The Refugee Alliance of Central Iowa has informational handouts on COVID-19 in over twenty-five languages. Please click HERE.

Tufts University medical professor Dr. Robert Sege directs the Center for Community-Engaged Medicine and is nationally known for his research on effective health systems approaches that address social determinants of health. He is also the principal investigator for the HOPE framework (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences).The HOPE framework is based on research that shows how positive childhood experiences can mitigate the effects of adverse childhood experiences. Sege and colleagues...

By Charity Nebbe, Katelyn Harrop, and Sthefany Nobriga, Iowa Public Radio, January 8, 2020 The impacts of trauma can be unexpected, affecting not only mental and emotional health but also physical well being. Through Trauma Sensitive Yoga, a modified yoga practice that prioritizes a healthy realtionship with one's body and similarly informed tai-chi programs, some survivors have found a new kind of relief. On this episode of Talk of Iowa, host Charity Nebbe talked with Matthew Vasquez, an...

How can we build a sturdy foundation for children from the start? This updated white paper from the Iowa ACEs 360 Coalition examines the stress expecting mothers in Iowa are experiencing and prenatal strategies to create the best outcomes for the whole family.

Since 2012, the Central Iowa ACEs 360 Coalition has brought together diverse partners to identify and seize opportunities for responding to the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study. This year, we worked with a consultant to establish our direction for the next three years. These conversations have affirmed our mission and identified a need to formalize how we approach our work to make greater progress. We invite you to read our new plan as we formalize into a 501(c)3.

Winona Whitaker, Oct 3, 2019 for the Clinton Herald CLINTON – Programs for Rotary International’s noon Monday luncheons this month will address adverse childhood experiences , food insecurity, crime victims rights and staying healthy, the club announced this week. Luncheons are scheduled for noon each Monday at the Tuscany Event Center. The public may contact a Rotarian to join the luncheons as a guest. Leslie LaShelle-Mussman, Prevention Director with the Area Substance Abuse Council, will...

The two biggest myths about ACEs science are: MYTH #1 — That it’s just about the 10 ACEs in the ACE Study — the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study . It’s about sooooo much more than that. MYTH #2 — And that it’s just about ACEs…adverse childhood experiences. These two myths are intertwined. The ACE Study issued the first of its 70+ publications in 1998, and for many people it was the lightning bolt, the grand “aha” moment, the unexpected doorway into a blazing new...

The average price of a four-year in-state university in the 2018-2019 academic year, including tuition, fees, room, and board, is $21,370, and $37,430 for those who attend an out of state school. If you're looking to study at a private institution, that cost is $48,510, according to CollegeBoard . Those who do attend often leave with a burden of debt, which was around $37,172 in 2017, Debt.org reports. While these exorbitant prices are the reason many students can't attend college, one man...

Presidential candidate and former Obama Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro released a comprehensive platform on Indigenous issues, the first detailed plan from a 2020 campaign. Castro will follow up on that announcement with a meet-and-greet on Meskwaki Settlement in Iowa Friday where he will discuss his blueprint for Indigenous communities and vision for the future of our nation. “For generations, Indigenous communities have been treated as second-class citizens rather...

A day after releasing the most comprehensive platform on Indigenous issues from any presidential candidate, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro visited the Meskwaki Indian Settlement in Tama, Iowa, on Friday. Castro has unique experience working with tribes across the country. He already knows many of the issues Native communities face from his service as Housing and Urban Development Secretary under President Obama. This was the driving force behind the planning and...

Patients would carry soda into Dr. Gerard Clancy’s office, with cigarettes tucked away for after therapy. Often victims of abuse or violent crime, they would seek soothing but risky behaviors to cope. Overweight. Chronic pain. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Type II diabetes. His former patients will die younger than they should, he said. Clancy conducted therapy sessions until he became president of the University of Tulsa in 2016. At his psychiatry clinic, he saw firsthand how a...

With graduation season upon us, I have been thinking a lot about one of my favorite graduation speeches. It’s the speech that Shonda Rhimes, creator of Grey’s Anatomy, gave in 2014 at Dartmouth College. She references the typical expected advice from a graduation speech: “Follow your dreams. Listen to your spirit. Change the world. Make your mark. Find your inner voice and make it sing. Embrace failure. Dream. Dream and dream big..." And then she says, “I think that’s crap.”