Tagged With "USC School of Social Work"
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ACEs Connection Parent Handouts
Great resources to accompany ACEs screening efforts, presentations, and community awareness building. Please share how you plan to use the handouts in the comments section below!
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Advance Practice at the ACEs 2016 Project Showcase
From the organizers of the 2016 ACEs Conference , San Francisco, CA, October 19th -21st, 2016. Please consider submitting your project today! We know building connections and learning across fields is the best way to advance practices that support children. That’s why we’re very excited to invite you to submit your work to the 2016 Conference on Adverse Childhood Experiences Project Showcase . We’re looking to highlight research, programs, tools or other initiatives that: Highlight the role...
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Advancing a Plan for Addressing Trauma and Building Resilience within L.A. County Systems [prnewswire.com]
LOS ANGELES , Oct. 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- First 5 LA, the California Community Foundation, The California Endowment, The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation along with other local, state and nationally-recognized expert organizations today released a report to advance a comprehensive trauma and resiliency-informed approach in Los Angeles County . Building on research and the experience of experts from Los Angeles , the report defines trauma as the effects of a...
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Advancing a Plan for Addressing Trauma and Building Resilience within L.A. County Systems (prnewswire.com)
Center for Collective Wisdom Releases Extensive Report Outlining Research and Recommendations First 5 LA, the California Community Foundation, The California Endowment, The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation along with other local, state and nationally-recognized expert organizations today released a report to advance a comprehensive trauma and resiliency-informed approach in Los Angeles County . "Trauma is a serious health concern affecting many children and...
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Aiming to Help Homeless, UCLA Residents Practice ‘Street Psychiatry’ (californiahealthreport.org)
New programs begun in the last two years at UCLA include a resident-faculty group focused on community psychiatry, as well as health-system and community mentorships. There are also new clinical electives for psychiatry residents at the Los Angeles County Jail and the county’s Office of Diversion and Reentry . The Diversion office was created by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors in 2015 to develop and implement alternatives to the criminal justice system for people with mental illness and...
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Alliant University Course Aims To Professionalize Street Outreach Workers (kpbs.org)
An eight-week course at Alliant University called the Community Mentors Program is trying to help. " We knew that if this work was ever going to be respected, ever going to be valued to the degree that it should have been valued at, we were going to have to create a professional standard," said Aquil Basheer, one of the course instructors. "We were going to have to create professional protocols." Basheer began helping street outreach workers professionalize their work some 20 years ago when...
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Amazing Professional Development Opportunity for Teachers!
July 28th and 29th | 9 am - 5 pm Two days of practical support for K-12 teachers with key information about the brain, trauma, and social and emotional development. Course Description: Echo Parenting & Education is offering two days of practical classroom managementsupport for K-12 teachers. The training includes: Information aboutthe brain and nervous system Effect of trauma on the brain and nervous system Understandingclassroom...
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Andi Fetzner joins the ACEs Connection Network as the Los Angeles Community Manager
Andi Fetzner MA, LAC joins the ACEs Connection Network as the Los Angeles Community Manager. A recent transplant to California from Arizona, Andi brings with her passion and expertise in training and social connecting. Her experience and education in Political Science and Psychology gives her a unique perspective on how ACEs Science will unfold as a social movement worldwide. Andi studied at Arizona State University (B.A.), University of Phoenix (M.A.), and is earning her PsyD through...
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Apply now to Showcase your work at the San Francisco National ACEs Conference in October 2018!
Applications due June 18. Application link included in this post
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At "Healing our Communities” conference in LA, youth, parents work with social service providers to impact change!
More than 300 people gathered for the 4th Annual Public Safety/Re-Entry, “Healing our Communities” conference in Los Angeles. The first three conferences were for USC students in the School of Social Work and people who provide social services in the LA area. This year the conference included youth and parents served by those providers. The community safety conference highlighted re-entry initiatives and programs in Los Angeles County organized by agencies such as Homeboy Industries, Project...
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Barger to propose motion for mental health services efficiency (signalscv.com)
Looking to better track mental health resources in Los Angeles County, Fifth District Supervisor Kathryn Barger will propose a motion to implement a new database for these services at the board's meeting Tuesday. Under Barger's motion, the Department of Mental Health would be ordered to work with the Department of Children and Family Services, among other county departments, to analyze the logistics of the county implementing a database to track mental health resources. Los Angeles County's...
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“BECOMING MS. BURTON: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women” by Susan Burton and Cari Lynn
I met Susan Burton in 2010, but I had learned her name years before. I was doing research about the challenges of re-entry for people incarcerated due to our nation's cruel and biased drug war. At the time, I was in the process of writing The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness - a book that aimed to expose the ways the War on Drugs had not only decimated impoverished communities of color but had also helped to birth a new system of racial and social control eerily...
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Berkeley Media Studies Group (BMSG) Blogging Tips and Talking about Trauma
Berkeley Media Studies Group facilitated a southern and northern California Strategic Communications Workshop in October 2015. Attached, please find their powerpoint, created by co-facilitators Julieta Kusnir and Pamela Mejia, titled "Talking about Trauma: Tips & Tools for Communicating Effectively" and "Blogging Tips for Media Advocates" articulating tips on content, headlines, length and tone of blogs.
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Black Youth In Los Angeles County Face An ‘Accumulation Of Disadvantage’ [scienceblog.com]
By Science Blog, October 14, 2019 Black youth in Los Angeles County face an accumulation of disadvantage, undermining their academic, social and economic success and placing them at greater risk of structural disenfranchisement — not in school, not working and ensnared in the criminal justice system, according to a new study Beyond the Schoolhouse: Overcoming Challenges & Expanding Opportunity for Black Youth in Los Angeles County, released today by researchers at the UCLA Graduate...
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Broadening Your Network and Identifying Partners for More Resilient, Healthier Communities
Who should you partner with to create lasting change through resilience in your community? The Building Community Resilience (BCR) initiative aims to address, prevent, and reduce the effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and adverse community environments (ACEs) on children’s health and wellbeing ( The “Pair of ACEs” ). An essential element of the successes of BCR’s five test sites around the country has been strategic collaborations. In your work to build resilience, identifying...
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Building an ACEs, Trauma-Informed, and Resilience-Building Community: Draft MOU from Walla Walla WA
Working document, 3/20/15 Walla Walla, Washington MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING Between the Children’s Resilience Initiative and Community Partners PREAMBLE VISION: All young people thrive and parents raise their children with...
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Building Healthy Communi: North Star Goals & Indicators [Calendow.org]
For generations travelers have understood the importance of always knowing the location of the North Star. As the only fixed point in the night sky, the North Star is a constant companion and a sure reference for setting one’s course on a journey. For TCE's Building Healthy Communities Initiative, we too are setting our North Star that will guide our BHC work over the next half of the initiative. Our North Star Goals and Indicators illustrate what success looks like in 2020. Essentially, the...
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California 2018 State Profile on ACEs Initiatives and Action
Hi, Everyone: Here’s the state profile for California. To review the entire profile, open the PDF that is attached to this post. If you have corrections or additions, please leave them in the comments section of this post. We’ll be reviewing the comments regularly and doing fact-checks. The information you give us will also help us determine how to organize and expand the information in the state profiles. We will be turning this post into a living profile that, with your help and input,...
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California gets its first ever surgeon general (ktvu.com)
California's first-ever Surgeon General has launched a listening tour that will take her around the state to hear about people's hopes for the new position and the state's new commitment to improving Californians' health. Dr. Nadine Burke Harris is a pediatrician with degrees from U.C. Berkeley, U.C. Davis Medical School, and Harvard University. She says, as the daughter of a biochemist and a nurse, she knew what her dream job was at an early age. "My immediate priorities as Surgeon General...
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California issues update on state residents' ACE scores from 2011 & 2013 surveys
The latest adverse childhood experiences survey from the California Department of Public Health shows that 42% of the population has an ACE score of 3 or higher; 16% have an ACE score of 4 or higher. Those with an ACE score of 4 or higher are: 3x more likely to be current smokers 4x more likely to have a depressive disorder 2x more likely to have asthma 2x more likely to be obese 4x more likely to have COPD 3x more likely to have a stroke Here are a few other highlights from the six-page...
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California schools find success building student confidence and campus culture [edsource.org]
When Christopher Gonzalez first entered John Marshall High School in Los Angeles, he noticed that students generally kept to themselves and their own cliques. “It was like a line you didn’t cross,” said Gonzalez, now a senior. The climate began to change more than a year ago: More greetings are exchanged in hallways. Virtually no one sits alone at lunchtime. Students from various cross sections of the school — gamers, artists, dancers, jocks and others — gather together in a small grassy...
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California Schools Will Not Reopen This Year Due to Coronavirus, Superintendent Says [sfchronicle.com]
By Jill Tucker, San Francisco Chronicle, March 31, 2020 California schools will be unable to reopen this year given current safety concerns and ongoing social distancing, the state superintendent told county officials Tuesday. The letter, obtained by The Chronicle, was not a directive, but rather an acknowledgment that the still growing coronvirus crisis will mean schools must stay shuttered. While classrooms will remain closed, education will continue, Superintendent of Public Instruction...
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Changing Minds and Creating Trauma-Informed Communities Convenings - South and North
Last week, on two separate days in Los Angeles and in San Francisco, about 150 people (total) convened to listen and brainstorm about creating trauma-informed communities. Futures Without Violence, which is rolling out its Changing Minds campaign later this year, hosted both events. Some very interesting and important themes emerged from the two days: Residents with lived experiences should participate in the decision-making bodies of service providers and vested...
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Child Trauma Advocates Grapple with Historical Trauma (socialjusticesolutions.org)
In recent years, the idea of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) has gained traction in child-serving organizations as a way to understand behavioral issues and poor health outcomes faced by children with traumatic life experiences, such as abuse, neglect or household dysfunction, like having an incarcerated parent. The growth of trauma-informed services is part of a continuing push to help children overcome these experiences. But some advocates say that until communities and individuals...
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Closing the Empathy Gap in Education
In the Hechinger Report, Amanda Wahlstedt wrote about the empathy gap she experienced as a poor student with a disconnected privileged teacher. She wrote: As a young girl in rural southeastern Kentucky, I remember distinctly hearing my teacher talk about “first of the month-ers,” or people who were out and in the grocery stores at the first of the month, typically with shopping “buggies” overloaded with preserved food. When I looked around the classroom I noticed many of my friends either...
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Coming to LA July 8!!! Paper Tigers trailer...a peek into documentary about Lincoln High School
Please visit the LA County ACEs Connection group calendar for more info on the July 8 screening... Documentary filmmaker James Redford released the trailer for Paper Tigers , a documentary that follows four teens who attend Lincoln High School in...
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Community Benefit Grant Application Request for Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles and West Los Angeles
Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills (serving the West San Fernando Valley and Ventura County) is requesting proposals for our 3 Year Community Benefit Grant Funding Cycle (2017 - 2020). The online application will open on February 15th and can be accessed at https://www.GrantRequest.com/SID_946?SA=SNA&FID=35288 The deadline for submitting your complete grant application is March 15th at 2:00 pm . Grant awards range from $24,000 to $60,000 under the following 4 funding priorities: Access to...
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Community Roundtable Launch - A rousing success!
The Los Angeles Trauma Informed Task Force launched their first Community Roundtable on Tuesday, July 14th, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. A rousing success, their location was at City Council Member Mike Bonin's Westchester Field Office located at...
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Consumer Corner: Putting More Eyes on Human Trafficking in Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County is one of the top three points of entry into the U.S. for victims of slavery and trafficking. The diverse communities here make it easier to hide and move victims from place to place, and that in turn makes it difficult for law enforcement to locate and help them. New efforts in Los Angeles and Santa Monica focus on the place to place aspect of trafficking; to find and protect trafficking victims by identifying the places and situations where trafficking occurs or crosses.
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County Supes Create Financial Safety Net for Millions of Low Income and Struggling Angelenos (citywatchla.org)
GUEST WORDS-- Since joining the LA County Board of Supervisors 18 months ago, I, along with my colleagues on the Board, have taken a series of steps to build prosperity and economic security for residents by raising the minimum wage and establishing programs to promote social enterprises, help small businesses thrive and prevent people from falling into homelessness when they encounter short-term financial crises, like the loss of a job or a catastrophic medical condition. Last week, the...
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Cultivating Knowledge through Communities of Practice
From Deanna Handel, Ventura County ACEs Connection group Community Manager. For a different work project, I came across this slideshow on cultivating knowledge through communities of practice, with a focus on online communities, and it...
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Cultivating Leaderful Ecosystems (nonprofitquarterly.org)
The Management Assistance Group (MAG) is one of NPQ ’s go-to sources of information about social justice movements. MAG works with a number of the networks that are moving some of this nation’s most difficult issues. MAG has come to believe there are five elements that are critical to advancing a thriving justice ecosystem. This is the second in a special five-part series, in which MAG and NPQ invite you to contribute to the evolution of what these elements mean in practice. A critical shift...
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CYW releases "Children Can Thrive: A Vision for California's Response to ACEs"
The Center for Youth Wellness released a new report “Children Can Thrive: A Vision for California’s Response to ACEs”. This report is a follow up to last November’s Children Can Thrive Summit. ...
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Documentary Gives Insight into How "Caregivers" Deal With Trauma (kcvnews.org)
A new documentary called “Portraits of Professional Caregivers” explores the secondary traumatic stress that caregivers such as doctors, therapists, and first responders experience on a daily basis. It’s a look into the people whose line of work gives them what’s called secondary traumatic stress – the kind of toxic stress you experience from caring for people with PTSD. That includes social workers, police officers, doctors, therapists – anyone who is a professional caregiver to traumatized...
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Documentary, "Portraits of Professional CAREgivers" Airing on Public Television
CAREgivers film will be airing on most public television stations around the US beginning this month in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orlando, Cleveland, Spokane, Boise, Springfield-Holyoke, Youngstown, Idaho Falls, Twin Falls, Fairbanks, ETC. Please check your local public TV stations for future dates and times. Broadcast times will also be posted in advance whenever possible at: http://caregiversfilm.com/screenings/see-the-film/ This documentary addresses secondary trauma (aka...
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Dr. Marrow at Echo Changing the Paradigm Conference
I wanted to give the heads up to our ACESConnection friends about Dr. Monique Marrow who is one of the keynotes at Echo's March 21 & 22nd Frontiers of Resilience conference. Dr. Marrow will be speaking on “ Addressing Trauma in System-Involved Youth ," drawing on her extensive experience as a child psychologist in the juvenile justice system. She talks about the ' invisible suitcase ' that system-involved youth carry - a suitcase full of thoughts and perceptions about the world that have...
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Early childhood educators learn new ways to spot trauma triggers, build resilience in preschoolers
A hug may be comforting to many children, but for a child who has experienced trauma it may not feel safe.
That’s an example used by Julie Kurtz, co-director of trauma informed practices in early childhood education at the WestEd Center for Child & Family Studies (CCFS), as she begins a trauma training session. Her audience, preschool teachers and staff of the San Francisco-based Wu Yee Children’s Services at San Francisco’s Women’s Building, listen attentively.
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Echo Conference 2017 Highlights
When Echo first announced the theme for this year’s conference – Social & Historical Trauma – some were worried about whether we could pull off an event built around such a difficult and sensitive topic. Yet we felt we had to tackle this subject since every year at our childhood trauma conference participants always raise the questions, “What about racism? What about community trauma and poverty? How do these things contribute to Adverse Childhood Experiences?” Kanwarpal Dhaliwal from...
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Echo Conference Spotlight: Restorative Justice
This year’s conference has something for everyone! Opening the conference, Echo’s Co-Executive Directors will be joined by some very special guests, including Anne Hudson-Price, an attorney from Public Counsel. Anne will be speaking about the legal action taken by Public Counsel to bring trauma-informed services to Compton School District. “You have to address trauma in order to do anything about the achievement gap,” she says in this article . In addition to featuring the Public Counsel,...
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Echo Trauma-Informed Nonviolent Parenting Classes @ The Wellness Center
Parenting is one of the most creative and exhausting jobs you’ll ever have. Sometimes you’ll find yourself saying or doing things to your child you swore you would never do. Our 10-class parenting series draws on the latest scientific research on brain and child development, as well as the effects of childhood toxic stress. Discover how to communicate in ways that deepen your relationship with your child and begin to model the skills that are proven to help your child succeed at school, have...
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Echo Upcoming Trauma-Informed Professional Development Trainings
Trauma -Informed Nonviolent Parenting Classes Parenting is one of the most creative and exhausting jobs you’ll ever have. Discover how to communicate in ways that deepen your relationship with your child and begin to model the skills that are proven to help your child succeed at school, have more rewarding relationships and enjoy a longer, healthier life. Yoga for Trauma Recovery This training combines physical practice with the latest science on trauma and recovery. You will learn basic...
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Ending Homelessness, One Person at a Time [RWJF.org]
When people think of us, many envision a wealthy beach community dotted with hip boutiques and bistros overlooking beautiful sunsets. But here in Santa Monica we face stark, complicated issues—including homelessness—like any other city. In fact after seven years of stability, our homeless population spiked significantly this year (2017) to 921. This is a 26 percent increase over 2016. It’s part of a regional homelessness crisis in Los Angeles County , which also saw a 23 percent increase...
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An Upstream Approach: Using Data-Driven Home Visiting to Prevent Child Abuse (chronicleofsocialchange.org)
(Image Credit: pixgood.com) Today, Los Angeles County’s Board of Supervisors will vote on a motion to move 103 public health nurses from the Department of Children and Family Services to the Department of Public Health. While largely administrative, the development sets the nation’s largest child welfare system up for a much broader discussion about how public health strategies can help break the intergenerational cycles of abuse that result in preventable child maltreatment. If Los...
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Facing Rising Homelessness, Los Angeles Adds Hundreds of Beds for Older Foster Youths [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
By Jeremy Loudenback, The Chronicle of Social Change, November 15, 2019 The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to boost housing options for transition-age foster youth at its meeting on Tuesday. Two separate investments totaling nearly $9.4 million will open up 237 transitional beds for foster youth at the greatest risk of homelessness over the next year. “Youth transitioning out of foster care have often experienced significant trauma throughout their young lives,” said...
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Fed Up With Probation’s Ongoing Failure To Spend Juvenile Justice $ Millions On Proven Programs For LA County’s Kids, The Supes Make A Radical Move [witnessla.com]
On Tuesday afternoon, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a new motion that will put most of the power to choose how a large pot of state money gets spent into the hands of the county’s Juvenile Justice Coordinating Counsel (JJCC), a mostly unknown voting body that is crammed with youth experts and advocates. Prior to this shift, the funds were almost entirely controlled by LA County Probation, a situation that the board decided wasn’t working. “I find it unacceptable,” said...
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First 5 LA's Strategic Plan: Trauma-Informed Care Is 1 of 4 Target Outcomes
First 5 LA’s Strategic Plan Highlights Target Outcomes: Families: Increased family Protective Factors Communities: Increased community capacity to support and promote the safety, healthy development, and well-being of children prenatal to age...
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First Phase of L.A. County’s Homeless Initiative to Start June 30 (chronicleofsocialchange.org)
Almost 47,000 individuals and families are homeless in Los Angeles County, according to the 2016 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, which was conducted by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) and released on May 4. That count shows a 6 percent rise in the county’s homeless population from 2015. The total in 2015 – 44,359 – showed a 12 percent surge from just two years prior. The 2015 results played a major role in pushing Los Angeles County to create a plan to address the...
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For ACEsConnection members only -- a "sneak preview" of 'Resilience'!
Resilience , a documentary that looks at the birth of the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study and how it spawned a movement across the world, will be coming to your personal screen in April, says Lynn Waymer, KPJR Film’s community engagement strategist. The production team is working out the details to make the documentary, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival to sold-out houses, available to ACEsConnection.com members on Sunday, April 10, at 6 pm PT/ 9 pm...
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For ACEsConnection members only -- the official invitation/registration for sneak peek of "Resilience"
(A version of this post was emailed to all ACEsConnection.com members yesterday.) Join us on Sunday, April 10th, for a free sneak peek of Resilience , the critically acclaimed documentary by KPJR Films that chronicles a new movement among pediatricians, therapists, educators and communities who are using cutting-edge brain science to disrupt cycles of violence, addiction and disease. The streaming event will begin at 6 p.m. PT (3 p.m. HAST, 5 p.m. AKDT, 7 p.m. MT, 8 p.m. CT, 9 p.m. ET). For...
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Former Donovan Inmate Takes His College Degree Beyond The Barbed Wire (kpbs.org)
On a recent Wednesday, 43-year-old John Schimmel met with a counselor at Los Angeles City College — his backpack slung over a crisp dress shirt. It's a far cry from where he was this time last year: serving time at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in Otay Mesa for voluntary manslaughter and attempted murder. A dispute earlier in life had gone awry and guns were drawn. “I just have questions about some of the classes — see what else I need to transfer over to a university,”...