We are delighted to make available the Building Strong Brains of Tennessee funded, Building A Trauma Informed System of Care toolkit. This toolkit is based upon the work of the Northeast Tennessee ACEs Connection group and it's many partners since 2015. In time, Building Strong Brains of Tennessee will also have printed copies available. In preparing this toolkit, Dr. Andi Clements and I tried to share in a very transparent fashion the steps we've taken, mistakes we've made and inspiring...

In 2012 I was hired by the Johnson City Police Department as director of an $800,000 grant-funded Targeted Community Crime Reduction Project to reduce drug-related and violent crime in two Johnson City, TN, neighborhoods historically known for highest rates of these crimes. This project required a collaborative problem-solving approach where I engaged community partners to assist in recognizing the causes of crime. Becky Haas Together, we implemented evidence-based practices to reduce crime.

Dear Becky Haas, Thanks for your amazing report about trauma informed programming in Northeast Tennessee. And I'm so pleased (and proud) to hear of your creative and persistent leadership in TIC in this area of the country in which I was born (Kingsport) and lived for many years. I am a graduate of King College (Bristol, TN) which will be screening my documentary film, PORTRAITS OF PROFESSIONAL CAREGIVERS: Their Passion. their Pain. sometime later this year. The film addresses vicarious...

Great to hear from you Vic and thank you for your kind words of encouragement. It sounds like you have a much needed documentary coming out and I look forward to looking over your website. I'd love to talk in person and will email you early next week and see if we can set up a time. Blessings on you and the work you do

I'll look forward to learning more about the impressive ACES work you and your colleagues are doing in Northeast Tennessee. Best, Vic

Becky, I wonder if you're familiar with Abraham Verghese's wonderful description of his medical practice in Johnson City, TN, in the 1980's in MY OWN COUNTRY. He describes the incredible challenges of this era with the outbreak of HIV/AIDS -- and his own personal and professional emotional responses, which today we would identify as STS or compassion fatigue. We have been referencing his book and particular quotes from it in our presentation of CAREGIVERS film in hospital screenings and...