Tagged With "Cultivating Purpose in Uncertain Times"
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2018 October Agenda and Meeting Minutes
Agenda and meeting minutes from the October 2018 Dutchess County ACES Task Force.
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2018 September Agenda and Meeting Minutes
Agenda and meeting minutes for the September 2018 Meeting of the Dutchess County ACES Task Force.
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2019 January Agenda and Meeting Minutes
Agenda, meeting minutes and attachments for the January 2019 Dutchess County ACES Task Force meeting.
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5 Reasons Addressing ACEs is Good Corporate Social Responsibility
While Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can potentially increase a company’s profit over time, CSR is best demonstrated with dramatic improvement in the lives of employees who have suffered from Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).
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7 Ways to Help a Child Deal with Traumatic Stress (www.attachmenttraumanetwork.org)
To grow and learn, we must try new things. The process of struggling, tolerating failures, and prevailing builds confidence and the deep feeling of “I can do it.” But we–especially children–lose the positive aspects of struggle and stress when the amount of stress, especially traumatic stress, becomes too great and/or sustained. Persistent and long-lasting stress on the mind and body caused by overwhelming emotions leads to traumatic stress, a condition characterized by a nervous system in...
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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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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 is Right to Focus on Adverse Childhood Experiences. Other States Should Follow [calmatters.org]
By Chuck Ingoglia (Guest), Cal Matters, February 2, 2020 It’s time to change the conversation in health care. Rather than asking, “What is wrong with this person?” medical professionals might ask, “What happened to this person?” California Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris and an increasing number of practitioners are changing the conversation because they recognize that trauma early in life—child separation, racism, neglect, abuse or poverty, for instance—can manifest itself years later...
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'Children Live a Lifetime Before They Come to School' | Teachers Working to Ease Childhood Trauma [wbir.com]
By Gabrielle Hays, WBIR 10 News, February 10, 2020 Melissa Bucks spent 36 years of her life teaching kindergarteners and first graders in Knox County. She just retired in May but is still involved in the classroom and in the community. After almost four decades in education, she can recall how trauma in the classroom changed over time and how it impacts some of our youngest children who are trying to learn. “It was always different but there was always one child, two children or three...
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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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Director's Note about tonight's PBS broadcast of Broken Places (4//6)
The film trailer is available here. Learn more about Broken Places via this review written by @Laurie Udesky (ACEs Connection Staff) entitled, Documentary Broken Places uses archival footage to tell stories of ACEs and resilience over time . Tonight's Airing: Check your local listing time here. Film clips and more viewer information can be found on the PBS website .
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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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Foster Care Entries for Parental Drug Use Surge [usnews.com]
By Katelyn Newman, US News & World Report, July 15, 2019. INCIDENTS OF CHILDREN entering America's foster system as a result of their parents' drug use have surged since 2000, new research shows, coinciding with the country's recent opioid crisis. Using case data from the federally mandated Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, researchers from Cornell and Harvard universities found that 1,162,668 – or nearly 24% – of 4,972,911 entries of children into foster care...
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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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I Was Pregnant When He Hit Me. Here’s #WhyIStayed. (www.thedailybeast.com)
Author: Anonymous Updated Apr. 14, 2017 2:49PM ET / Published Sep. 10, 2014 5:55AM ET I was eight weeks pregnant with my second child when my husband hit me. To be fair, he told me that he would kill me while he throttled my neck, and once I broke free I tried desperately to fight back. Then he hit me. Open hand right across the face, so hard it felt like a punch. We were about to go to sleep, but I decided to tease him about his weird habit of having the pillow a certain way on the bed.
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New Study Details The Long Shadows Cast on Children After Parents Are Locked Up [centerforhealthjournalism.org]
By Giles Bruce, Center for Health Journalism, August 26, 2019 Incarcerating parents doesn’t just affect them, but can also have a major mental health impact on the children left behind, even as those kids become adults. That’s the crux of a new study published in JAMA Network Open that crystallizes the long-term psychological effects of having a caregiver behind bars. It comes at a time when an estimated 8% of American children have had a parent or guardian imprisoned. Previous research has...
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“Not Fragile”: Survivor-Led Mutual Aid Projects Flourish in a Time of Crisis (www.madinamerica.com)
Excerpts from the recent piece by writer, @Leah Harris , published in Mad in America . To read the rest of this piece by @Leah Harris , published in Mad in America , please click here.
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Parent with ACEs: Is it Time to Change Your Parenting Playbook [sfbayview.com]
By Diana Hembree, San Francisco Bay View, February 1, 2020 If you experienced severe hardship as a child, are you more likely to have children with behavior or mental health problems? The short answer is yes. A recent UCLA study shows that the children of parents with four or more Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), such as abuse or neglect, are twice as likely to develop ADHD, which makes it more likely children will become hyperactive and unable to pay attention or control their...
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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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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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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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The Hidden Trauma of "Short Stays" in Foster Care [themarshallproject.org]
By Eli Hager, The Marshall Project, February 11, 2020 The children usually arrived in the dead of night, silent and terrified. For two years, Daniel Derkacs and Ashley Keiler-Green, foster parents in Albuquerque, New Mexico, regularly took in kids whose parents were suspected of abusing or neglecting them. Sometimes, as the couple scrambled to find pajamas for their latest house guest, they couldn’t help but wonder if they’d just met a child who would be with them for years to come. But they...
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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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Two Boys with the Same Disability Tried to Get Help. The Rich Student Got it Quickly. The Poor Student Did Not. [usatoday.com]
By Mike Elsen-Rooney, USA Today, February 10, 2020 For both boys, the struggles at school started in the first grade. Isaac Rosenthal was a fast talker with a big vocabulary. But when it came time to read, he couldn’t keep up with his classmates. He didn’t pick up on the rhyme scheme in Dr. Seuss books, and often mispronounced words whose meaning he knew (like “Pacific,” for which he’d substitute “the other ocean”). Landon Rodriguez, four years younger than Isaac, was energetic and talkative...
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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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What We Can Do About Toxic Stress [developingchild.harvard.edu]
By the Center on the Developing Child Harvard University. As adults, experiencing toxic stress that just doesn’t let up—caused by things like violence or poverty, not being able to find a job, or not having enough to eat or a place to live—can feel overwhelming, like a heavy burden. Much like a truck that’s been loaded down with too much weight so it can’t move forward, these difficult circumstances can make it challenging to get through life. It can make you feel like you can only plan one...
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When Mothers are Killed by Their Partners, Children Often Become 'Forgotten' Victims. It's Time They Were Given a Voice [theconversation.com]
By Silke Meyer, The Conversation, October 6, 2019 Last month, eight women died as the result of male violence in Australia. Five were within one week. In six of the cases, the alleged perpetrator was a current or former partner. These figures seem all too familiar. This time last year, seven of the nine women allegedly killed by a male perpetrator were in the context of an intimate relationship. And like this time last year, media coverage, national and political outcry remained relatively...
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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 Parents Need a Little Self-Compassion (greatergood.berkeley.edu)
Some parents misunderstand self-compassion and dismiss it as being self-centered, indulgent, or lazy. They fear it might lead to self-pity or that, if they aren’t tough enough, their kids will slack off and won’t be motivated or disciplined. But a growing body of research by Kristin Neff and her colleagues suggests that self-compassion is an antidote to self-pity. It helps us cope with tough situations like divorce and trauma, keeps us motivated, and helps us be more supportive and caring in...
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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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The Health Care System Has the Black Community in a Choke Hold [chcf.org]
By Vanessa Grubbs, California Health Care Foundation, August 4, 2020 It was the Black woman’s third trip to the emergency department because she was feeling short of breath. She was starting to panic. She knew the COVID-19 death toll was climbing and that it was far worse for Black people than white people , and yet the doctors told her to go home again. But this time she pleaded, “If you all don’t admit me to the hospital, I’m going to die. I can’t breathe.” This is the story told by Sheila...
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"A Better Normal" Community Discussion Series- Our Reckoning with Race and Equity at ACEs Connection
Register for A Better Normal- Our reckoning with race and equity at ACEs Connection
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What Defines Domestic Abuse? Survivors Say It’s More Than Assault (NY Times)
The Congresswoman Cori Bush and the musician FKA twigs describe how manipulative, isolating conduct known as “coercive control” helped trap them in abusive relationships. Lawmakers are starting to listen.
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It’s Time for Philanthropy to Be Brave (nationswell.com)
Amid the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and racial injustice, we’ve seen how untenable and inequitable our society’s way of life has become. If we are to truly build back better — a phrase coined by disaster relief experts and championed by many, including President Joe Biden, during 2020 — then we must also build a better, braver philanthropy: one that eschews tinkering around the edges of a broken system, for supporting ambitious new solutions that shape new systems where everyone has a right...
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'Handle With Care' App Informs Schools of Students Experiencing Trauma at Home [timesofsandiego.com]
By City News Service, Time of San Diego, February 3, 2021 Local prosecutors, police, and school officials Wednesday announced the creation of an app aimed at aiding students who have recently experienced trauma that may be affecting their behavior and performance at school. The “Handle with Care” app allows police to inform schools if a student has recently experienced a traumatic event such as domestic violence in the home, the arrest of a family member or a violent crime, which may lead...
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ACEs Research Corner — February 2021
[Editor's note: Dr. Harise Stein at Stanford University edits a web site — abuseresearch.info — that focuses on the health effects of abuse, and includes research articles on ACEs. Every month, she posts the summaries of the abstracts and links to research articles that address only ACEs. Thank you, Harise!! -- Jane Stevens] Walker CS, Walker BH, Brown DC, Buttross S, Sarver DE. Defining the role of exposure to ACEs in ADHD: Examination in a national sample of US children. Child Abuse Negl.
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Anxiety, Depression and Working Moms in a Pandemic
Covid-19 is a challenging time for all of us. People are limited to their homes, and social distancing is the requirement of the time to stay protected from this contagious virus. Although social distancing is the only thing stopping the spread of the virus, it is also becoming the number 1 cause of anxiety and depression. People worldwide from all walks of life are suffering the psychological effects of isolation, and working moms are not an exception. They experienced a unique pressure...
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Childhood friendship and problems of communication with friends
Being a parent is hard work that moms and dads do, often without special skills and training. And if you successfully manage to cope with the problems of small children that arise in the family circle, then keep your sanity and respond correctly to the child's experiences, for example, due to the lack of friends in kindergarten, on the street, or at school, sometimes might be challenging. So, for most parents, the life of their child seems successful and happy when a son or daughter is in a...
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Easy Tricks to Improve your Relationship with the Child
How often do we hug children or express our love? How to improve relationships with children, to be not just a parent, but also a trusted friend, with whom they feel real closeness? Why relationships are deteriorating When children are very young, up to three years old, they very much feel the emotional state of their mother. If she is tired, irritated, or anxious, the child will be naughty too. Also, at this time, mothers are trying to wean the babies from their hands, and the children do...
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How PTSD Can Affect Self-Confidence
People who have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will oftentimes struggle with low self-esteem . PTSD can directly impact your relationships , disrupt your daily life, and cause depression. PTSD also causes feelings of worthlessness and negative thought patterns that can directly impact how you navigate the world and how you feel about yourself. While PTSD can take months to years to overcome, there are some steps you can take to positively encourage a healthier self-esteem and a...
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Tackling the Housing Crisis and Bridging Generational Divides Through Home-Sharing [ssir.org]
By Noelle Marcus, Illustration by Gracia Lam, Stanford Social Innovation Review, March 22, 2021 The policies and resources devoted to housing security for Americans fall devastatingly short of meeting the need. Since 2017, nearly half of renters have spent 30 percent or more of their incomes on housing costs—an unsustainable portion, according to The US Department of Housing and Urban Development. And today, an unprecedented and long-term housing crisis looms, with an estimated 40 million...
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How to Build Healthy Parent-Child Communication When Kids Don't Listen
Child growth and development are coupled with various challenges that parents deal with as part of what is needed to make them responsible human beings. Teaching your child how to listen and communicate effectively are some of the basic skills that are taught. However, children don’t listen on some occasions. It can be frustrating for a parent that does not know what to do. Raising children that don’t listen is common. This usually, is a hindrance to effective parent-child communication.
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Amid pandemic, infants especially need quality child care, reformers say [edsource.org]
By Karen D'Souza, EdSource, April 6, 2021 Children are born ready to learn. In the first year of life, the brain doubles, with about 90% of brain growth happening before kindergarten. However, only 1 in 3 eligible children under 5 years old take part in California’s publicly funded early learning and care programs. To make matters worse this year, 3 out of 4 California parents with children under 5 are worried their education and development will suffer because of the pandemic, according to...
Member
Natashea Winters
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Parent-Child Conflicts: Resolution Options
What creates a conflict situation and leads to the "heat of passions"? Obviously, the point is a clash of interests between the parent and the child, which gives rise to a conflict.
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A Strengths-Based Approach Brings HOPE to ACEs
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released its first in a series of reports called “Snapshots” after polling 3,000+ parents about their experiences during the pandemic. Surprisingly, while many of the findings were concerning, most people reported a deepening relationship with their children despite the stress and tension they were experiencing.