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In the aftermath of recent hurricanes and wildfires, the Sesame Street in Communities team wanted to reach out to provide information on our available resources to help families cope in the aftermath of natural disasters, and other traumatic experiences. Bilingual videos, articles, printables and more, are all available for free on our website at www.sesamestreetincommunities.org . Here are the links to a few topic pages that may be most useful to you as you work with families in the...

Gregory Williams, PhD, will help change the world by taking this book into medical schools and teaching physicians and nurses about the root cause of most adult illness: childhood trauma. I just read this book in one sitting, save one hot tea refill. I could not stop reading it. Even though there were some passages that evoked anxiety, I couldn’t stop reading it, as I so wanted to learn more about this remarkable man and how he earned a PhD, had a normal family life, and earned the respect...

When Tiffany Harris and her two children emerged from their hotel after Hurricane Michael roared past, her 3-year-old son pointed to a sea of fallen trees and shattered buildings. "It's broken. It's broken, Mommy, fix it," she recalls her little boy Amari begging. Harris, who lives with her boyfriend, two children, plus her sister and her four children near Panama City, soon learned their town house was uninhabitable. Everything was a total loss after Michael powered inland across the...

Members of Florida's health, mental health, child-serving agencies, faith-based communities, law enforcement groups and others are invited to attend a free webinar tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. EST on trauma response and how to better help communities find resilience following natural disasters. You can register for the webinar now by clicking on this link . Elaine Miller Karas , executive director of the Trauma Resource Institute in Claremont, CA, will lead the webinar. It will be recorded and...

In a webinar offered this morning by Elaine Miller Karas , executive director of the Trauma Resource Institute in Claremont, CA, leaders from several North Carolina ACEs Connection communities affected by flooding and other damage by Hurricane Florence learned more about trauma response and how to better help their communities find resilience. Karas, who was delivering her Community Resiliency Model (CRM) training at Duke University in Durham, NC, offered the free training and provided...

Here are four great YouTube videos highlighting some of the work happening on the ground in Shasta County. They are motivated and mobilized. According to one of the providers speaking towards the end of one video - patients/clients had positively "profound" responses to learning about their ACEs - and they felt empowered to do what they could do to not have their children have the same experience. More videos available here .

Tennessee First Lady Crissy Haslam this week released a report highlighting eight years of progress by the state to improve the lives of children and families. Prioritizing Tennessee’s Children: Our Promise to Future Generations reflects an early commitment by Governor Bill Haslam’s administration to make the health and success of all Tennessee children a state priority. In conjunction with Governor Haslam’s Children’s Cabinet and Deputy Governor Jim Henry, First Lady Haslam set out to...

Florida ACEs Connection is a collaborative effort of state agencies; schools; institutes of higher learning; faith, community, grassroots organizations and other interested individuals; to provide education and training on trauma informed approaches and interventions to mitigate the negative effects of stress and adversity on children and their families. Community Manager: Jennifer Travieso Jennifer Travieso is the Family Services Supervisor at DISC Village. Jennifer obtained her Masters in...

Tulane child psychiatry professor Dr. Stacy Drury will receive the 2018 Norbert and Charlotte Rieger Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement in October at the AACAP’s 65th Annual Meeting in Seattle. Photo by Paula Burch-Celentano.

Dr. Vincent Felitti is shown with Dr. Mimi Graham, who spearheaded the event (center) Dr. Celeste Phillips, Florida's Attorney General, and Kelly Romanoff, Director of the Barancik Foundation, which underwrote expenses for the Think Tank and printing of the booklet, Creating a Trauma Informed State - A Showcase of Florida's Cutting Edge Trauma Initiatives, for each attendee. (Booklet is available for download below.) Many of the more than 560 high-level state leaders who attended Monday’s...

Two years ago, when Jackie Brenner was 16, she was struggling to recover from a difficult knee surgery and to deal with her mother’s fight with breast cancer. Her life was full of stress. She started researching meditation, yoga and nutrition, and she incorporated what she found into her daily routine. Soon, she started spreading her enlightenment to other students. Through Piece of Peace , Ms. Brenner’s nonprofit, she teaches others how to live healthy lives. The effort is most established...

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...