Tagged With "Bay Area"
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Middle school tackles everybody's trauma; result is calmer, happier kids, teachers and big drop in suspensions
Sixth grader Cayla White (right) helps lead class meditation with Niroga Institute’s Lauren Banister (photo: Laurie Udesky) ________________________________ During the 2014/2015 school year, things were looking grim at Park Middle School in Antioch, CA. At the time, staff couldn’t corral student disruptions. Teacher morale was plummeting. By the end of February 2015, 192 kids of the 997 students had been suspended -- 19.2 percent of the student population. “I was watching really good people...
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New Brief on Play & Trauma Available
Bay Area Early Childhood Funders have released a new brief, “The Power of Play for Addressing Trauma in Early Years,” available in both English and Spanish . The brief provides families, teachers and caregivers an easy-to-read, one-page online brief about the importance of play for addressing trauma in young children and tips for helping children cope. Additional materials on the importance of play are available here .
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New 'Food Hub' for Low-Income Residents Launched in Bay Area [calmatters.org]
By Erica Hellerstein, Cal Matters, January 17, 2020 A new Alameda County program focused on the connections between poverty, food and employment opened Friday morning, the latest in a countywide effort to help low-income residents by increasing access to jobs and fresh produce. The newly built, 3,300-square-foot space will provide a commercial kitchen for small, home-based food entrepreneurs, land to grow fresh produce and a place to package leftover food retrieved from some local schools to...
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New Grant Opportunity & Program for Bay Area Health Centers: Resilient Beginnings Collaborative
In partnership with Genentech Charitable Giving, the Center for Care Innovations is excited to launch the Resilient Beginnings Collaborative . We’ll select 5-7 Bay Area organizations to participate in this 24-month learning and action community dedicated to addressing childhood adversity in pediatric safety net care settings. We’ll provide access to technical expertise, in-person convenings, site visits to exemplars, and coaching, as well as $80,000 grants to each participating team. If you...
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New organization calls all pediatricians to end crisis that's "hiding in plain sight"
When the question of screening patients for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) was first raised a couple of years ago, Santa Barbara pediatrician Andria Ruth had mixed feelings about it.
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Notes from the inaugural meeting of the new ACN community, for those who live/work/recreate/love in Berkeley
Title Photo: (L) Donielle Prince, post author and ACN Bay Area Community Facilitator; (R) Nicole Powell, Branch Librarian at North Branch, Berkeley Public Library at the first gathering for an ACN trauma informed community collaborative in Berkeley. Meeting notes and future plans are described in this post.
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Oakland, CA, youth organization takes next step in systems change to heal trauma
In a room in East Oakland, Calif., photos of children are projected on a screen. “Who is that?” asks Briana Moore, a licensed clinical social worker in private practice and a master trainer for the East Bay Agency for Children’s Trauma Transformed program. “Bill Clinton,” responds one of the 20 employees of the East Oakland Youth Development Center (EOYDC).
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Trauma Transformed is seeking a new Center Director!
View job description for the Trauma Transformed Center Director position, and link to an ACEs Connection story about the center's impact.
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Pro-bono Therapy for BIPOC
Sharing an offering from Islam Hassanein, a local therapist: I have been thinking about the mental health of the BIPOC community as we are seeing recent events of racism and police violence occurring, in addition to this national pandemic. I want to share this flyer with you all and ask to spread the word if you can: I am offering free short-term virtual therapy to Black, Indigenous, People of Color who are 18+ and live in California. Please share this with people you think may benefit.
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San Mateo County voted to recognize Black Lives Matter, then OKd 310 more Tasers [LAtimes.com]
By SUSANNE RUST STAFF WRITER JUNE 27, 2020 MENLO PARK — As Bay Area communities adopt resolutions supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, one Silicon Valley county this week voted to stockpile its Sheriff’s Department with nearly $1 million in new Taser guns. On Wednesday, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors approved a budget that includes the purchase of 310 new Tasers. The approval of the Taser purchase is coming under fire, in part because it occurred just minutes after the...
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This Is What Racial Trauma Does To The Body And Brain [huffpost.com]
Racism, injustice and brutality — experienced directly and indirectly — can have a lasting effect on a person's mental health. By Jillian Wilson 07/01/2020 05:45am EDT In mental health training and treatment, examining the impact of racism on brains and bodies is largely uncharted territory. And while, in recent years, clinicians who advocate for the study of race-based trauma have made strides in promoting this work, most mental health programs still do not offer official training around...
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California reaches milestone with ACEs initiatives pulsing in all 58 counties. Next: All CA cities.
Karen Clemmer, the Northwest community facilitator with ACEs Connection, was already deeply interested in the CDC/Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study when she and a colleague from the Child Parent Institute were invited to lunch by ACEs Connection founder and publisher Jane Stevens in 2012. But that lunch meeting changed everything.
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High rents make Bay Area tenants most stressed in the country (Mercury News)
By Louise Hansen, July 15, 2020, Mercury News. The Bay Area is the least affordable region in the country for low- and moderate-income renters, with San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin counties topping the list, according to a new report. Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties also remain among the top 10 most income-stressing spots in the country, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. [ Please click here to read more. ]
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Local Updates and Resources from Get Healthy SMC
Immigrant Relief Funds Available Now – San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, Sobrato Foundation and other foundations have pooled funding to support immigrant families access funding to make ends meet given how challenging this time continues to be. The program is offering up to $1,000 for eligible households. The eligibility criteria include: 1) your household has lost income due to Covid-19, and , 2) you’re not eligible for the federal CAREs funds because of immigration status, and 3) you...
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Embedding Equity into Emergency Operations: Strategies for Local Health Departments During COVID-19 and Beyond [barhii.org]
We are excited to announce our new brief jointly released by BARHII and the Public Health Alliance of Southern California titled “ Embedding Equity into Emergency Operations: Strategies for Local Health Departments During COVID-19 & Beyond. ” The brief outlines case studies, resources, and priority recommendations that counties and cities can take to explicitly and intentionally embed equity staff and practices into their emergency operations structures and throughout the public health...
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Anti-Asian and anti-Black racial housing covenants can still be found in the Bay Area. Why? [sfchronicle.com]
Justin Phillips July 22, 2020 If Joanna Chin hadn’t paused to look closely at the outdated document of covenants and restrictions for the Lafayette house her family was interested in buying, she never would have known that, years ago, neither her husband nor her daughter would have been able to live on the property with her. Joanna is white, and her husband is of Chinese descent. They also have a biracial 1-year-old daughter. According to a covenant created decades ago for the property, “no...
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COVID-19 Black initiative delivers call to action in San Francisco Bay Area
As the COVID-19 pandemic began its devastating sweep through African American communities in April, Andre Chapman, CEO of the San Jose, California-based Unity Care , saw a glaring need for developing a COVID-19 prevention campaign that spoke directly to African Americans. “Many of our young folks and families really didn't understand the impact of this virus, nor did they believe much of the information that was coming through the media,” says Chapman. His organization provides housing and...
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The Resilient Beginnings Network Is Taking Grant Applications!
Interested SF Bay Area safety net organizations can apply for funding to participate in this three-year program on resilience and trauma-informed care.
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COMMUNITY LISTENING SESSIONS AROUND ADDRESSING ACES [catalyst-center.org]
In the month of August 2020 , the Catalyst invites community-based providers and allied professionals to engage in generative dialogue about what this journey means and how to actualize this change – for a community to build a movement around a child, family, or individual once an ACE is identified – defining how we as a collective choose resilience as our pathway to healing. From these listening sessions , Catalyst staff will ask providers about their lived experiences as those at the...
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‘Trauma on top of trauma’: Bay Area students under stress from pandemic face wildfire risks [sfchronicle.com]
By Jill Tucker, San Francisco Chronicle, August 25, 2020 Students in the Bonny Doon school district had been back in class — virtually — for two days before the wildfires forced them to evacuate, many fleeing for their lives in the middle of the night Wednesday. Teachers and students lost homes to the powerful wildfires raging through the charming, wooded town in the Santa Cruz Mountains. School had just started, but now Superintendent Mike Heffner, who is also the principal of the...
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Racial Equity and Health [gethealthysmc.org]
Racial equity, and social equity more broadly, have become critical conversations for jurisdictions across the United States and locally. Numerous data points indicate inequitable outcomes for people of color across a spectrum of indicators of health and prosperity. These numbers demonstrate the deep challenges that people of color face in their daily lives and have for generations. The racial inequities we see today were not created over months, but decades and centuries. COVID-19 and the...
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What does child opportunity look like in your metro? [diversitydatakids.org]
By Nick Huntington , Mikyung Baek 12.17.2019 Child Opportunity Index maps for the 100 largest metropolitan areas are available below. You can explore the geography of child opportunity within a metro and where children of different racial/ethnic groups live in relation to opportunity. Use the pull down menu below the map to select a metro area. The small areas in the map represent all neighborhoods (census tracts) in that metro. Each neighborhood is shaded a color ranging from very light...
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How Health Departments Can Address Police Violence As a Public Health Issue [humanimpact.org]
September 2020 The health impacts of policing and incarceration are well documented. On average, 1,000 people are killed by police in the US each year, with Black and Indigenous people being 2 to 3 times more likely to be killed by police than White people. Even in the absence of physical violence, stops by police — or the constant threat of stops by police — are associated with adverse mental health outcomes , including anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, especially for...
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Grand jury slams San Mateo County for letting private defender program languish while boosting DA’s budget [mercurynews.com]
By ALDO TOLEDO | atoledo@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group PUBLISHED: September 21, 2020 at 3:54 p.m. | UPDATED: September 21, 2020 at 3:55 p.m. REDWOOD CITY — San Mateo County has been spending a lot more money to prosecute suspected criminals than to defend them, according to a San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury report. To even the playing field, the grand jury is recommending that the county thoroughly review the program’s effectiveness with an eye toward bolstering its budget or...
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Think beyond ACEs screening, advises California funders workgroup in new report
Californians have experienced an alarming epidemic of adverse childhood experiences. Between 2011 and 2017, 60 percent of Californians reported experiencing at least one type of childhood adversity; about 16 percent experienced four or more. People who experience four or more ACEs are 1.5 times as likely to have heart disease, 1.9 times as likely to have a stroke, and 3.2 times as likely to have asthma as people who have experienced no ACEs. (For more information about ACEs and ACEs science,...
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Bay Area Program Offers Free Mental Healthcare for Essential Workers [kqed.org]
Forum , hosted by Michael Krasny Dec 8 at 9:00 AM As the Bay Area heads again into shutdown and Covid-19 cases surge, essential workers continue to struggle with the mental health toll of being on the front line. This is where the Frontline Workers Counseling Project comes in. The project, which was founded in the Bay Area at the start of the pandemic, offers free mental health counseling to essential workers, from doctors and nurses to firefighters and postal delivery workers, and more.
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Road Map for Ending Domestic Violence in California: A Life Course Approach to Prevention
Futures Without Violence (FUTURES) is excited to share A Road Map for Ending Domestic Violence in California: A Life Course Approach to Prevention with the ACEs Connection community. The Road Map , a policy paper supported by Blue Shield of California Foundation, draws upon our work at FUTURES as well as research and study on best practices for preventing violence. It presents four evidenced-based prevention and intervention strategies to prevent and end domestic violence in California:...
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New Resource: Strategies for Trauma-Informed School Communities
The California Essentials for Childhood Initiative is excited to share a newly developed attached, “Strategies for Trauma-Informed School Communities: Practices to Improve Resiliency in School-Aged Children and Address Adverse Childhood Experiences”. This new resource is intended to assist state and local public health programs, child-serving systems, non-profits, and philanthropic organizations in their efforts to educate about the need for trauma-informed school policies and practices that...
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Schools Support Students Experiencing Homelessness [smcoe.org]
San Mateo County, CA — The Bay Area Geographic Leads Consortium, which consists of five Bay Area county offices of education, including the San Mateo County Office of Education, released a joint report with WestEd highlighting the needs of students experiencing homelessness during the pandemic. The white paper, Addressing the Needs of Students Experiencing Homelessness During the COVID-19 Pandemic , features promising strategies that schools in each county have put in place to provide...
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Supporting Children to Thrive: A 4CA Webinar focused on the 2021 CA Legislative & Budget Landscape on Child Well-Being
On Tuesday March 30 at 1:00 pm (PST) join 4CA as we look at policy opportunities and challenges in the area of childhood adversity in the context of 2021 and beyond.
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New Funding Opportunity with All in For Kids [futureswithoutviolence.org]
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA 12-COUNTY ALL IN FOR KIDS FUNDING AVAILABLE Promote Healthy Child Development, Prevent Childhood Adversity, Support Equity, Heal Trauma REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS WEBINAR ON MAY 19 Genentech and Blue Shield of California Foundation have joined Futures Without Violence and Bay Area Region First 5's to create All In For Kids, an initiative that focuses on young children (birth to 5 years of age) along with their families, caregivers, and communities. We are pleased to...
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Upcoming Creative Community Partnerships Conference in your Region!
PACEs Connection is excited to be hosting a conference, in partnership with Genentech, on Friday, May 14, 2021! We are bringing together our most active ACEs champions in a half-day event, to connect, learn from each others’ work, establish long-lasting relationships, and spark opportunities to collaborate. The event will include: Highlights from local county based ACEs initiatives; Special panels on PACEs advances in juvenile justice and education Interactive, toolkit building “World Cafe”...
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California PACEs Connection initiatives spark new connections in regional meeting
Among PACEs Connection initiatives around the country, it’s well known that our social network is something like a bustling, giant town square where people share ideas, resources and any number of conversations about how to prevent childhood adversity and promote positive childhood experiences. On May 14, PACEs Connection assembled a virtual town square gathering of PACEs initiatives in California, where we have 58 initiatives sparking action all across the state. Speakers at the gathering,...
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Racing ACEs Series! Sacramento and Bay Area--join us Fall 2021
Please join us for upcoming Sacramento and Bay Area Racing ACEs Fall 2021 Series! Please join our expanded Racing ACEs Network and join our upcoming Fall series. You all are among the first invites as you have partnered with RYSE or Trauma Transformed at the nexus of racial justice, ACEs, and/or trauma-informed praxis. We do hope you can join us for this three part series. Please see attached Info Packet for our Fall Bay Area and Sacramento Racing ACEs series--September 1, September 23, and...
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California advocates press for expansion of visiting rights to incarcerated loved ones
In a recent nightmare, 8-year-old Jovina dreamt that her father got COVID-19. He was getting sicker, but she and her mother weren’t able to get there in time. “There,” in her father’s case, is a cell at the California Correctional Center (CCC) in Susanville, California, nearly 300 miles from where she lives in San Jose. In Jovina’s mind are a swarm of worries about her father’s welfare, her mother Benee Vejar reports. If an earthquake shakes the Bay Area, Jovina says, “What if the building...
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Racial Appreciation Gap Limits Financial Benefits of Black Homeownership [housingmatters.urban.org]
By Scott N. Markley, Taylor J. Hafley, Coleman A. Allums, Steven R. Holloway, and Hee Cheol Chung, Housing Matters, September 29, 2021 In the decade following the 2007–08 housing crash, the Black-white wealth gap expanded, largely because Black people experienced disproportionate foreclosures spurred by predatory and subprime loans. Homeownership plays a large role in wealth building, so many researchers and policymakers have focused on increasing Black homeownership rates to narrow the...
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Peer-led organization offers San Francisco's unhoused food, work, dignity and more
He is sprawled out on the sidewalk, motionless, flushed cheeks framed by high cheekbones. He’s slender, probably in his mid-20s, his straight, coal black hair pulled back, and his orange t-shirt twisted up over his stomach. “He’s OD’ing on fentanyl!” shouts a guy holding a skateboard.
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Southern Oregon Success wants all children, families to thrive by 2025
For Peter Buckley, program manager for the PACEs initiative, Southern Oregon Success (SORS), the “aha moment” around positive and adverse childhood experiences was more of an “aha month.”
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Top Reasons for Joining the Summit
Virtual Conference | April 5-6, 2022 Our world gets more complex every day. So it's more important than ever to address the traumas that affect our communities. That’s why we’re coming together at the Hanna Institute Summit: to heal our communities. But why should you join us? Here are the top three reasons people attend the Summit: 1) Learn from Experts From best-selling authors Ibram X. Kendi and Resmaa Menakem to Nancy Dome and Dr. Gary Slutkin, national and Bay Area experts will bring...
