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The documentary Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope was shown to community members at High Plains Technology Center on Monday. The one hour video focused on the impact of trauma on children’s health and ways to help them and their families become resilient. After the film, a panel of local community leaders answered questions about how this research can be applied in the community. “This film is about the impact of trauma on development on your health and well being...

Cissy's note: This is a great podcast for parents, educators, and community organizers and change makers. It is an interview with @Rebecca Lewis-Pankratz interviewed by Danny Bowers "Sunshine" of Better Leaders Better Schools . Rebecca Lewis-Pankratz says things like, " We all need each other. Everyone here is important," and " The community is who we are," but they aren't inclusive-sounding platitudes. She is a tireless optimist but also understands, personally and professionally, how...

[Editor's note: Dr. Harise Stein at Stanford University edits a web site -- abuseresearch.info -- that focuses on the health effects of abuse, and includes research articles on ACEs. Every month, she's posting the summaries of the abstracts and links to research articles that address only ACEs. Thank you, Harise!! -- Jane Stevens] Harris HR, Wieser F, Vitonis AF, Rich-Edwards J, et. al. Early life abuse and risk of endometriosis. Hum Reprod. 2018 Sep 1;33(9):1657-1668. PMID: 30016439 Using...

A study ranks Oklahoma as one of the worst states in the nation for adverse childhood experiences, Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy CEO Joe Dorman said Wednesday, and he said he hopes his organization can reverse that trend. Dorman spoke during the Wednesday lunch meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Bartlesville at the Bartlesville Community Center. The former state legislator and 2014 Democratic candidate for governor, began his tenure as CEO of the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy in...

(l to r) Joe Dorman, CEO, OK Institute for Child Advocacy, OK State Rep. Mark Lepak _______________________________________________________________ Joe Dorman, CEO of Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy (OICA) , and former Oklahoma state representative and challenger to Republican Governor Mary Fallin in 2014, conveyed surprise and satisfaction when he told me that Fallin gave him the pen she used to sign a bill to create a Task Force on Trauma-Informed Care ( SB 1517 ) in April. This...

Boosting SEL in K-12's "Ivory Towers" Educational Leadership October 2018 | Volume 76 | Number 2 The Promise of Social-Emotional Learning Those of us in administration must lift our "social awareness" by getting closer to schools and the people inside them. The superintendent's leadership team for the district where I was working had just finished its Monday morning meeting. One member of that team stopped as he passed by my cubicle to view the large poster I'd recently hung up. It displayed...

This was just posted by Harvard. I thought all of us could use access to it, for use in our schools and the settings we work in. The full image is on the attached PDF.

In response to an alarming rise in the number of students who have experienced trauma and mental health issues and who do not succeed in school, the National Dropout Prevention Center (NDPC) and the Successful Practices Network (SPN) announce the release of the Trauma-Skilled Schools Model. The Trauma-Skilled Schools Model was developed to address two serious challenges faced by our nation's schools: The growing negative impact of childhood trauma and the absence of clear and doable action...

There’s a lot that’s indisputable about childhood trauma. Emotional or physical abuse early in life impacts health outcomes as children grow up. Community- and family-based approaches to dealing with trauma are better than institutional settings. And children of color are more likely to face traumatizing childhood experiences. Those events can include something as common as divorce, but also encompass circumstances such as having an incarcerated parent, living with someone with a substance...

You may have been hearing the phrase “trauma-informed care” a lot more recently and there are good reasons for that. As the landmark Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study from 1997 receives more and more attention, Oklahomans, from all walks of life and professions, are better understanding the social, emotional and cognitive damage already wrought on so many of our children. That damage, as the study reveals, manifests itself in challenging behavioral patterns in our children and poor...

Rt to left—Adrienne Coopey, DO, Billings Clinic, MT, Lorenzo Lewis, The Confess Project, Little Rock, Ark, and Mendy Spohn, MPH, public health administrator in several counties in Oklahoma ________________________________________________ The three presenters for the “Grassroots Resilience: Rural Communities Tackle ACEs” workshop brought to life the unique challenges of addressing ACEs and trauma in rural communities and shared some valuable lessons for communities of any size. Mendy Spohn, a...

One of the first sessions of the 2018 ACEs Conference: Action to Access discussed the barriers and opportunities for increasing access in the field of education. The main question was: "How can one achieve systematic changes within the field of education?" The session was moderated by Michelle Flowers, a passionate advocate, and the principal of Kinney High in Rancho Cordova, CA, which is part of the Folsom Cordova Unified School District. It included a dynamic and diverse panel of education...