Tagged With "Children's Trust Fund Alliance"
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Trauma Informed Congregations - A Strategy Document
Hi Folks, I have recently been trained as an ACE Master Trainer through the Children's Trust of South Carolina . In the training we received materials from ACE Interface . My special interest is working with churches and ministries to educate and equip them to be better trauma-informed and to increase the resilience of members of their congregation and of the communities members they serve. Myself and another Master Trainer have presented information on ACEs to a small group of people at a...
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Welcoming Communities for New Americans & People on the Margins TiCong Linear Plan
Hello All, Attached is first draft Linear Plan for Building Welcoming Communities. Please edit away and track changes then send your edits to Kimberly dot Konkel at hhs dot gov and I will incorporate them. Shalom, Kimberly
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RESPITE Conference
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RESPITE Conference | Building a Trauma-Informed Community
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6 Critical Questions Parents & Teens Should Ask Today (ywmovement.org)
Image: ejlri.wordpress.com Thank you to ACEs Connection San Diego State University Group member, Maralisa Deguzman, for sharing this article. As a former teacher-turned-youth director, I can attest to the power of sharing ideas among trusted co-workers. Why re-invent the wheel when you can steal great ideas from others and apply them to your own situation? I had the opportunity to do just that recently when I sought ways to improve communication between my high school youth and their...
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A big problem for our future – 40% of children lack secure attachment
Posted on October 23, 2014 by Linda Jacobs Many infants who live in a stressed single-parent home face attachment issues. The single parent, which could be a mom or a dad, might be in a state of shock and barely surviving. They take...
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A "Trauma-informed Lord's Prayer" by & for children, written in chapel at Intermountain
In a previous post , I explained that this fall I worked with the children on understanding and interpreting the Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer, or "Our Father," posed many interesting opportunities to discuss themes that each and ever one of us struggle with. It was a challenge preparing a lesson for children with emotional disturbance dealing with complicated teachings in scripture. It was an exercise in combatting "Christian-ese" and the simple Sunday school answers (you know... when in...
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ACEs Science Champion Dr. Angela Bymaster: This Faith-Based Physician Integrates ACEs Science with Healing Arts
Dr. Angela Bymaster, a family physician at Washington Elementary School in San Jose, CA, operates her clinic in a portable unit on the school property.
Because the unit faces students as they are dropped off by their families, she gets to “pick up the kids” before they are sent to the clinic, practicing “upstream medicine.”
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Advocacy centers help abuse victims tell their story, regain trust, heal [National Catholic Reporter]
WASHINGTON — On a long, low shelf at Safe Shores in downtown Washington, colorful figurines of wild animals, army soldiers, a winged dragon and an angel appear to be the toy collection of an overly neat child. It's the "sand tray room," where young survivors of sexual assault arrange figures in a tray of sand to tell stories about their experiences, often, too difficult to put into words. One 10-year-old girl, abused by her father, remained silent through five sessions of therapy. Only after...
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Advocating for Rachel, Part One - insights from Intermountain Board member and friend, Crystal Amundson
Note: Crystal Amundson LCPC, RPT-S runs a private practice in Helena, Montana, where she works as a child play therapist. Crystal specializes in Play Therapy, working with children ages 2-12, alongside their caregivers. She is a previous employee and current board member at Intermountain. Her passion and expertise is in the field of early childhood mental health. Crystal prepared this case study with accompanying prompts for action by faith-based groups and community groups that hope to make...
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An ACES Presentation as a Sermon
My 45-minute Understanding ACES teaching was delivered on Sunday to a church in Rock Hill, South Carolina. This will be followed by a special weekly series that addresses the Christian/biblical solution to the many spiritual risk factors that stem from early life trauma.
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Be trained to lead a Life Changing Small Group Study!
Exciting 2 Day Training | August 23 & 24, 2019 Who should attend? Pastors, Church Leaders, Sunday School teachers, foster/adoptive parents, and anyone interested in a faith-based approach. If you minister to the hurting, learn how trauma informed practice can help you reach and impact lives with a powerful combination of scientific and biblical principles. Participants will gain an understanding of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s) and how traumatic events affect how a person...
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Building Resilience for Better Lives - from HelenaIR.com
Life is hard. “In this world you WILL have trouble,” Jesus said. The ability to successfully face the hardships that will inevitably come to us will determine our level of satisfaction, joy, and peace. Resilience isn’t just a desirable trait, it’s absolutely essential. And, it turns out that scripture has a lot to say about this essential quality for successful living. There are many passages we could examine to illustrate the point, but the letter from James is one of my favorites. Eugene...
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Can kids in single parent homes become successful contributing adults to society when they grow up?
There are a lot of negative statistics about children in divorced homes. While these stats may be true, they may lead you to conclude that the children who come from these homes are set up for failure. It doesn’t have to be that...
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Chaplain Chris Haughee Interview
To quote a friend who just gave her testimony at our church about her own struggles with mental health misdiagnosis and recovery, she was told after her first hospitalization, “This won’t be the first time you deal with this.” Our trauma is always with us.
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Clergy embrace trauma informed training in Greater Philadelphia region
An exceptional all-day “Trauma-Informed Training for Clergy” event was held in Philadelphia in May 2017, organized by JSR Educational Enrichment Strategies, Inc. Founder and President Doris Smith-Ribner, Retired PA State Appeals Court Judge. Judge Smith-Ribner recognized the need for this training particularly for those on the front lines of dealing with the impacts of trauma and its prevalence within Philadelphia—the Clergy. Here is her report from that meeting. Highly-regarded trauma...
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Coming back to ‘The Wall': building resilience by learning to trust
Recently, we did an object lesson as part of our Resilience-based series that I call “the Wall.” We talked about how bad things happen in this world despite having a loving God that looks over us. We make bad choices at times that hurt us, and others make bad choices that hurt us. In general, there is a lot of brokenness in relationships that causes a lot of damage. So, I told the children, we learn how to protect ourselves. Just like castles have BIG walls or our cottages on campus have...
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Consider a Resolution in 2017 worth keeping: Advocacy
2017 is here, and it’s the season when most of us consider New Year’s resolutions and even the most cynical among us dares to think that with a little will power we might do any number of things: lose weight, eat healthier, watch less TV, get that promotion, or repair damaged relationships. This year, I’d ask you to consider a resolution that will make the world a better place and will give you a sense of purpose in 2017: be an advocate. An advocate is someone who speaks on behalf of someone...
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Developing Super Powers: Using Resilience Strategies to Cope with Negative Experiences. Introducing CRI's Newest Book!
“I believe that everyone, especially a child, deserves to know how their brains are shaped by environment, to then understand their capacity for building proactive protective factors. We all deserve to be super heroes as we do the best we can to consciously live life well. ” - Teri Barila The superheroes we learn about in comics, movies, and TV shows swoop in to save the world with their incredible powers, to shield people from harm. But in our world, no matter how much we wish to protect...
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Elevate Montana - Helena Affiliate and "trial run" of new trauma-informed curriculum for churches
To date, over 80 copies of the curriculum Bruised Reeds and Smoldering Wicks: a six week study of trauma-informed ministry and compassionate care for children from hard places and situations have gone out around the country. Released this past spring, most have ordered it to preview the materials prior to utilization this coming fall. So, while feedback has been positive, there have been few users with specific comments related to how their teaching experience has gone (because, well... they...
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Empowered To Connect - worth forwarding
As a parent of 4 young children and career education professionals working in special education - my wife and I embarked on an "adoption journey" through a number of events several years ago. In addition to reading books, talking with other adoptive...
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Faith Based DVDs for the Hearing Impaired
ACE Overcomers has started a kickstarter campaign to fund DVD's that include American Sign Language interpretation. Combining sound biblical principles and solid science, this 12 lesson trauma-informed curriculum will help you understand and overcome...
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Finding Spirituality and My Own God In Recovery From Drugs
Finding spirituality is something I had to find through pain and suffering emotionally. I grew up without much of an idea of god, my parents didn't force it on me. When I was a teenager however, I climbed on the soapbox of thinking people who had faith in god were weak and fools for doing so. My ego was in full force during these times, the transformation that has taken place since then is nothing short of amazing and shows off not only the power and grace of god, but the love. I was someone...
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Finding Spirituality and My Own God In Recovery From Drugs
Finding spirituality is something I had to find through pain and suffering emotionally. I grew up without much of an idea of god, my parents didn't force it on me. When I was a teenager however, I climbed on the soapbox of thinking people who had faith in god were weak and fools for doing so. My ego was in full force during these times, the transformation that has taken place since then is nothing short of amazing and shows off not only the power and grace of god, but the love. I was someone...
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For those that ordered... the trauma-informed curriculum for churches is headed out the door this week!
It's been a labor of love more than a year in the making, and it is exciting to see the curriculum come together and head out to those that will give this first version a "test drive" this spring and (hopefully) give me some great feedback so I can make improvements over the summer and make the curriculum better! It is called "Bruised Reeds and Smoldering Wicks: a six week study of trauma-informed ministry and compassionate care for children from hard places and situations." The study is...
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Free Resource! A "Trauma Informed" Jelly Bean Easter Poem
First thing you may ask is What?? and then, perhaps, Why?? Well... The story of Jesus’ arrest, trial, death, burial and resurrection can be difficult for many people, but none more so than the victims of abuse or neglect, or for anyone especially affected by violence. We want to be sensitive to the special needs of those that have endured trauma, but still remain truthful to the gospel. So, what is a parent, children’s minister, or pastor to do around Easter? It’s a tough situation. If you...
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How do you cope? Self-regulation "favorites" from our children! (video)
In a recent chapel time, our children were given the opportunity to "pay if forward" by helping create the video below. You see, part of the lesson was about thanksgiving and generosity, and that generosity is NOT just about sharing money. It's about being the type of people who share compassion and the wisdom that has been gained through difficulty. The children were encouraged to know that they could help other children handle their big feelings in healthy ways by sharing what they had...
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How One Farm Saved This Tiny Town’s Survival Rate (rd.com)
By the summer of 2005, the Reverend Richard Joyner of Conetoe Chapel Missionary Baptist Church realized he was conducting funerals twice a month—a startling number given his town’s tiny population. Nearly 300 souls call Conetoe (pronounced “ka-‘nee-ta”) home. The predominantly African American hamlet is situated in North Carolina’s Edgecombe County, where a quarter of households live below the poverty line and heart disease kills more
20- to 39-year-olds than do car accidents. “I’ve closed...
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"I stay near the pit," my reason for engaging in trauma-informed ministry
I stay near the pit (inspired by Rev. Samuel Shoemaker’s poem, “I Stand by the Door,” and Psalm 40) © Chris Haughee, 2018. All rights reserved. I stay near the pit. My cry was heard and I was lifted from it. And while my feet are steady on the Rock and the path is laid straight before me I was not alone in that pit. There were many others with me, stuck in that mire. So, I stay near the pit. I had tried for a long time—such a long, long time— to make my way out, to find myself planted firm...
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Intermountain Video Podcast: How Kids Navigate a Pandemic
Meegan Bryce, MSW, began her work at Intermountain with children and families as a Direct Care Counselor in 2004. She has since been a Cottage Supervisor, Child and Family Therapist, the Residential Manager and now serves as the Residential Director. Meegan is a Montana native and enjoys all the outdoor activities that Montana has to offer, especially river rafting. In this video podcast, she speaks with Development Officer Tyler Zimmer about how the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting the...
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Knowing and Growing - a look in to a recent chapel lesson from my Resilience series
Dear friends at ACEsConnection, I thought it might be of interest to you to see an example of how I am integrating the themes of resilience building, and in particular the measures from the Children and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM-12+4), into our chapel times on campus at Intermountain Residential Services in Helena, Montana. What appears below is part of the lesson built around the tried and true measure of resilience: can the child identify skills and abilities that are making them more...
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My Tears in His Bottle: prayers from the heart of a special needs’ mom
Pat Hays has written a devotional book that gives wonderful insight into the joys and struggles that parenting a child with emotional special needs presents. Her book, My Tears in His Bottle: prayers from the heart of a special needs’ mom , contains excerpts from her personal prayer journal as she worked through the last fifteen years of balancing her calling to be an adoptive parent with the roadblocks she encountered in her neighborhood, friendships, school district, marriage, and church...
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New and improved 2nd edition of the "Bruised Reeds & Smoldering Wicks" trauma-informed curriculum for churches now available!
I am pleased to announce that a NEW, 8-week version of the study, "Bruised Reeds and Smoldering Wicks," is now available. This 2nd edition includes input I received from the ACEsConnection community and others which resulted in two additional weeks of material. You still get the movie, "Paper Tigers," and the licensing to show it to up to 250 in an educational or religious setting, but there is much more... And, while a number of edits have gone into this second edition of the curriculum, my...
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New Mexico Catholic Bishops’ Open Letter: Children Come First [krwg.org]
Commentary: Yesterday, I received an open letter from some of our state legislators related to the support the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops continues to give to the NM HJR1 2018 (Land Grant Fund Distributions). Since the letter is directed to the Conference, we three undersigned Catholic bishops of New Mexico are responding today. “ ‘Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in deed and in truth’ (1 Jn 3:18). These words of the Apostle John voice an imperative that...
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New Trauma-informed curriculum for training ministries available as an instant digital download!!
I have been blessed by the response to the curriculum "Bruised Reeds and Smoldering Wicks," now having sent it out to ministries in 26 States and the District of Columbia. I have already received a little feedback and made some minor changes to content, but what I am most excited about is that t he curriculum is now available in a downloadable digital format! For those that have not seen previous posts on the curriculum, the study is for adult small groups or classes and is laid out into the...
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Nurturing relationships in childhood boost adult mental health, relationships
We're proud to announce major research that suggests that positive childhood experiences — such as supportive family interactions, caring relationships with friends, and connections in the community — are associated with reductions in chances of adult depression and poor mental health, and increases in the chances of having healthy relationships in adulthood. This association was true even among those with a history of adverse childhood experiences.
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Observing Mother's Day and Father's Day in a trauma-informed church
I recently had two events that caused me to think purposefully about what a responsible approach to the upcoming holidays of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day may be for a church that is seeking to be sensitive to the trauma histories that their worshipping community may have. The first was an invitation to preach at a church in my community that has done a great deal to advance the faith communities awareness to the effects of ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and mental health needs within...
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Over 100 pastoral education students trained in trauma at regional meeting in Baltimore
The theme of trauma was selected for this year’s annual summer Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) Day because “clergy responses to trauma an have a significant impact on our own healing and in healing our communities,” as described in the planning committee welcome letter. Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore hosted the gathering of over 100 pastoral students from the Maryland, Washington, DC, and Northern Virginia region. Planning Committee Chair Ty Crowe, director of the Hospital’s Spiritual...
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Over 100 pastoral education students trained in trauma at regional meeting in Baltimore
The theme of trauma was selected for this year’s annual summer Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) Day because “clergy responses to trauma an have a significant impact on our own healing and in healing our communities,” as described in the planning committee welcome letter. Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore hosted the gathering of over 100 pastoral students from the Maryland, Washington, DC, and Northern Virginia region. Planning Committee Chair Ty Crowe, director of the Hospital’s Spiritual...
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Overcoming a Difficult Childhood: FREE 12 Lesson DVDs with American Sign Language
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s) affect how a person develops physically, emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually. The ACE Overcomers series provides answers to many difficult questions. Through a combination of Biblical principles and sound science, these 12 powerful sessions will begin to retrain your brain and reset your nervous system. This course has helped many to overcome the effects of stress and adversity, and to ultimately trust God with every detail of life. ACE Overcomers:...
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Peek Inside a Classroom: Jasmine
© Elliot Gilfix/Flickr . What happened to Jasmine? . Photo © Jinx!/Flickr When you look...
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Personal stories from witnesses, U.S. representatives provided an emotional wallop to House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on childhood trauma
Room erupts in applause for the grandmother of witness William Kellibrew during July 11 House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing. The power of personal stories from witnesses and committee members fueled the July 11 hearing on childhood trauma in the House Oversight and Reform Committee* throughout the nearly four hours of often emotional and searing testimony and member questions and statements (Click here for 3:47 hour video). The hearing was organized into a two panels—testimony from...
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Red zones in schools and churches—when kids don’t feel safe!
Ever heard of the “Red Zone?” Many of us understand that when something enters the red zone, it can prove to be a daunting situation. For example, if your car overheats, and the temperature gauge moves into the red zone, it’s important to check the engine to see what’s going on. Otherwise, the car may overheat or cause a fire, and you may find yourself stranded and standing on the side of the road. Wikipedia has a few examples of the Red Zone: Unsafe areas in Iraq after the 2003 invasion A...
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RESPITE Conference - Registration is OPEN!
RESPITE Conference: Building a Trauma-Informed Community Saturday, October 12, 2019 from 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM Granada Heights Friends Church – La Mirada 11818 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada, CA 90638 About the Conference: Learn more about the impacts of trauma through an informative and interactive day of training with education , resources , and tools that will equip you and your environment to serve the most vulnerable among us. The day will include main sessions, tailored breakouts, and...
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Sharing the Word: ACE Knowledge is “Secular Gospel” for Montana Pastor
When Reverend Tyler Amundson first read the 1998 ACE study, he realized that this landmark science could become a common language: a way to talk about adversity and healing with clinicians and government officials, devout churchgoers and people who would never step inside a place of worship. “I call this the secular gospel,” he says. “It was easy to describe the ACE study to people. It opened a door for us to name how people face trauma and adversity and how positive relationships can help...
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Six-week adult Sunday school curriculum on trauma-informed ministry coming soon!
Within the next month, I will be making available a draft version of an adult Sunday School curriculum that will introduce the concept of trauma-informed ministry to churches. If there are members of ACEsConnection that would like to "test run" the curriculum, I'd be honored if you'd reach out to me in the comments section or via a direct message. Email works, too! Just send to chrish@intermountain.org. The curriculum just takes a look at the "slice" of trauma-informed ministry that I am...
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Some 350 Florida Leaders Expected to Attend Think Tank with Dr. Vincent Felitti, Co-Principal Investigator of the ACE Study; Expert on ACEs Science
Leaders from across the Sunshine State will take part in a “Think Tank” in Naples, FL, on Monday, August 6, to help create a more trauma-informed Florida. The estimated 350 attendees will include policy makers and community teams made up of school superintendents, law enforcement officers, judges, hospital administrators, mayors, PTA presidents, child welfare experts, mental health and substance abuse treatment providers, philanthropists, university researchers, state agency heads, and...
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The Peace Bus
Times in our community have been challenging and traumatic recently. Shining a light on how we can come together and support one another is vital during this time, and is just what Kwabi Amoah-Forson is doing with The Peace Bus. This is incredible work and reflects the importance of connectivity at this time. Please consider supporting the work Kwabi is doing, and share with others to spread the word! Per his recent Facebook post: "Fear, division, and safety have been the reoccuring themes...
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The Power of a Trauma-Informed Ministry
ACE Overcomers: The Center for Resiliency and Trauma-Informed Training The Valley Dream Center of Fresno, California hosted a 2-day training, conducted by ACE Overcomers. 40 individuals gathered for the 2-day training on The Power of a Trauma-Informed Ministry. Most participants were from California's Central Valley, along with attendees from San Diego, Oregon and New Mexico. The primary goal was to increase an understanding of trauma and adverse childhood experiences and introduce a...