This all stems from the district bringing in two national trauma-informed leaders, Heather T. Forbes, author of Help for Billy and Jim Sporleder, the principal in the documentary Paper Tigers, to Hutchinson to help the district begin the journey of becoming trauma-sensitive. The research driving this work is from the CDC-Kaiser Permanente ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) Study, which is becoming coined in the field of social science, as our new "Theory of Everything".

A book study of Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology and How You Can Heal, by Donna Jackson Nakazawa, will be launched next to solidify foundational knowledge of ACEs for the community leaders.

This knowledge will create the building blocks necessary to get this research and learning into the hands of everyone suffering trauma and/or working with people who are. The hope is that this will turn into fundamental shifts in the way we view struggling kids and families in Reno County and, more importantly, shape practice and policy going forward to capture the outcomes all people want to achieve.

There are only a handful of communities across the country who are already trauma-sensitive. 

However, many like Hutchinson, are setting the table to learn more and become more. 

Because when we know better, we can do better.