Tagged With "Trauma-competent schools"
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JOB ANNOUNCEMENT - Coordinator - Trauma Informed School Practices SDP
The School District of Philadelphia deserves huge congratulations for creating a new position as part of its plan to be a trauma informed education system! They are seeking an excellent candidate to serve in this critically important and cutting edge role. Following is the job description Job Summary Develops, coordinates and implements trauma-informed practices in the schools. Works with administrative, instructional and non-instructional staff, to put into place evidence-based...
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JOB ANNOUNCEMENT: Violence Prevention Specialist for CHOP
The Violence Intervention Program (VIP) at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is an innovative program that brings the medical home to the patient’s home. VIP establishes a direct and sustainable connection between the hospital and the community through individual and family-directed interventions. We employ a trauma-informed approach in working with 8-18 year old patients who recently received care in the CHOP Emergency Department (ED) or Trauma Unit for an injury due to...
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Job Posting: Social Workers - PT to work with Chester County Coalition
Chester Community Coalition (CCCC), which offers free trauma-informed programming in a group format to Chester children and their caregivers who have lost loved ones to violence, is seeking social workers to help provide the trauma-informed services to families experiencing violent bereavement in Chester. Part-time per diem: about 6 hrs/week for fall and winter/spring sessions of 12 weeks. 703 Central Ave, Chester, PA 19013 info@chestercommunitycoalition.org (610) 368-0714 For more...
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Join Feb. 18th webinar on addressing ACEs in public policy
Please join this ACEs Connection co-sponsored webinar "Making Meaningful Change: Addressing ACEs through Public Policy" on Feb. 18 (11:30 am-1:00 pm ET) presented by the Health Federation of Philadelphia and MARC (Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities). In this webinar, three nationally recognized experts will discuss policy and advocacy strategies on a local, state, and national level using evidence from studies they have conducted with legislators and the general public. Speakers...
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Kudos SDP for ending Kindergarten suspensions!
Last year 448 kindergartners were suspended from schools in the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). Last week, t he School Reform Commission announced... that it has approved revisions to the Student Code of Conduct that will remove suspensions as punishment for Kindergarten students. The Philadelphia ACE Task Force applauds this change which is based on a growing awareness in the SDP that many of the challenging behaviors that precipitate suspension of young children have their roots in...
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Leading Organizations Partner on a Campaign to Heal Childhood Trauma [prweb.com]
“Calo Programs partners with three non-profits, on a five-city, childhood trauma awareness bus tour, ending on Capitol Hill in Washington DC. Calo Programs , innovators in healing the effects of early life trauma in young people, is partnering with three of the nation's leading authorities on attachment, trauma and adoption: the American Adoption Congress (AAC), the Attachment & Trauma Network (ATN) and the Association for Training on Trauma and Attachment in Children (ATTACh). Together...
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Leaning into Conversations about Race and Trauma
As far back as I can remember the concept of race has played a significant role in my life. My mother has told me that one night while I was reading an American Girl Doll book about “Addy,” an African-American girl who was a slave on...
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Letters: Curtailing kindergarten suspensions is a good first step [The Philadelphia Inquirer]
Leslie Lieberman, staff to the Philadelphia ACE Task Force, wrote this letter to the editor about the end of kindergarten suspensions in the Philadelphia School District: Curtailing K suspensions a good first step The School District of Philadelphia will no longer use suspension to discipline some of its youngest and most vulnerable students ("SRC curtails kindergarten suspensions," Friday). The Health Federation of Philadelphia applauds this decision, which is grounded in a growing...
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Letters: Relieve stress for Philly teachers, too [philly.com]
Kerri McGinley, PhD a former teacher and principal with the SDP, thoughtfully responds to my letter to the editor regarding the end of kindergarten suspensions with her own letter (below). Dr. McGinley urges all to consider teacher stress too. Thank you Dr. McGinley for raising this important point, reminding us that addressing employee stress and secondary traumatic stress is an imperative if we are to develop the trauma informed education and other systems we strive for. Ease teachers'...
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Local Researchers' study shows: Trauma support for welfare recipients helps them earn more [medicalxpress.com]
People on welfare can earn more money in their jobs—and potentially leave the program—if the trauma they've faced since childhood is addressed, Drexel University research shows... "Financial education without the trauma-informed peer support had virtually no impact on improving income and in promoting health," said Mariana Chilton, PhD, director of the Center for Hunger-Free Communities and professor in the Dornsife School of Public Health. "Once the trauma-informed peer support was mixed...
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MARC Booklet 2016: Features Philadelphia
Please find attached the 2016 booklet for the Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities (MARC) project, including Philadelphia and the other 13 communities that have been selected to participate in this 2 year learning collaborative. This is a great summary of the work happening in all 14 communities across the country. I look forward to working with you all as we share and build upon the great work happening in Philadelphia!
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Mayoral Primary One Week From Today
What do the democratic candidates for mayor in Philadelphia think about Trauma-Informed Care, Mental Health/Substance Use Reform, Transformation of the Child Welfare System? Watch the footage from the 2015 Health and Human Services...
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Mental health services for immigrants and refugees in Philly must be reworked [Generocity.org]
If the past several months of discussion and action around supporting immigrants and refugees in Philly has shown us anything, it’s that the city wants to help in as many ways as possible. Whether that’s by providing collective legal counsel or helping newly arrived immigrant professionals transition to familiar careers , socially minded groups and individuals are certainly doing their part to help these populations. Yet it can’t be understated that many immigrants and refugees, especially...
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Moore student uses her fashion designs to cope with PTSD and the effects of abuse [philly.com]
The first piece in Lilah James’ Moore College of Art senior fashion collection is called “Shame and Guilt.” About 50 yards of black tulle, including a cathedral-style veil, obscure the body. Faint metallic writing, excerpts from the designer’s journal, cover the fabric layers: Shame …. I really tried to be happy… James’ seventh and final look, “Flashbacks,” is a form-fitting black dress, low cut with a slit to the thigh, adorned with a flowing black cape. The covering is accented with fabric...
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New report identifies neighborhoods in need of behavioral health services [thenotebook.org]
At first glance, the Philadelphia neighborhoods in zip codes 19148 and 19120 might seem to have little in common. The 19120 zip code is on the northern edge of the city, bordering Cheltenham Township and including parts of the Olney, East Oak Lane, and Lawncrest neighborhoods. The 19148 zip code is along the Delaware River in Southeast Philadelphia, just below the Pennsport neighborhood and bisected by Interstate 76 before the highway links to the Walt Whitman Bridge. But these two areas...
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New strategy may place more social workers in schools by September [thenotebook.org]
More than 20 additional social workers could be assigned to District schools this fall under proposals being discussed by District officials, Community Behavioral Health, the Department of Human Services, and Mayor Kenney's administration. The discussions have been strongly encouraged by several City Council members and by the newest School Reform Commission member, Estelle Richman. Under the program, the social workers would become part of school staff, helping educators recognize the...
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New study pushes Pa. to embrace trauma-informed education (whyy.org)
Even as school districts across the country become more aware of how these traumas can affect learning, there’s been little concrete policy on the state or federal level for how schools should prepare. A new study from the nonprofit Research for Action highlights “promising models” nationwide and calls on state lawmakers to implement a comprehensive approach in Pennsylvania. The study recommends that schools provide professional development that reflects the complexity and sensitivity of...
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'No one sugar-coated anything:' Philly teachers undergo intense training to improve empathy and inclusion [philly.com]
Kaila DeFrancesco is 23, a brand-new educator about to begin her career as a health and physical education teacher at a North Philadelphia elementary school. She’s bright and eager, and in college had exactly zero formal classroom training in recognizing and responding to students affected by trauma — a subject that will surely have an impact on how effective she can be as a teacher. So when DeFrancesco, who will begin teaching at Meade Elementary this month, sat through a session on that...
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North Philly to Oxford [philly.com]
On a sunny afternoon in early September, so hot the public schools dismissed early, Hazim Hardeman strolled into the neighborhood where he grew up, wearing a white T-shirt emblazoned with “North Philly” in large red letters across the front. It was here, in the Raymond Rosen housing development, that Hazim fell in love with sports, music, clothing. Here, where he spent hours each day on the basketball court, indulging boyish dreams of stardom, and nights at his best friend’s house nearby.
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Nowhere to Hide: The Elephant in the [Class]room
We are trying to scoop water out of a boat which has gaping trauma-holes in the bottom.
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On the Path to Health Equity: When Foundations and Corporations Support Trauma-Informed, Cross-Sector Networks
Ann Marie Healy used to travel around Pennsylvania talking to community members about “smart” land use planning. Through her work with 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, a non-profit devoted to revitalizing cities and towns, “we would meet with people to share what we had learned about how to approach planning in a more strategic manner.” In one small town, residents questioned the relevance of the pitch. “Isn’t what we’ve learned locally just as important as what experts have found works...
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Op-ed: Philly schools must prioritize trauma-informed learning [NewsWorks.org]
Powerful and surprisingly prevalent horrors are blocking access to education and ravaging children’s lives. Sadly, they remain the elephant in the classroom: adverse childhood experiences . Adverse childhood experiences include physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, including bullying; physical and emotional neglect; a missing parent, due to separation, divorce, incarceration, or death; witnessing household substance abuse, violence, or mental illness; and witnessing environmental violence.
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Ordinary Magic-Resiliency Research - The Power of Connection
Resilience and Positive Psychology The message from three decades of research on resilience underscores central themes of the positive psychology movement (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Snyder & Lopez, in press). Psychology has neglected important phenomena in human adaptation and development during periods of focus on risk, problems, pathology, and treatment. Attention to human capabilities and adaptive systems that promote healthy development and functioning have the potential...
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Organizations develop a Funders Guide to Trauma-Informed Practice
Responding to the overwhelming demand of funders in the Delaware Valley to better understand the impacts of trauma on our region and how they can apply trauma informed practices to their own work, Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia, the Thomas Scattergood Behavioral Health Foundation, and United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey partnered to produce this hands-on resource that will help funders : Understand the science behind trauma, adverse childhood experiences,...
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Pediatrician studies social, economic roots of kids' health issues
Pediatrician Roy Wade Jr. (right) talks with Jurtomu Vesslee, 14, and his father, David, at the Cobbs Creek office of Children's Hospital. MICHAEL PRONZATO / Staff Photographer Ilene Raymond Rush, For The Inquirer As a pediatrician...
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Peek Inside a Classroom: Jasmine
© Elliot Gilfix/Flickr . What happened to Jasmine? . Photo © Jinx!/Flickr When you look...
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Peek Inside a Classroom: Danny
When you look inside a classroom, there are some things you can not see . . .
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Peek Inside a Classroom: Jasmine
Wiry, active, savvy. Jasmine. There were not many good days. . . only random moments of calm in a violent storm, erupting on a ‘hair trigger’ When you look inside a classroom there are some things you can not see….
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Peek Inside a Classroom: Jose
Photo credit Max Klingensmith at flickr . Jose was one of the calmest, quietest, most peaceful boys in the classroom. The kind of boy everybody loves. ...
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47 Philly Gun Violence Prevention Groups Get $700K [patch.com]
PHILADELPHIA — Forty-seven community-based organizations in Philadelphia that offer violence prevention services and support were given each a cut of more than $700,000 awarded by the city. Efforts being funded include job training in areas such as culinary arts, barbershops, and entreneurship; "Peace Pop Up Shops" that offer trauma-informed care for those affected by violence; grief support programming for impacted families; and training for young adults to become "Peace Ambassadors" in...
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A doctor's call for action on childhood poverty [philly.com]
The main aim of pediatrics is prevention. Prevention of diseases, of injury, of emotional problems, of developmental and intellectual delays. Our armamentarium include vaccines; screening instruments; and guidance on development, safety, and nutrition. It's time to add one more item to our tool kit: screening our young patients for health and emotional problems related to poverty. At St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in the heart of North Philadelphia, we see 15 to 20 newborns a day,...
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"A New Resource for Developing Trauma-Informed Systems"
A recent posting by Bridget Murphy at ReclaimingFutures.org links us to the National Center for Mental Health and and Juvenile Justice's new downloadable resource: " Strengthening our Future - Key Elements to Developing a Trauma-Informed Juvenile Justice Diversion Program for Youth with Behavioral Health Conditions" and also to National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) 's information on 13 types trauma defined. Bridget Murphy's post unites these two web resources through the lens of...
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A Second Chance to Dive into Trauma Informed Consequences
After the success of the first session of the training, we are holding another one! Please join us as we explore Trauma Informed consequences. Punishment or Consequence: A Trauma Informed Approach is an upper-level training focused on the implementation of Trauma Informed practices. This training is aimed at teachers and nonprofit professionals who already have a basic understanding of trauma and its impact. By the end of Punishment or Consequence, you will be able to recognize the...
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ACEs Connection launches Cooperative of Communities
The ACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities launches today. We want to continue to contribute to the ACEs movement for as long as it takes to create a worldwide healing-centered culture based on ACEs science. We want that to take hold in this world in the same way electricity has — we only notice it if it isn’t there.
First, a clarification: Nothing on ACEsConnection.com changes! Membership remains free! Everything our current 300+ communities use stays free, and remains free for new ones.
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ACEs Connection's Inclusion Tool makes sure nobody's left out
We developed ACEs Connection's Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Tool — called the Inclusion Tool, for short — to ensure that ACEs initiatives across the world focus on being inclusive when forming a steering committee, recruiting leaders, providing education about ACEs science, recruiting members, or providing resources and services within their communities. The more inclusive your ACEs initiative is, the more diverse it will be, giving your initiative a real shot at achieving equity and...
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ACTION NEEDED: Expanding Access to School Breakfast in Philadelphia
As the nation’s poorest big city, it is common knowledge that tens of thousands of students struggle with food insecurity. The federal Community Eligibility Program makes it easy to provide every student in Philadelphia with free breakfast and lunch. Unfortunately, too many of Philadelphia’s students attend schools that don’t prioritize increasing access to these meals. Students who eat school breakfast perform better in school than children who don't, yet: Only 39.6% of public school...
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After reversing more than 100 overdoses, the trauma is starting to take a toll on me [kensingtonvoice.com]
As a citizen who has reversed more than 100 overdoses, every now and then I have a cry that is so uncontrollable, and painful, and deep, that I wonder if I will ever stop crying. Recently, I experienced one of those cries. It was after reversing a young man who was overdosing who looked just like my son. He was 16 or 17 years old, still with his school ID around his neck. It took three doses of Narcan — the overdose reversal medication — to bring him back. Surprisingly, he wanted me to call...
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Alive and Well: Moving Missouri Toward Grass-Roots and System-Wide Change
On the eastern edge of Missouri, leaders of the Alive and Well network had generated a robust media campaign to help people understand the impact of trauma and toxic stress on health and well-being. There was a monthly column in an African-American newspaper, spots about toxic stress and resilience on urban radio stations and weekly public service features on the NBC affiliate, with physicians, clergy and teachers advocating ways to “be alive and well.” Two hundred and fifty miles to the...
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American Acad of Pediatrics Policy Statement - Immigration policies need to be trauma-informed [www.medpagetoday.com]
The American Academy of Pediatricians has made a bold statement about the proposed DHS policy to separate children from their parents and the use of detention - clearly linking these policies to their potential to traumatize children. To that end, children should never be separated from a parent unless it is for the child's safety, and the Department of Homeland Security should discontinue the use of family detention and use community-based alternatives to detention to treat immigrant...
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Academic Pediatrics publishes case study on Philadelphia ACE Task Force
On Tuesday, September 5th, 2017, Academic Pediatrics released a special issue highlighting a comprehensive research and policy agenda for addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and promoting well-being. The issue features an article, Developing a Community-Wide Initiative to Address Childhood Adversity and Toxic Stress: A Case Study of The Philadelphia ACE Task Force." Authored by the Task Force's three co-chairs, Lee Pachter (lead), Sandra Bloom, and Joel Fein, along with staff...
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An Evidence-Based Indictment of Inaction
If schools are to be guided by data, the data says that 2 of 3 children experience at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE): children of all incomes, all colors, all social levels, all educational levels. It is all of us. Is your school trauma-informed?
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An Important Event for Anyone in Higher Education in the Philadelphia Region
The Need for Trauma-Informed Curricula at Institutions of Higher Learning: A Call to Action On October 20th, Children's Crisis Treatment Center , The Philadelphia University Community and Trauma Counseling Program and the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey are hosting a very special and important conversation for any one who is involved in training the next generation of service professionals - nurses, doctors, social workers, teachers, lawyers, community health...
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An open letter to Governor Wolf:
Childhood Trauma: "The elephant in the [class] room".. . and it doesn't "just go away" Dear Governor Wolf and Education Secretary designee Rivera : I write regarding injured, marginalized children in our schools, to ask that you include them explicitly in a broad, “Healthy State” paradigm in your new administration. Read more at: WHYY NewsWorks http://lucidwitness.com/…/childhood-trauma-versus-public-e…/...
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Artists in the ACE and Resilience Movement: Creative Avenues to Change
They began with a song and ended with a poem. In-between, there were photographs and giant graphic renderings, movement exercises and a “human pulse” formed when 90 people stood in a circle and squeezed each other’s hands. At a June summit in Whatcom County, Washington, titled “Our Resilient Community: A Community Conversation on Resilience and Equity,” the arts played a starring role. Kristi Slette, executive director of the Whatcom Family and Community Network, one of two Washington sites...
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As awareness of childhood trauma rises, new free therapy program launches for Philly students [whyy.org]
The fire that destroyed her dad’s third-floor apartment is the scariest thing that’s ever happened to 8-year-old Dakota Johnson. It was five-thirty in the morning. Someone on the first floor of the building had fallen asleep smoking. Dakota and her dad, Kenneth Johnson, woke up to the sound of the fire alarm. First it seemed like it might be just a small blaze, but when Johnson opened the door to the apartment, smoke and soot rushed in. Dakota was too scared to crawl out into the hallway, so...
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Be part of a breathtaking tipping point !
. Education Equity for trauma-impacted children: from failing funding to fair funding. Be part of the solution! Background A heartfelt tip of the hat to the Basic Education Funding Commission (BEFC) of...
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Call for Submissions: Third Annual Philadelphia Trauma Training Conference
The 3rd Annual Philadelphia Trauma Training Conference: Promoting Equitable Access to High Quality Services for Vulnerable Children and Families , will be held on Thomas Jefferson University's East Falls Philadelphia Campus July 29 th -August 1st, 2019 . This unique training conference will provide an intensive, collaborative, and engaging experience to providers, educators, and leaders across health, education, and social service disciplines, as well as to community members invested in...
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Call For Workshop and Poster Submissions: Third Philadelphia Trauma Training Conference
The 3rd Annual Philadelphia Trauma Training Conference: Promoting Equitable Access to High Quality Services for Vulnerable Children and Families , will be held on Thomas Jefferson University's East Falls Philadelphia Campus July 29 th -August 1st, 2019 . This unique training conference will provide an intensive, collaborative, and engaging experience to providers, educators, and leaders across health, education, and social service disciplines, as well as to community members invested in...
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Camden Trauma Summit II
The 2014 Camden Trauma Summit will present an exciting opportunity to systemically apply Trauma Informed Care (TIC) to the city of Camden. Monday, October 6 will feature Dr. Robert Block and Tuesday, October 7 will feature Dr. Sandy Bloom . View...