Tagged With "safe schools"

Philadelphia Inquirer News Article   quotes that one in five high school students in Philadelphia are involved either with criminal justice system or DHS or both - report from the PolicyLab at CHOP. Lori Shorr our Chief Education Officer, Dr....

Daun Kauffman currently has an article on ACEs Too High  that elucidates the fundamental problems that occur when a school system does not directly confront one of the basic underlying issues: childhood trauma. One of the headings in Daun's...

At the Philadelphia ACE Task Force Community of Practice Meeting on October 18th, 2017, representatives from the School District of Philadelphia presented their plan for Trauma-Informed Schools. Please use this space to provide any feedback for the School District. Key questions include: What did you like? What would you change? What would be your recommendations for next steps? Their presentation and our full meeting minutes are attached for your reference.

Hannah Albery is a Headteacher in a school in England. She will be visiting Philadelphia in March with a colleague and they are interested in visiting schools that are using trauma-informed/trauma-responsive practices. They are hoping to plan visits on March 25th and 27th and would welcome any opportunity to learn about what folks are doing here in Philadelphia. Please let me know if you'd be interested in meeting with them. My email address is cobrien@scattergoodfoundation.org.

This forum will house updates from the Philadelphia ACE Taskforce (PATF) and the designated working groups to further the goals of the Philadelphia ACE Taskforce. History In April 2012, the Institute for Safe Families (ISF) formed the Philadelphia Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Task Force to develop policies, practices, and research within pediatric settings that mitigate conditions arising from toxic stressors and ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) and that increase the health and...

PCTC/PhilaSoup Collaboration Grants are designed to encourage teachers in Philadelphia public schools to look for innovative, fun and effective ways to increase teacher collaboration, improve teacher and school morale, and establish stronger cultures of cooperation, collaboration and support within their schools. Applications are due on March 14th. For more information, please click here .

On June 4, 2014 Philadelphia lost Paul Fink, MD.  Dr. Fink, a psychotherapist, psychiatry professor, and speaker, was a fierce advocate for his beloved specialty. "I have been an activist most of my life," he  wrote . "Part of my role and...

Hello, everyone! Hopeworks N Camden is embarking on formal academic study of the difference that our implementation of Trauma Informed Care has had on our outcomes with youth. We are lucky in that we have strong "before" and "after" datasets. Natasha Fletcher, of the Center for Urban Research and Education, is leading the study. I have posted a brief summary of the study below. Who is excited by this? Who would like to continue to hear more about our progress in this? We think it is a really...

Sara R. Jaffee, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and Reader in Gene-Environment Interplay at King’s College London, and Cindy W. Christian, Chair, Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention at The Children’s...

  The Philadelphia ACEs community, as well as other communities nation-wide, has been striving to make Philadelphia one of the first "trauma-informed cities". But what does this mean? Sanctuary-trained City officials? Trauma-informed policy?...

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...

Thank you. I think it could be a combination of both grassroots and institutional. For example, my organization, PCCY, has trained early childhood professionals and school staff on the behavioral health system in general, and how best to connect children to it (including information on health insurance). So little by little, and with the efforts of others, as well, we've been able to spread the word more broadly about behavioral health and put resources into people's hands to assist them in...

I only recently (3 months) heard about the original ACEs study. From there, I attended an Urban ACEs Task Force meeting as part of the Scattergood Foundation and began taking a class with Dr. Sandy Bloom at Drexel's School of Public Health called Violence, Trauma and Adversity. The reason I joined the Philadelphia ACEs Connection Group is to continue to educate myself on the subject and by that I mean how can we inform others to become trauma informed and resilient? I'm not sure if I'll...

There are things happening...I was trained as a Yoga Gangster and there are about 15 other in the area that are available to voluntarily go into schools or after school...I have other resources just need to sort through them. ...

As a former resident of Buffalo, New York (I spent 4 cold years as an undergraduate there) I can attest that the city closely resembles Philadelphia and Camden in many respects related to health and health outcomes. It is also a city of neighborhoods. Recently I noticed that the Buffalo-based Health Foundation of Western and Central New York ( www.hfwcny.org ) created a trauma informed community, Trauma-Informed Community Initiative of Western New York. This group is also affiliated with the...

So true, Leslie. It has been such a tough year in Philadelphia with the school budget cuts and layoffs at the public schools - a loss some of that essential support structure, even while our city learning curve is rising. It will be great to hear from people in the schools on how we can all help.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! You hit it out of the park! I had been an inner-city Philadelphia school teacher for many years (both school district & charter) and left feeling ineffective and frustrated for just the reason you stated (although I didn't have a name for it then). I am now back in school studying to be a social worker and having just completed a certificate program in trauma, I learned about ACEs and the impact on families and on children's learning. It is my hope to...

A few (very few) "real stories" of real children, all from only one room in only one year, in only one school, all less than 9yrs old ! At least 12+ more children dealing with chronic or complex trauma in that same room that same year. Sadly, NOT an unusual year. It is hard to read the stories and I fear we lose readers with the intensity. Imagine living it with the children hour by hour, day by day, semester by semester, while (of course) your focus is "raising test scores" with less and...

Very insightful article!! I agree with Daun whole-heartedly. He expressed very real and problematic concerns our Philadelphia School systems face daily. Being in the Trauma Counseling Program at Philly U has instilled in my mind (and my class-mates), that the superficial "surface" issues we witness from children are only the tip of the iceberg - there are more than likely underlying concerns to be uncovered. Families living in urban, poverty-stricken areas are exposed to micro and chronic...

Here is a link to an article about what one charter school in LA is doing to address trauma http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/06/15/320725558/how-trauma-affects-the-brain-of-a-learner

Here are links to a few stories I've done about trauma-informed schools: Lincoln High School in Walla Walla, WA, tries a new approach to school discipline; suspensions drop 85% The secret to fixing school discipline? Change the behavior of adults -- the overview At Cherokee Point Elementary, kids don't conform to school; school conforms to kids -- San Diego There's no such thing as a bad kid in these Spokane, WA, trauma-informed elementary schools -- Spokane, WA Q-and-A with Suzanne Savall,...

Hello! As a RN who has spent the last 13 years providing home care to women who have a history of ACE's and as a woman who spent 50 out of my 55 years living with the day to day effects of chronic toxic childhood stress, I am thrilled to see this platform introduced into the schools. In my work I have discovered that the Cylce of Poverty is so closely tied to the Cycle of Our Stories, which often include the Cycle of ACE's. As crazy as it sounds, families need to first be aware of their...