, punitive, and can come across as "edupuking" all over...
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Pediatric research: COVID-19 will lead to more childhood trauma. Health care must take it into account. [dispatch.com]
By Abbie Roth, The Columbus Dispatch, May 3, 2020 You might have seen the headlines warning that, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the current mental health crisis facing youth in the United States will only worsen. Like adults, children are experiencing new or intensified stressors as a result of the pandemic, including loss of routine, separation from friends and extended family, and increased anxiety and frustration. Some more extreme stressors — food insecurity, loss of a parent or...
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Permission to be actual humans during a pandemic, please
I have a single mom friend who is caring for a baby, a 16-year old, and working full-time. Her name is Heidi. This is the same friend, with an ACE score of 10, written about here a few years ago. This is what she posted on Facebook (and gave me permission to share) the day after Governor Charlie Baker announced the schools in MA will be closed, at least, until early May: The numerous and immediate comments and responses went something like this: I sighed in relief when I read Heidi's post. I...
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Pinetree Institute Podcast With Dr. Christina Bethell: Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) and ACEs.
The Pinetree Institute is a Maine non-profit located on the NH border in Eliot. They conduct research and present workshops on ACEs and resilience. A workshop with Dr. Christina Bethell was scheduled for today, but was cancelled because of COVID-19. Dr. Bethell's field of expertise is PCE (Positive Childhood Experiences) and their role in combatting ACEs and promoting resilience throughout the lifetime. Because of the circumstances, Pinetree Institute is offering a 40 minute podcast in which...
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Playing Teen Sports May Protect From Some Damages Of Childhood Trauma (npr.org)
Playing Teen Sports May Protect From Some Damages Of Childhood Trauma May 28, 2019 4:43 PM ET SUSIE NEILSON Participation in team sports as a teen may help protect against the long-term mental health effects of childhood trauma. Hero Images/Getty Images As a child, Molly Easterlin loved playing sports. She started soccer at age 4, and then in high school, she played tennis and ran track. Sports, Easterlin believes, underlie most of her greatest successes. They taught her discipline and...
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Powerful Federal Hearing on "Identifying, Preventing and Treating Childhood Trauma"
Riveting and emotional: The full, first-ever Congressional hearing on “Identifying, Preventing, and Treating Childhood Trauma” by the Oversight Committee chaired by Representative Elijah Cummings. Across the hearing, the story of developmental trauma is well-conveyed and powerful.
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Practicing Love in a Pandemic (lionsroar.com)
Practicing love requires that we stop thinking only about our own wellbeing and consider how our actions impact everyone. Paradoxically, it means the most important thing we ourselves can do is to stay well. Maintaining our own good health will put less stress on the healthcare system and free up resources to help those who are sick and need care. It will also prevent the spread of the illness to those who are at higher risk to die from complications of Covid-19. Practicing love in a...
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Real Strategies to End Bullying - what gets assessed gets addressed.
October is National Bullying Prevention Month and we'd like to shed some light on this global epidemic that is greatly affecting our youth: 1 in 3 students are targets of bullying 12,000,000 students will be bullied this year 100,000 kids skip school each day because they do not feel safe Learn how experts are tackling bullying through data tracking, relationship mapping, community organizing, and more. Educators will walk away with a real roadmap that they can use and implement right away...
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Resource List for Health Care Providers (updated 6.20.19)
A list of resources for health care providers on trauma informed care and ACEs If you find other resources, this list can be updated.
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Resources 4 Resilience (www.r4r.support) & Commentary
We have the best community. And it feels like a community even more right now when things are scary, threatening, and uncertain. Yesterday, Jondi Whitis shared an amazing resource yesterday, by way of a comment, that's great for parents, survivors, providers, and families (all of us). I am making it a blog post in case others missed it or are overwhelmed, as I have been, by sifting through the information coming at us. The home page lets you easily find practices for calming. Here's one...
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Screening for Childhood Trauma
Dr. Ken Epstein has been in the social services sector for nearly four decades and has witnessed firsthand the long-term effects of trauma. As both the son and father of fellow social workers, the work runs in his blood. Now, he’s helping Bay Area health clinics screen for and address childhood trauma through the Resilient Beginnings Collaborative (RBC), led by Center for Care Innovations (CCI) and made possible by Genentech.
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Study Confirms Serious Health Problems, High Trauma Rates Among Unsheltered People in U.S. [newsroom.ucla.edu]
By Sean Coffey, UCLA Newsroom, October 7, 2019 A report released today finds that physical and mental health care needs as well as abuse and traumatic experiences are major contributing factors to a loss of housing for unsheltered people, especially unsheltered women. A research team at the California Policy Lab analyzed survey responses from more than 64,000 single adults ages 25 and older who were experiencing sheltered or unsheltered homelessness in 15 states across the U.S. from 2015...
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The Healing Place Podcast - Lara Kain - Creating and Supporting Resilient and Trauma-Informed Schools and Communities
As the Southern California community facilitator for ACEs Connection and independent consultant, Lara brings her deep understanding of the importance of schools as community drivers for change. Lara is an experienced educator and consultant who speaks nationally on implementing trauma-informed practices in schools and building holistic, trauma-responsive systems.
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The Importance of Positive Emotional Communication Starting From Infancy
“Why do some children become sad, withdrawn, insecure, or angry, whereas others become happy, curious, affectionate, and self-confident?” It has something to do with emotions and emotional communication.
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Trauma-Informed Care News and Notes for January 2020
ACEs, Adversity's Impact Grief vs. traumatic grief California launches "ACEs Aware" initiative to address the public health crisis of toxic stress from childhood trauma After Bryce Gowdy's suicide, lets elevate the conversation about poverty's effects on youth Association of adverse experiences and exposure to violence in childhood and adolescence with inflammatory burden in young people Hard choices: How moving on and off reservations can increase the risk of homelessness for American...
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Trump Administration Approves Vouchers for Housing After Foster Care [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
By John Kelly, The Chronicle of Social Change, July 25, 2019 Earlier this year, we reported on the case made by current and former foster youths to use existing authority at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to connect youth aging out of care with housing supports. The Chronicle of Social Change has learned that, after a thorough review of the policy by HUD’s general counsel, the agency is set this week to approve this and notify thousands of public housing authorities.
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Two studies shed light on state legislators’ views on ACEs science and trauma policy
New and returning lawmakers take the oath of office on day one of Washington state's 2017 legislative session. — Jeanie Lindsay/Northwest News Network As advocates prepare to see how ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) science, trauma, and resilience play out in the 2020 state legislative sessions — many beginning in January — they are undoubtedly asking: “What does a legislator want?" It may be a stretch to play on Freud’s question: “What does a women want?", but the query captures how...
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Ways to Counter the Effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences [psychologytoday.com]
By Veronika Tait, Psychology Today, October 4, 2019 Groundbreaking research conducted in the 1990s found that the greater number of negative childhood experiences a person had, the more likely they were to experience poor health outcomes later in life such as heart disease, liver disease, and cancer. A new study published in the journal Child Abuse and Neglect has found that positive experiences, such as having a teacher who cares about them, can buffer against these negative outcomes.
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Webinar Oct. 17 — Integrating ACEs science in pediatrics: Early adopters share lessons from the field
An ACEs Connection webinar co-sponsored with 4 CA In 2017, California became the first state in the country to pass a law supporting universal screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in the 5.3 million children in the state’s Medicaid program. As clinicians around California await the state’s announcement of what this new policy will entail, many are wondering what it takes to integrate ACEs science in a pediatric practice. Meet Drs. Deirdre Bernard-Pearl, R.J. Gillespie and...
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Whole People Series & Study Guide (www.pbs.org)
There's a fantastic five-part series, Whole People , done by PBS, " spotlighting the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) through personal and community stories. It explores the long-term costs to personal well-being and our society. While much work needs to be done, there are many innovative developments to prevent and treat ACES. We all play a role in becoming a whole people." It's amazing. The five topics covered are as follows: Childhood Trauma Healing Communities A New...
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Why We Need to Talk About the Serious Health Implications of Childhood Trauma [yahoo.com]
By Mary Wilde, Yahoo Lifestyle, March 18, 2020 Despite four years of medical school, three years of residency and over a decade in practice, I was never taught the profound connection between high childhood stress and increased risk of chronic disease. It was at a community event sponsored by our local school district that I first learned it, as I watched the documentary entitled, “Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope.” Suddenly, the medical education I had been...
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YOUNG PEOPLE ARE USING MUSICAL THEATER TO HEAL THEIR TRAUMA — AND IT’S WORKING [Nation Swell]
STORYCATCHERS HELPS JUSTICE-INVOLVED YOUTH FIND THEIR VOICES AND RESOLVE OLD TRAUMAS BY MAKING THEM THE STARS OF THE SHOW. Storycatchers Theatre — also known as Storycatchers — is a nonprofit musical theater group that works with justice-involved youth in Chicago. Through programming both inside and outside of the justice centers, children and young adults turn their life stories into musicals. [For more on this story, written by Nation Swell, go to:...
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Greater Richmond Trauma Informed Community Network, first to join ACEs Cooperative of Communities, shows what it means to ROCK!
In 2012, Greater Richmond SCAN and five other community partners hatched a one-year plan to educate the Richmond, Virginia, community about ACEs science and to embed trauma-informed practices. Eight years later, the original group has evolved into the Greater Richmond Trauma-Informed Community Network (GRTICN) with 495 people and 170 organizations. And they're just scratching the surface.
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Massachusetts Prepares for Children's Mental Health Needs During Covid
Months into the pandemic, we know the Covid-19 virus doesn’t just pose a threat to our physical health: it has serious repercussions for our individual and collective mental health too. Given ACEs Connection members’ interest in trauma-informed initiatives that support the needs of children, the Massachusetts Childhood Trauma Task Force (CTTF) wants to share its recent report on Covid-19 and children’s mental health.
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'A Better Normal:' Can universal ACEs screening be equitable? -- Concerns and solutions
Can universal ACEs screening be equitable? A conversation about concerns and solutions. When: Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2-3:30 pm PDT/5-6:30 pm EDT This webinar explores what it takes to ensure that equity is built into the process of screening and providing support for families who have experienced trauma and want help. REGISTER HERE Background At the beginning of this year, California, through the ACEs Aware initiative began rolling out universal screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs),...