Linsey McMurrin, an SEL and Prevention Specialist with Peacemaker Resources, is an enrolled member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. She is program manager of Girls Lead on the Go!, a leadership program for young women, and is an organizer of the Bemidji Area Truth and Reconciliation Initiative, a grassroots effort to promote truth-seeking, healing and change through increasing understanding and building relationships among area indigenous and non-indigenous communities. Linsey is certified...

FREE 1 HOUR LUNCH-TIME WEBINAR’S Integrated Care and High Risk Pregnancy Initiative (ICHRP) BUILDING THE HUB OF WELLNESS (H.O.W.) Linking services reaching the African American Community SERIES ONE (Six Parts) It makes sense to talk: Disparities, Obstacles and Healthy pregnancies! “The Social Determinants of Health and Working Strategies” D id you know that? Minnesota has some of the nation’s highest racial disparities for prematurity, low birthweight, and infant mortality deliveries. W hat...

The Commissioner of the Department of Human Services is authorized to make grants to counties, Indian tribes, children’s collaboratives or mental health providers for a wide variety of programs and services and including for the first time in...

By Center for American Indian Health - Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, June 4, 2019. Nationally, teen pregnancy rates have declined by 67% since peaking in 1991. Yet significant disparities remain. Native American teens have the highest teen birth rate of any U.S. group and 4 in 10 Native American women begin childbearing in adolescence. Working closely with tribal partners, the Center for American Indian Health (Center) developed Respecting the Circle of Life, a...

The Center for Advance Studies in Child Welfare has created a video training for professionals and organizations working with American Indian communities. Featured presenters include Terry Cross, Sandy White Hawk, Bryan Blackhawk, and Rachel Banks Kupcho. The sections of the video training are: Introduction to the Relational Worldview The Relational Worldview as a critical thinking tool Taking the Relational Worldview to the organizational level History of colonialism Manifestations of...

A huge congratulations to Shannon Geshick who is a Parent Leadership for Child Safety and Permanency (PLCSP) Team graduate. The PLCSP team empowers parents to affect change in their homes, communities, and MN systems. Congratulations to the American Indian Family Empowerment Program Fund (AIFEP) grantees! AIFEP strives to reverse the social, educational and economic challenges facing American Indians by investing in human capital, skills and cultural strengths through three priority areas:...

In this webinar Melissa Adolfson will present information on ACEs and Protective Factors from the 2016 Minnesota Student Survey, and discuss how those data can help communities determine where to take action to reduce the impact of ACEs. As communities across Minnesota engage in the Understanding ACEs: Building Self-Healing Communities work, this is a great source of information to support the work! This webinar repeats a workshop that was offered at the ACE Collaborative Gathering in St.

Here in California, many people think that it’s only liberal Democrats who have a corner on championing the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and putting it into practice. That might be because people who use ACEs science don’t expel or suspend students, even if they’re throwing chairs and hurling expletives at the teacher. They ask "What happened to you?" rather than "What's wrong with you?" as a frame when they create juvenile detention centers where kids don’t fight, reduce...

by Christie Renick "Shana King, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, spent more than three years in foster care as a teen. She lost her own children to the system during a struggle with heroin. Since then, she has gotten her children back, bought a home, and received a national award for her work as a mentor. She badly wants to be a foster parent to American Indian children in Hennepin County, Minnesota's most populous metro area. But because of the drug history, the county...

Thank you to those who attended the 2016 Midwest ACE Summit! At the event nearly 300 people came together to learn about how communities are addressing ACEs and promoting healing in Minnesota and across the Midwest. We hope that participants were energized by the stories they heard and inspired about what can be done to foster resilience and healing in their own communities. Attached to this post are the Summit agenda and breakout session descriptions for your reference. Resources shared at...

Over the past three years, Minnesota Communities Caring for Children (MCCC) has worked to raise awareness about brain development, ACEs, and resilience statewide using the national ACE Interface curriculum. To date the organization has trained more than 130 Minnesotans from diverse communities to present this curriculum and help foster community responses. This summer, Maxine Freedman of Macalester College interviewed 29 members of MCCC's network to assess the impact of this work on...

With Lowell Johnson, ACEs Resiliency Coalition; Emily Clary, Minnesota Communities Caring for Children Learn about significant progress being made in reducing the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), and early childhood trauma, through examples of some of the successes that three communities experienced in Washington State, and sharing conversations with people doing this work in Washington State. Watch the full webinar here

As the nation grapples with the problems of the school-to-prison pipeline and the intersection of racial justice, the criminal justice system, law enforcement and education, the need for new priorities for children comes to light. For example, in a national public school system that is now majority children of color, students are suffering from trauma. And while there is a shortage of support staff to service public school children — including counselors, psychologists and social workers —...

PACEs Connection's Race & Equity Workgroup will be examining historical trauma in the United States of America and its impact on American society in a series of virtual discussions. This series will highlight each unique region within the United States and outline how unresolved historical trauma has impacted every aspect of American life and directly shapes the socio-political landscape of today as well as the overall well-being of Americans. Discussions will make connections between...

This series highlights Native American resilience through and beyond trauma… exploring concepts, science, history, culture, stories, and practices that we are working with as we seek to shape a future for our children and our grandchildren that is defined not by what we have suffered, but what we have overcome.

Join us in three weeks for our free, virtual Annual Growing Resilient Communities Gathering! This event develops and implements community-wide approaches to Building Self-Healing Communities. Participants are encouraged to attend who are involved, or want to be involved in, addressing the root causes of childhood adversity: this can include Collaborative, tribal, and other community partners, such as health, law enforcement, education, social services, parents, businesses, and nonprofit...

Join us NEXT WEEK for our free, virtual Annual Growing Resilient Communities Gathering! This event develops and implements community-wide approaches to Building Self-Healing Communities. Participants are encouraged to attend who are involved, or want to be involved in, addressing the root causes of childhood adversity: this can include Collaborative, tribal, and other community partners, such as health, law enforcement, education, social services, parents, businesses, and nonprofit service...

Indigenous community members and Children’s Mental Health and Family Services Collaboratives' partners are encouraged to attend! This film highlights the untold history of America’s Indian Adoption Era, when nearly one-third of children were removed from tribal communities nationwide. As political scrutiny over Indian child welfare intensifies, an adoption survivor helps others find their way home through song and ceremony. In-Person and Virtual options are available!

We are excited to announce that Season 3 of the Remembering Resilience podcast is now live on podcast platforms! This podcast explores NEAR* Science, Historical Trauma, and ways Indigenous communities and individuals in Minnesota are creating and Remembering Resilience. *NEAR refers to neurobiology, epigenetics, adverse childhood experiences, and resilience In Season 3, Remembering Resilience podcast hosts Susan Beaulieu, Briana Matrious, and Linsey McMurrin continue to explore stories of...