Tagged With "equal access"
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PHILADELPHIA CITY COUNCIL, EDUCATION COMMITTEE Hearing on Standardized Testing NOTES
"We won’t have a successful education paradigm, or even accurately interpret academic success, while ignoring trauma’s overwhelming presence." ...
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Philadelphia just won $1 million to create a trauma-informed Hub for Juvenile Justice Services [generocity.org]
On Tuesday, the City of Philadelphia was awarded a $1 million grant to create a 24/7 trauma-informed facility that will be an entry point into the criminal justice system for children who are arrested. The city was one of five winners out of 35 finalists in the yearlong Bloomberg Philanthropies U.S. Mayors Challenge . The location and an official timeline for the opening of the facility — named the Hub for Juvenile Justice Services — are still being determined, said Julie Wertheimer, the...
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Philly should reduce reliance on institutional placements for youth [philly.com]
October marked the second anniversary of the tragic death of 17-year-old David Hess, who was killed during an assault by staff in his bedroom at the now-closed Wordsworth residential treatment facility. Two years later, we continue to uncover examples of abuse, isolation, and substandard education in facilities that are supposed to provide treatment and supervision to youth involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Rather than provide trauma-informed care, institutional...
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Podcast Episode, "The Power of Peer Learning and Capacity Building: Improving Access to Quality Early Care and Education in Philadelphia"
The Networks of Opportunity for Child Wellbeing (NOW) at Vital Village Network is excited to share the fourth episode of In the Arena with NOW , a podcast series that lifts up the voices of community leaders who are “in the arena” -- in classrooms, playgrounds, Congressional halls, hospitals, and neighborhood streets -- working to make sure that all children and families can live healthy, thriving lives. In our fourth episode, The Power of Peer Learning and Capacity Building , we speak with...
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Portraits of Professional CAREgivers: Their Passion. Their Pain - FREE Screening for ACEs Connection Network!
I am excited to announce that ACEs Connection Network has partnered with the producers of the film, Portraits of Professional CAREgivers: Their Passion. Their Pain . to host a FREE SCREENING of the film for our members. If you have been t hinking of hosting a screening of CAREgivers in your community or are interested in learning more about secondary traumatic stress and what to do about it, join our ACEs Connection Network for a FREE screening of this film and a virtual chat with the...
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Registration Now Open: 3rd Annual Philadelphia Trauma training Conference
The 3rd Annual Philadelphia Trauma Training Conference will be held July 30-August 1 at Thomas Jefferson University.
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Relax, heal, learn (thenotebook.org)
Pam Bunyon faced the 4th graders, some splayed in chairs but most arrayed on the rug before her. On the whiteboard, she showed them the outline of a human head. Next to it were some big words for the 9- and 10-year-olds: Cortex . Amygdala . Brain stem . Bunyon, the counselor at Powel Elementary School, was using science to help students understand their impulses and give them strategies to deal with them. “So we don’t flip out,” as she and the class put it. Bunyon took classes on anger,...
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San Francisco Dept of Public Health Trauma-Informed Systems Initiative
I thought you might be interested in taking a look at the 2014 year in review from the SF Dept of Public Health's Trauma-Informed Systems Initiative. It's attached, below. The Department made the commitment to train all of its 9,000 staff...
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Study of Philly neighborhoods finds big disparities in health-care access by race [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Philadelphia has plenty of primary-care providers overall, but there is far less access to care in communities with the highest concentrations of African American residents, according to a new study. While the general findings were not a surprise - highly segregated black (and, to a lesser extent, Hispanic) areas were known to have fewer medical practitioners - the difference was bigger than the researchers had expected. The effect was independent of neighborhood poverty rates, which turned...
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Study of Trauma Informed Transition at Hopeworks
Please check out this amazing research study about Hopeworks and our transition to a trauma informed model prepared by Rutgers Center for Urban Research and Education! Special thanks to Dr. Natasha Fletcher and New Jersey Health Initiatives for making this study possible!
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Toward a Trauma-Informed CityProject Launch
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Re: Moving from Vision to Action: Philadelphia ACE Taskfoce Updates
On April 6th, 2015, the Philadelphia ACE Taskforce convened the members for the quarterly meeting. The meeting included two presentations from experts on adverse childhood experiences and trauma. Jonathan Purtle, PhD, MSc, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Management & Policy, School of Public Health Drexel University Presentation: Trauma Policy Research: Charting a Course (download it from the bottom of this post) Jane Aronson, MD Orphan Doctor-World Wide Orphans Foundation...
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Re: PHILADELPHIA CITY COUNCIL, EDUCATION COMMITTEE Hearing on Standardized Testing NOTES
Thank you for presenting this testimony to City Council. I'd love to know how they reacted, and what type of questions they may have had for you.
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Re: PHILADELPHIA CITY COUNCIL, EDUCATION COMMITTEE Hearing on Standardized Testing NOTES
Hello Nick, City Council reacted with much interest, and maybe a little surprise, and (I am hoping) eventually some follow through and action. Time will tell. Their questions to-date are all about statistics, or quantitative research learning. I take the fact that they are even asking questions, as a hopeful positive signal. Daun
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Re: PHILADELPHIA CITY COUNCIL, EDUCATION COMMITTEE Hearing on Standardized Testing NOTES
Thanks, Daun. This does sound hopeful; I wonder if if/how our ACES community can help maintain some momentum with keeping local politicians engaged?
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Re: PHILADELPHIA CITY COUNCIL, EDUCATION COMMITTEE Hearing on Standardized Testing NOTES
Great question ! Not sure yet. Thinking . . . I'm a little sensitive about being too aggressive, too fast.
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Re: Poverty and ACES: What's being done in Philadelphia
In his blog, Nick mentions the Mayor’s Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity (CEO) and some of its goals towards ameliorating poverty in the City. I certainly agree that addressing poverty is not only an important step towards reducing ACEs, but also badly needed in order to improve health outcomes and eliminate health disparities. I am very encouraged to see that two of the goals for CEO are to focus workforce development and job creation efforts on adults with the greatest...
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Re: Philadelphia Urban ACEs Research
Is there any way we can get access to more detail and-or raw data ( ideally on line), beyond the summary document from the Philadelphia Study ?
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Re: Charter Schools, ACEs, and Trauma
I used the numbers available from the public study. I tried to obtain additional data access with other questions and manipulations, but no luck. The "45%+" with 4 or more ACEs is for the Zip Codes Comprising "North Philly", where I have taught for 13 years in same neighborhood. The Zip Code map is found on page 17 of the study. The caution is the statistical reliability of small sample size. The reliability concern is why I tried to lump North Philly Zip codes into an aggregate (they're all...
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Wolf Administration Releases ‘Trauma-Informed PA’ Plan with Recommendations and Steps for the Commonwealth and Providers to Become Trauma-Informed [PA Governor Tom Wolf Press Release]
July 27, 2020 As a companion to Governor Tom Wolf’s multi-agency effort and anti-stigma initiative, Reach Out PA: Your Mental Health Matters, the Office of Advocacy and Reform (OAR) is releasing the “Trauma-Informed PA” plan to guide the commonwealth and service providers statewide on what it means to be trauma-informed and healing-centered in PA. This plan is the result of four months of work from OAR and the Trauma-Informed PA Think Tank, formed in February. The think tank was made up of...
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ACE Impact Team Aligns Efforts to Help Newark Residents Reach Greatest Potential
Five years of convening Newark’s ACE Impact Team has taught Keri Logosso-Misurell a crucial lesson: Fight the urge to reinvent the wheel.
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In-person classes have stopped. Shootings haven’t. So Philly schools are taking trauma support online [billypenn.com]
When students came to class in person, the private St. Malachy School in North Philadelphia was equipped with a robust emotional support program to help kids deal with trauma. The 11th and Thompson building offered its 275 students access to a space called the Peace Room. It was stocked with bean bag chairs, books, music, snacks — even an elliptical, in case they needed to get some energy out. There were two full-time staffers working the room at all times, one of whom is a counselor. When...
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Youth-Led Advocacy Creates Healing Opportunities in Baltimore City
After a shooting at a historic Baltimore high school in February 2019—a 25-year-old man, angry about the school’s treatment of his sister, who was a student there, shot a special education assistant with a Smith and Wesson handgun—conversation in the city centered on whether school resource officers should be armed. Students said that was the wrong question. When City Council’s education and youth committee, chaired by council member Zeke Cohen, held hearings on school violence following the...
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'A Better Normal:' Can universal ACEs screening be equitable? -- Concerns and solutions
Can universal ACEs screening be equitable? A conversation about concerns and solutions. When: Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2-3:30 pm PDT/5-6:30 pm EDT This webinar explores what it takes to ensure that equity is built into the process of screening and providing support for families who have experienced trauma and want help. REGISTER HERE Background At the beginning of this year, California, through the ACEs Aware initiative began rolling out universal screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs),...
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Ripple Effect: Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe Partners with Schools and Service Providers to Build Trauma-Informed Community in Michigan
The week of the fall equinox was Mino-Bimaadiziwin Wellness Week at the Saginaw Chippewa Academy (SCA) in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, a pre-K through 5th grade school of about 130 students. “Mino-Bimaadiziwin” is an Anishinabe phrase meaning “to live the good life.” At the school, it started with “Mindfulness Monday”—students were encouraged to wear their favorite “thinking cap”—then segued to “Take care of our bodies Tuesday,” a “Love Your Community Wednesday" that included talking circles, and...
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100% Community Initiative Builds Vital Services So New Mexico Kids Can Thrive
The deaths of several New Mexico children in recent years—a 13-year-old whose father was accused of fatally torturing him; an eight-year-old who was kicked to death by her mother; a girl raped, strangled and stabbed by her mother’s boyfriend the night before her 10th birthday—drew horror, outrage and scrutiny of the state’s child welfare system. Those incidents drove child welfare and public health specialists Katherine Ortega Courtney and Dominic Cappello to examine the data. Cappello and...
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Nashville’s Purposeful Twist on ACEs: All Children Excel
In 2015, the pieces that became ACE Nashville began to fall into place. A five-year Community Health Improvement Plan included the support of mental and emotional health as one of its three goals. A core team of individuals from the Metro Public Health Department (MPHD), Prevent Child Abuse Tennessee and the Family Center, a non-profit focused on breaking generational cycles of child trauma, began to meet weekly. And a citywide “consensus workshop” in April of that year—drawing 44...
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Me & My Emotions: A New, Free Resource for Teens
The pandemic has had a lasting effect on youth mental health. Moved by a desire to reduce youth’s toxic stress and increase their resilience, The Dibble Institute, in partnership with a team of students and alumni from ArtCenter College of Design and author Carolyn Curtis, PhD, is releasing Me & My Emotions —a new, free adaptation of our beloved Mind Matters Curriculum. The mobile-friendly Me & My Emotions website features engaging graphics and bite-sized lessons teens can access and...
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Be Kind to Yourself: Loving Kindness Practice for Beginners
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Mindfulness for Beginners: Working with Discomfort
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Pennsylvania has nearly the worst education ‘opportunity gaps’ in country (philadelphia.chalklbeat.org)
Screenshot from Research for Action’s dashboard ranking states based on “opportunity gaps” shows Pennsylvania at the top of the list for being among the most inequitable. Research for Action Author: To read Dale Mezzacappa's article, please click here. Pennsylvania ranks nearly the worst in the nation for educational opportunity gaps based on race and income levels, according to a new report finding a large difference in access to a quality education between students of color and white...
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Child USA shares urgent call to action; needs our help.
CHILD USAdvocacy continues working closely with survivors, legislators, and advocates on the ground to pass a child sex abuse revival window for civil claims. The Pennsylvania House and the Senate have passed different versions of window legislation. The House has passed HB2 , which is a legislative window, and HB1 , which is a window via constitutional amendment. The Senate passed SB1 , which bundled the window with two other unrelated constitutional amendments. We support a stand alone...
