Ever wonder why some people seem to feel less pain than others? A study conducted at Wake Forest School of Medicine may have found one of the answers – mindfulness. “Mindfulness is related to being aware of the present moment without too much emotional reaction or judgment,” said the study’s lead author, Fadel Zeidan, Ph.D., assistant professor of neurobiology and anatomy at the medical school, part of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. “We now know that some people are more mindful than...

#WARonSlavery

Great resource for elevating your movement! https://www.collaborationforimpact.com/collective-impact/

Hello Hutchinson! As your Regional Community Facilitator, I am excited to work together. I have an affinity for homegrown movements. I, myself, am a part of a thriving collective impact in Nashville, TN called ACE Nashville. I have extensive experience creating a local movement and I hope I can be a resource for you, not just on ACEs Connection but also with your efforts within your cities and communities. I have a wealth of knowledge when it comes to collective impact and collective effort.

Learning collaborative teams made significant progress on their work. Here are some examples. Our group is now called Resilience Reno County. Motto: Healing for all with all. Mission: Increasing the understanding of ACEs- Empowering people to create hope. The accompanying logo will be developed. The first draft of an introduction to trauma was created. “Adverse experiences are an event or series of events which are physically or emotionally harmful that have a lasting negative effects on the...

At June's Trauma Informed-Hutchinson meeting, attendees discussed "what's important to you right now" and "what do you see as next steps". As in the past, there was tremendous energy in the room. There is no question we have a core group of community members who have totally bought into how this work will benefit those in their organization and the clients they serve. The culmination of the discussion was the development of four learning collaboratives. They are: Safe place/space- How to...

On Wednesday, April 18th, Acesconnection's own Maggie Litgen was in Hutchinson to help begin putting the bigger picture together. Turnout was the largest to date (80+) and included many from the greater community, local schools and personnel from surrounding areas. Maggie opened the day with a session on Vicarious Trauma. It was a great presentation about the importance (and consequences) of taking care of self as a first priority. Maggie personal experiences give her insight a strong sense...

Frederick Douglass said, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” This idea is underscored by a groundbreaking study completed more than 20 years ago to examine the impact of adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, on an individual’s lifetime health and well-being. The ACEs Study, undertaken in 1995 by Kaiser Permanente and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sought to determine why some of their patients weren’t improving despite their best treatment...

Please join me in Overland Park, Kansas for two powerful days of discovery, April 25-26, 2018 and learn what is means to build bridges to resilience. I am excited to be a keynote speaker for the Bridging to Resilience National Conference put on by ESSDACK. Attendees will learn powerful strategies for resilience that go beyond just being trauma informed. ESSDACK does good work to solve the problems of poverty and trauma. In all my years of research and travel, I believe that ESSDACK has what...

After having 37 individuals at its first two meetings, there was a huge turnout for the first of three meetings targeting a study of the book Childhood Disrupted by Donna Jackson Nakazawa. Fifty-three community members, representing more than 20 agencies spent their lunch hours going deeper. Conversations about the impacts of childhood trauma were wide spread, but as one shared "in chapter three we are already talking about solutions." These meetings have lead to new connections being built...

I am not even sure where to start. But, I know I need to write about this. I need to give this to the world. Perhaps to another mother who is facing the darkness and can’t see her way out. Perhaps she is watching her children caught in the cyclone that is her life. I think she is who I am writing this for. And maybe for me too. I am doing some amazing work with a community that is fast becoming dear to my heart. I look at the people who keep showing up that are trying to wrap their heads...

On Monday night the Hutchinson Public Schools board of education approved a resolution in support of the district being trauma informed. The board voted 7-0 to "support the training and implementation activities currently addressing the trauma-informed schools’ philosophy and commend the entire staff as they move toward creating this environment in USD 308." Ahead of the resolution, four elementary teachers presented information gleaned from the November Trauma Informed Schools Conference...