Tagged With "charitable giving"
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New Resource: Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic One-Pager (English & Spanish!)
English: The California Department of Public Health, Injury and Prevention Branch (CDPH/IVPB) and the California Department of Social Service, Office of Child Abuse Prevention’s (CDSS/OCAP) , Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative , ACEs Connection , and the Yolo County Children’s Alliance have co-created a newly developed resource, “Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic” in both English and Spanish. This material is intended for Californian families experiencing the severe...
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Partnering with Local Mental Health Providers to Support Foster Youth in College [cccstudentmentalhealth.org]
LAST YEAR, NEARLY 18,000 CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS WERE CURRENTLY OR FORMERLY IN FOSTER CARE. These students, and students from other vulnerable or underserved groups, are motivated and resilient. However, many face higher rates of trauma and unmet mental health needs, coupled with systemic barriers that prevent them from accessing services. Without support, these challenges can contribute to lower college completion rates. BACKGROUND In 2018-2020, John Burton Advocates for Youth...
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Santa Clara County is model for plan to give $1000 a month to California foster youth [mercurynews.com]
By Laurence Du Sault, The Mercury News, February 22, 2021 Borrowing from a Santa Clara County program he proposed, state Sen. Dave Cortese has introduced legislation to provide $1,000 monthly cash payments for California’s foster care youth as they leave the child welfare system. “I can’t think of a more urgent time to roll out this kind of assistance,” Cortese said during an online press conference Monday. “Especially as they enter the adult world during an economic decline caused by...
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Virtual Learning Anxiety: How To Help Your Kids
Virtual work, virtual groceries; everything has turned virtual since the pandemic of 2020. People can get all their work done without having to leave the comfort of their homes. It also means that our children have to adapt to a whole new educational system; virtual learning. While virtual learning offers the feasibility of learning at home, it comes with numerous issues too. One of the commonly-experienced issues is virtual learning anxiety. Not turning off the camera, constantly staying on...
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A Better Normal Friday, March 26, 2021: PACEs and HOPE with Dr. Christina Bethell
Please join us for our next installment of A Better Normal, our live webinar series in which we imagine and create our society as trauma-informed! You may have seen we changed our name recently from ACEs Connection to PACEs Connection. Please join us to learn all about the groundbreaking research of Positive Childhood Experiences and how this is going to transform the work we are all doing. >>Click here to register<< PACEs and HOPE Live Event Friday, March 26, 2021 Noon PT / 1pm...
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Alycia M Ward
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Major Child Welfare Bills Pass in New York, Texas, Oregon [fosteringmediaconnections.org]
The early summer has seen a slew of high-impact state legislation on child welfare and youth justice. Last week, New York lawmakers moved several landmark bills while punting a few to next year’s legislative session. Among the biggest moves: The state will now give parents whose rights have been terminated a path to court-ordered contact with their children, even those who have been adopted from foster care. Children below the age of 12 can no longer be arrested and processed in New York’s...
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African American Grandfamilies: Helping Children Thrive Through Connection to Family and Culture
Both inside and outside the child welfare system, the probability that African American children will live in grandfamilies is more than double that of the overall population, with one in five African American children living in grandfamilies at some point during their childhood. Over the last few decades, drug epidemics, hurricanes and other tragedies have both created African American grandfamilies and challenged existing ones. The COVID-19 pandemic is the latest such crisis. As of mid-May...
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‘How’s Our Girl?’: On Loving a Foster Child and Letting Go (NY Times)
Every time we choose to love other mortal beings, someday, we will have to give them back. “Cute baby,” strangers said when they saw her. “Your first?” they asked. And when we told them she was our foster daughter, that we might have to return her to her biological mother, I watched them step back. “I couldn’t do that,” they said. “I’ll pray for you,” they said. I didn’t know if I could do it, either. But I also knew it’s what we do every time we choose to love another mortal being. Someday,...
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Resource: Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic One-Pager (English & Spanish!)
English: The California Department of Public Health, Injury and Prevention Branch (CDPH/IVPB) and the California Department of Social Service, Office of Child Abuse Prevention’s (CDSS/OCAP) , Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative , ACEs Connection , and the Yolo County Children’s Alliance co-created “Coping with Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic” in both English and Spanish. This material is intended for Californian families experiencing the severe economic consequences resulting from...
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Join Us for Standing Strong Conference- Mon, Sept. 13- Wed, Sept. 15
In less than a week, parents and caregivers for children impacted by early childhood trauma will be learning and supported at the Standing Strong Virtual Conference - Sept 13-15, 2021, hosted by the Attachment & Trauma Network, Inc. (ATN) . This 3-day event is focused on helping those caring for children with developmental trauma, complex PTSD and attachment challenges learn advocacy strategies and focus on their own care/burnout needs now that their children are back in school. Speakers...
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I Will Never Forget That I Could Have Lived With People Who Loved Me (nytimes.com)
By Sixto Cancel, The New York Times, September 16, 2021 When I was 15, an usher at my church offered to become my foster parent. Hers was one of the best foster homes I lived in. But she wanted a son. It was more than I was able to give. I had been in foster care since I was 11 months old because of my mother’s drug addiction and poverty. Adopted at age 9 by a racist and abusive woman, I was locked out of the house at age 13. For two years, I couch surfed with friends, then entered foster...
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This Cafe Chain is on a Mission to Give Foster Youth Jobs — and to ‘Normalize Kindness’ [imprintnews.org]
By Sara Tiana, October 28th, 2021, Imprint News Nestled in posh Santa Monica, La La Land Kind Cafe may appear from the outside to be yet another bougie coffee shop. Its ceremonial grade matcha drinks feature lavender, beetroot and rose saffron. Lattes in shades of baby blue, lavender and sea-green boast butterfly pea flower, CBD and cardamon. But there’s a key ingredient at the cafe affectionately known as La La: Many of the young people making and serving the rock candy and bamboo teas and...
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Making Learning Visible: Doodling Helps Memories Stick (kqed.org)
Shelley Paul and Jill Gough had heard that doodling while taking notes could help improve memory and concept retention, but as instructional coaches they were reluctant to bring the idea to teachers without trying it out themselves first. To give it a fair shot, Paul tried sketching all her notes from a two-day conference. By the end, her drawings had improved and she was convinced the approach could work for kids, too. “It causes you to listen at a different level,” said Jill Gough,...
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Latino Grandfamilies: Helping Children Thrive Through Connection to Family and Cultural Identity
Generations United created a new toolkit that is designed to give resources and tips to child welfare agencies, other government agencies, and nonprofit organizations, to better serve all Latino grandfamilies regardless of child welfare involvement. During the past several decades, political unrest, economic conditions, U.S. intervention, wars, environmental disasters, and violence in Latin American countries have propelled millions of individuals to seek a more secure life for themselves...
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Foster Care Supply Drive delighted by community response
After a successful pilot launch, the Foster Care Supply Drive is set to expand throughout SW Washington State in the Spring of 2022. During the pilot phase, which began in Washougal/Camas we were able to procure enough donations from 6 businesses to create 110 welcome bags for youth entering foster care. Donation bins and marketing materials are scheduled to be delivered between March 1st, 2022, and March 4th, 2022. The Foster Care Supply Drive was created based on first-hand experiences of...
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Reconnecting Family Ties for Children and Youth in Foster Care
Written by the Capacity Building Center for States "Reconnecting with and strengthening my relationships with family has always been an important part of finding my identity and sense of belonging. However, this power comes with a different set of unexpected challenges. Family events can often be stressful as we struggle with how to treat one another. It is difficult to have healthy relationships because we did not have the opportunity to learn how to do this when we were younger."— Aleks...
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10 Tips for Sexual Abuse Prevention
When we consider the high numbers of children that are sexually abused it is disappointing how little is out there to support parents in prevention efforts. Although Erin’s Law has brought Sexual Abuse Prevention to many children in the school setting, parents are still often at a loss as to how to talk to their children about this difficult topic. As a therapist who has specialized in treating child sexual abuse for twenty years, I have crossed paths with thousands of children and families...
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Freedom to Dream: A Future without Family Policing (How We endUP 2022 Convening) October 17-18
The How We endUP Convening is a two-day virtual gathering of advocates, activists, researchers, policymakers, and leaders from different communities, agencies, and efforts coming together to explore how we can move toward abolition of family policing--how we can dismantle harmful, racist systems and build different ways of caring for one another. Featured speakers are Angela Davis, Joyce McMillan, and Mariame Kaba. Join in discussions that expose racism in how families are surveilled and...
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National Family Caregivers Month: Caring for the Caregivers Virtual Summit 2022 Getting UNStuck: Moving From Languishing to Flourishing
Courage to Caregivers will host its third annual Caring for Caregivers Virtual Summit on Wednesday, November 16, and Thursday, November 17, 2022, from 9 am to 12:30 pm ET as part of National Family Caregivers Month. This year’s theme is Getting UNStuck: Moving From Languishing to Flourishing. The event is free for licensed professional caregivers and anyone providing care to a loved one with mental illness. All are welcome to attend one or both days. CEUs are provided for Ohio professionals.
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How to help young kids: Give their parents cash [hechingerreport.org]
By Jackie Mader, Photo: Katie Cotterill/The Hechinger Report, The Hechinger Report, November 2, 2022 By his mid-20s, Tommy Andrade was tired of working dead-end jobs. With a young child at home, he realized he needed more than a high school diploma to support his family. When he heard about a new, advanced manufacturing program at Austin Community College (ACC), Andrade was intrigued. Some of the jobs that graduates would be trained for carried salaries well into the six figures, enough to...
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Stepping Into My Power: ‘I made a change because my kids were hurting’ [risemagazine.org]
By Shamara Kelly, Rise, October 31, 2022 My biggest fear has always been ACS taking my kids. I have embodied trauma from when I was a child—the system broke me and my siblings apart and took us away from our mom. I wasn’t going to allow that to happen to my two kids. As a parent, I had my share of ACS cases when I was experiencing domestic violence, but because of my childhood experiences, I don’t believe ACS could have helped. ACS actually made things worse for me because caseworkers...
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Jeoff Gordon sees PACEs science, PACEs Connection playing a vital role in ‘relieving some of the most anguishing pain in our society.’
Note: PACEs Connection is in dire financial straits. We are asking for support, from you, our 57,586 members, to help cover the loss of foundation funding that was promised and did not come through. Pay and hours have been cut for our staff—most of us will be laid off for the month of December. Another grant will pick up in January, but we will still be underfunded. Since sounding the alarm this summer, we’ve raised about $26,000 . Thankfully, about 25% of new donors are making monthly...
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Adoptive Mom Stops Whenever She Sees Son's 'Homeless But Not Heartless' Birth Mommy So He Can 'Say Hi' (yourtango.com)
To read more of Hawthorn Martin's article, please click here, Adopted Mom Takes Son To See Homeless Birth Mom So They Can Maintain Their Relationship | YourTango As many parents and children have talked about, adoption and the foster care system can be both beautiful and devastating experiences for families. Where one adopted family is able to provide more support and stability to a child, sometimes the birth mother is left out of the picture, no matter how much she loves her child. One...
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4 Ways Outdoor Play Helps Develop Resilience In Children
Outdoor play is key to the health and well-being of children. Getting muddy and staying out till sunset is great for children’s development and can help them refine their motor coordination skills. Kids who play outdoors have improved cognitive skills, too. A recent systematic review found that children who have regular access to green spaces show improved “mental well-being, overall health, and cognitive development.” Children who play outside also had better self-discipline and showed...
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This Teacher is Showing Students How Much She Cares (learn4life.org)
To read the Learn4Life article, please click here. We see time after time how students can blossom and flourish when just one adult in their life shows that they care. Tanja Politiski in our Lake Elsinore school is that inspiring, caring teacher for so many of her students…like Zane, a homeless student she was determined to help meet his goal of graduating. He was doing well with school, but then his foster mother asked him to leave their home. At age 17, the last thing he wanted to do was...
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Early Relational Health Innovators Partner In Program Supported by PACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities Members in Twelve California Counties
Christina Bethell, Ph.D, MBA, MPH, founder of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI), principal author of the groundbreaking study on positive childhood experiences, and creator of the free Well Visit Planner, among other innovations. Two internationally-respected leaders and innovators in complementary aspects of early relational health and childhood and maternal health equity recently launched a partnership they believe will benefit everyone from newborn babies and...
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Empathy: Can It Make The Difference?
Emotion has an enormous impact on imprinting memory in our brains. I had an experience when I was 6 years old that included emotion and I have the memory of it all of these many years later. It was a 6 year old birthday sleepover party. There were 7 girls invited that lived near each other and played together most days. A girl new to the neighborhood was invited only due to the requirement of the birthday girl’s mother. I was also invited. I lived a block away but did play with these girls...