Tagged With "Children's Movement of California"
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2018 "4CA" California Policymaker ACEs Education Day
The second annual 4CA Policymaker Education Day on May 22, brought together 75 community members across California to visit 81 legislators or their staff members and educate them about ACEs, trauma and resilience.
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4CA 2019 Year in Review - CA children’s state policy advances.
On behalf of the CA Campaign to Counter Childhood Adversity (4CA) backbone team (Center for Youth Wellness, Children Now and ACEs Connection), we want to give a hearty thank you to the advocates and champions across the state for advancing child-friendly policy and legislation in California in 2019. Here are some examples of what was accomplished this year: More than 730 organizations signed on to the Family Urgent Response System (FURS) budget letter in support of a 24/7 statewide hotline...
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4CA Policymaker Education Day is Back!
We're back!! Join us for Policymaker Education Day 2019 on MAY 1!
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A Message to California Health Care Providers About COVID-19 and Toxic Stress [acesaware.org]
By Nadine Burke Harris and Karen Mark, ACEs Aware, March 30, 2020 Our global community is facing confusing and uncertain times. As the unprecedented novel coronavirus continues to spread, the health and safety of our nearly 40 million Californians is the number-one priority for our state, the Office of the California Surgeon General, and the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS). This includes the physical, mental, and psychological well-being of all individuals. As the crisis deepens,...
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ACES Aware Webinar: Dec 13th, 12-1pm PT - Public Comments about soon-to-be-released Request for Proposal
The Department of Health Care Services and the California Office of the Surgeon General are hosting a webinar of the Trauma-Informed Care Implementation Advisory Committee’s Provider Education and Engagement Subcommittee. Subcommittee members will discuss a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) released for public comment as part of the ACEs Aware initiative. The draft RFP invites external organizations to apply for grants to support provider training activities, provider engagement activities...
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ACEs Connection's COVID-19 resources for parents, educators & people practicing resilience (all of us)
We are in uncertain times. Homelife has changed. School schedules have changed. Our communities are not the same. Work, if we have it, has changed, too. The world is different and we don't know for how long. We don't know what our lives will look like on the other side, either. We are worried about health, housing, security, and our loved ones. We generally have more stress and less support, as we are taking care of our families, ourselves, and each other. It’s a lot, and for those dealing...
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ACEs gets a day at the (Sacramento) Capitol!
No matter where you are, be sure to follow the events of the day on twitter: Follow @acestoohigh and #4CAKidsDay17 to get live updates all day.
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ACEs screening in CA — a Q and A with Dr. Dayna Long
Last year, the California Department of Health Care Services rolled out its plans for universal screening for trauma among its pediatric and adult Medicaid population. Beginning January 1, 2020, California physicians were able to receive an incentive payment of $29 for each pediatric patient screened for ACEs using the PEARLs ( Pediatrics Adverse Childhood and Resilience Study) tool. Dr. Dayna Long talked with ACEs Connection staff reporter Laurie Udesky about ACEs science, what led to the...
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Add the ACEs Connection “shortcut” to your phone and help make the world more ACEs Science aware. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3!
Stay current with ACEs Connection -- and easily share stories via social media and email -- by accessing ACEs Connection and/or your community’s home page on your phone. Adding an ACEs Connection shortcut to your phone works for iPhone and Android systems and makes staying logged in, checking in, and sharing out quick and easy, on-the-go! Community managers: Share this post with community members, as using the shortcut is a great way to help your members stay abreast of what’s going on! On...
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Opinion: Screenings Alone Won’t Prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences—We Must Address Community Trauma [calhealthreport.org]
By Rachel A. Davis and Howard Pinderhughes, California Health Report, December 19, 2019 Earlier this month, California’s Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris launched an ambitious campaign to reduce adverse childhood experiences, which can cause lifelong health problems. With more than 60 percent of Californians saying they were exposed to a traumatic childhood event, adverse childhood experiences are at crisis levels in the state. The ACEs Aware campaign will train and pay health care...
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Over 1 Million Children Live in Low-Income Neighborhoods in California (calhealthreport.org)
Research has shown that the type of neighborhood low-income children live in can influence their health. Children who live in low-income neighborhoods are less likely than those in more affluent areas to have access to quality public schools, healthy food, medical care and green spaces to play, said Scot Spencer, associate director for advocacy and influence at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which released the report. Researchers found, in an analysis of the most recently available U.S.
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Policymaker Education Day Registration STILL OPEN!
Registration is still OPEN for another week to the second annual Policymaker Education Day hosted by the California Campaign to Counter Childhood Adversity (4CA) in Sacramento on May 22nd! Don't miss this opportunity to be able to share your thoughts and expertise with your Assemblymember or Senator on how to address childhood adversity in your communities. Guest speakers include Assemblymember Dr. Arambula of Fresno County, Ted Lempert of Children Now and Sarah Pauter of Phenomenal...
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Positive Childhood Experiences May Buffer Against Health Effects Of Adverse Ones [npr.org]
By Selena Simmons-Duffin, National Public Radio, September 9, 2019 Plenty of research shows that adverse childhood experiences can lead to depression and other health problems later in life. But researcher Christina Bethell wondered whether positive experiences in childhood could counter that. Her research comes from a personal place. In the 1970s, in a low-income housing complex in Los Angeles, Bethell had a tough childhood. Sometimes she didn't have money for lunch. Sometimes, when a free...
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Positive Childhood Experiences offset ACEs: Q & A with Dr. Robert Sege about HOPE
Tufts University medical professor Dr. Robert Sege directs the Center for Community-Engaged Medicine and is nationally known for his research on effective health systems approaches that address social determinants of health. He is also the principal investigator for the HOPE framework (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences).The HOPE framework is based on research that shows how positive childhood experiences can mitigate the effects of adverse childhood experiences. Sege and colleagues...
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Preparing People for Climate Change in California (Oakland, CA) - Early Bird Discount Ends on November 15th
To see the conference agenda, list of all-star speakers, and to register go to: http://www.theresourceinnovationgroup.org/california-2018-conference/
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Program offers hundreds of young men, boys safe space to heal from ACEs
Dennis McCollins recounts some of the experiences that caused him to harden against the world as a teenager. “There were times I went to more funerals than birthdays,” says McCollins, who is the clinical director of the School Based Health Center at Greenwood Academy in Richmond, Calif. And it took its toll: “I spent time homeless. I got expelled [from school]. I was so angry and upset and mad,” he says. Dennis McCollins Then a man that he met when he was sent to Job Corps as a teen turned...
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Promoting a Community Approach for Mental Well-Being in Our Littlest Citizens [Chronicle of Social Change]
Several years ago, my sister and I watched my 2-year-old nephew’s behavior change dramatically. He started wetting the bed, throwing temper tantrums and getting frustrated so quickly. In any other child, it might have been normal “terrible twos,” but in him we knew something was definitely wrong. At the time, my sister and her husband were getting divorced. Ultimately, we found out that my nephew thought it was his fault, thus the acting out. This was my first exposure to the impact of...
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Racial Minorities More at Risk in the Workplace and the Economy [escholarship.org]
By Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California, Berkeley, May 6, 2020 The latest Berkeley IGS Poll reveals that the COVID-19 pandemic is having especially large effects on the safety and economic well-being of people of color in California. Racial minorities are significantly more likely to report having jobs that place them in regular contact with others and they are more concerned that their jobs place them at risk of contracting the disease. When it comes to safety in...
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Recommendations Roadmap for Proposition 64 Expenditures: Advancing Healing-Centered and Trauma-Informed Approaches to Foster Individual, Family, and Community Resilience
“There is a critical need to focus on effective strategies that address the underlying causes and structural conditions of substance use, including adverse childhood experiences, adverse community environments and experiences, toxic stress, and trauma.”- Recommendations Roadmap for California Proposition 64 Expenditures Report By Christina Bethell, Stephanie Guinosso, and Kanwarpal Dhaliwal California’s Proposition 64 (2016 marijuana legalization) presents a special opportunity to invest in...
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Report reveals how foster care, juvenile and adult justice systems traumatize youth, calls for policy shifts
YWFC sponsored Sister Warriors meeting When she was 15 years old, Lucero Herrera was put in a rehab program by San Francisco’s Juvenile Court because she was getting drunk regularly. And in doing so, the court failed to explore the root of her drinking. Had they done so, she said, they would have found that anger and trauma were lurking underneath, driven by her ACEs: adverse childhood experiences. Lucero Herrera "Why did they put me in a drug program when I had an anger problem? I went...
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Researchers Call for Quality-Improvement Changes in Medi-Cal Plans [chcf.org]
By Xenia Shih Bion, California Health Care Foundation, October 7, 2019 California should move swiftly to improve the quality of care in the managed care plans that serve 80% of Medi-Cal’s nearly 14 million enrollees, according to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Led by Professor of Medicine Andrew Bindman, MD, with support from CHCF, the researchers examined 41 quality measures and found that more than half of the quality measures stayed the same or declined...
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Safe & Sound: Integrating protective factors and ACEs science to end child abuse in San Francisco in 50 years
It was almost a ritual, but one that regularly disrupted the parenting class at a San Francisco-based child abuse prevention organization. Every time a siren blared in the streets below, a female participant bolted out of the room to seek safety in the windowless interior rooms of the multilevel labyrinthine white Victorian that houses Safe & Sound . Molly Jardiniano And it didn’t just happen in the parenting class. “When she heard the fire trucks, she said she would become paralyzed,...
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San Mateo County Data Dashboard: Child Adversity and Well-Being
A product of the Essentials for Childhood Initiative (EfC), the Child Adversity and Well-Being Dashboards contain indicators of child adversity, health and well-being utilizing data available on kidsdata.org . For more information about the dashboards, please refer to the California Data Dashboards page. The San Mateo County Data Dashboard contains select indicators of child adversity and well-being. The dashboard is a product of the Shared Data and Outcomes Workgroup of the California...
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Save the Date: July 11, 4CA Policymaker Education Day in Sacramento
Save the Date: Tuesday, July 11 4CA Policymaker Education Day on Childhood Adversity, Sacramento The California Campaign to Counter Childhood Adversity (4CA) invites you to Sacramento for Policymaker Education Day. Our lawmakers need to hear from you about how adverse childhood experiences and childhood trauma affect your community and what they can do to help. Join with allies from across California to engage your elected officials on this important issue. Who: 4CA Policymaker Education Day...
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School by school, Berkeley Healthy Schools Collaborative is forging ahead on building resilience
What began as a presentation by ACEs Connection's Donielle Prince about ACEs science for members of the Berkeley Healthy Schools Collaborative morphed into a lively discussion about how the 11 members who attended the meeting were involved in shepherding trauma-informed practices into their organizations and schools. Prince, who is ACEs Connection’s San Francisco Bay Area community facilitator, talked about the evolution of ACEs Connection into a network of more than 22,000 members in...
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Screening for Childhood Trauma
Dr. Ken Epstein has been in the social services sector for nearly four decades and has witnessed firsthand the long-term effects of trauma. As both the son and father of fellow social workers, the work runs in his blood. Now, he’s helping Bay Area health clinics screen for and address childhood trauma through the Resilient Beginnings Collaborative (RBC), led by Center for Care Innovations (CCI) and made possible by Genentech.
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Secondary Traumatic Stress for Educators: Understanding and Mitigating the Effects [KQED]
By Jessica Lander Roughly half of American school children have experienced at least some form of trauma — from neglect, to abuse, to violence. In response, educators often find themselves having to take on the role of counselors, supporting the emotional healing of their students, not just their academic growth. With this evolving role comes an increasing need to understand and address the ways in which student trauma affects our education professionals. In a growing number of professions,...
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Shifting the focus from trauma to compassion
photo: Rolf Schweitzer/CCO Dr. Arnd Herz, a self-described champion for ACEs science, would like nothing more than to witness a greater appreciation of how widespread adverse childhood experiences are. Herz, a pediatrician and director of Medi-Cal Strategy for the Greater Southern Alameda Area for Kaiser Permanente Northern California, would also like to encourage more people in health care to engage in a trauma-informed care approach, a change in practice that he says not only benefits...
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Solano County launches its ACEs and resilience initiative inviting all to take action
Elizabeth Huntley recalls the day when her family’s life was turned upside down. “One day my mom woke up and she packed up all of our clothes, all five of us…and she took me and my younger sister who had the same father… down to my paternal grandmother’s house…and she left us there. She took my middle sister to a town near Birmingham, Ala., and left her there. She took my only brother and an older sister back to Huntsville and left them at a sister’s house. Then she went back to that housing...
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Solano County's (CA) ACEs initiative, a robust community effort, makes room for input from all
In a house called “Johanna’s House” on a tree-lined side street in Vallejo, Calif., four women are filling out the adverse childhood experiences (ACE) survey given to them by Maria Guevara, the founder of Vallejo Together, an organization that serves homeless residents in Vallejo. The house was named for Johanna Dilag, a homeless woman who was found dead along with her dog.
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Suisun Elementary (CA) makes ACEs science intrinsic to everyday life
Students start each day with meditation During her first year as principal of Suisun Elementary in Suisun City, Calif., in 2014 Ann Marie Neubert suspended 102 students — out of a student population of 550 —for disrupting their classes. It was a serious problem, but the school’s teachers didn’t know what to do. “[Teachers] felt like they were using all the tools in their toolbox and it wasn’t changing behavior,” she recalls. Ann Marie Neubert Too many students were spending too much time out...
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Survey: Healthcare providers, community organizations weigh in on California's ACEs screening program
In January, California took a historic leap forward to promote universal ACEs screening of the state’s 13 million adults and children in the Medi-Cal program. The eventual goal is to promote ACEs screening for all patients, but this is a first step in dealing with a major issue that ACEs science has identified: that many children will develop serious health problems later in life because the healthcare system is not currently set up to detect the roots of those problems. The term ACEs, which...
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Toxic Stress, Behavioral Health, and the Next Major Era in Public Health by Mental Health America
To view the document, click on the following link: http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/issues/toxic-stress-behavioral-health-and-next-major-era-public-health
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Trauma education and mindfulness help youth living amid gun violence
Armon Hurst, 2nd from left, first row, Teens on Target, courtesy of YouthAlive! Eighteen-year-old Armon Hurst serves as vice president of the student body at Castlemont High School in Oakland, Calif. He has a 4.0 grade point average, is an avid baseball player, and is slated to go to college next year. But until a few years ago, Hurst would find himself waking from nightmares in the middle of the night. It was difficult to concentrate at school, and he wasn’t eating well. Armon Hurst “There...
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Trauma-Informed Care as a Universal Precaution: Beyond the Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire [jamanetwork.com]
By Nicole Racine, Teresa Killam, and Sheri Madigan, JAMA Pediatrics, November 4, 2019 Experiences of childhood adversity are common, with more than 50% of adults reporting having experienced at least 1 adversity as children and more than 6% exposed to 4 or more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). There is currently a controversial debate in the medical field as to whether the ACEs questionnaire, which asks about abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction before age 18 years, should be...
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Trauma-informed groups rev up to address race, inclusion
Eighteen-year-old Kia Hanson has always enjoyed her time as a youth leader at the East Oakland Youth Development Center (EOYDC). She’s worked mostly with five- and six-year-olds since she began in 2016. Recently, she tapped into new skills, especially if the kids were having a meltdown. Kia Hanson “If they’re off, we ask them, ‘What’s wrong?’ ‘Do you want to talk about anything?’,” she explains. “Basically asking before assuming they’re mad at the world for no reason.” What made the...
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Two New Grant Opportunities for Youth Development and Diversion Services
In 2019, more than $40 million will become available to fund community-based, culturally rooted, trauma-informed services for youth in California as alternatives to arrest and incarceration. Thousands of California youth are arrested every year for low-level offenses. Youth who are arrested or incarcerated for low-level offenses are less likely to graduate high school, more likely to suffer negative health-outcomes, and more likely to have later contact with the justice system.
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Update on bills re: childhood adversity in California Legislature
Below is an updated table of bills that address childhood adversity in the Legislature in 2019. The list is not exhaustive, so please email Kelly Hardy with Children Now if you think a bill is missing and/or if you have any questions. Email: khardy @childrennow.org . Here are key dates for the remainder of the legislative session: July 10 = last day for bills to pass out of policy committees July 12 – August 12 = Summer recess August 30 = last day for fiscal bills to pass out of committee...
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Vibrant and Healthy Kids: Aligning Science, Practice, and Policy to Advance Health Equity [NASEM]
Early experiences and life circumstances shape prenatal and early childhood development, with powerful impacts on the developing brain and body that shape health outcomes across the life course and can span generations. The preconception, prenatal, and early childhood periods are critical phases of development that help set the odds for lifelong health and well-being. All children deserve the opportunity to meet their full health potential and lead a fulfilling life. Yet health inequities in...
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We're All in This Together - COVID-19 Statement and Resources [childrennow.org]
From Children Now, The Children's Movement of California, March 18, 2020 Children Now is deeply concerned about the severe impact of the novel coronavirus on California’s children and families, especially children of color, families in poverty, families that are undocumented, and kids experiencing or who have experienced trauma. During this time, we are continuing to keep children and their families at the center of our work. We are diligently monitoring a range of national, state and local...
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Webinar Oct. 17 — Integrating ACEs science in pediatrics: Early adopters share lessons from the field
An ACEs Connection webinar co-sponsored with 4 CA In 2017, California became the first state in the country to pass a law supporting universal screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in the 5.3 million children in the state’s Medicaid program. As clinicians around California await the state’s announcement of what this new policy will entail, many are wondering what it takes to integrate ACEs science in a pediatric practice. Meet Drs. Deirdre Bernard-Pearl, R.J. Gillespie and...
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Whole-Family Wellness for Early Childhood: A New Model for Medi-Cal Delivery and Financing [cachildrentrust.org]
By California Children's Trust, September 2019 Whole-Family Wellness for Early Childhood: A New Model for Medi-Cal Delivery and Financing outlines a new approach for California to conceptualize, deliver, and fund a system of care for Medi-Cal eligible infants and toddlers that is grounded in family wellness. At present, California is not adequately addressing the needs of young children on Medi-Cal, allowing millions to miss out on important preventive care each year because Medi-Cal health...
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ACEs Science Champions Series: Why this financial coach integrates ACEs-based training
In foreground, Dr. Donielle Prince (l) and Saundra Davis (r) ____________________________ Saundra Davis, a financial coach and consultant who trains other coaches on building resilience among the working poor, knew she had met her partner in helping people deal with their “money disorders” when she first met Dr. Donielle Prince in Sacramento at a black women’s gathering in 2015. Dr. Prince works with ACEs Connection as its San Francisco Bay Area regional community facilitator. She also...
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Youth court banishes blame; leads with ACEs science
YMCA Marin County Youth Court in San Rafael, California In her opening statement, 17-year-old youth advocate Eva advises jurors how to proceed and summarizes her “client’s” good qualities. “As you will see, Julian is genuine, well-spoken and friendly. I recommend asking him about his friends and family, his future plans and his activities outside of school.” (First names only of all minors are used to protect their privacy.) Welcome to the YMCA Marin County (CA) Youth Court, one of 1,400...
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Youth-led community organizing as a tool for building resilience
It started as an answer to a youth-led campaign. Young people in arts programs in San Francisco Bay Area schools had produced spoken word videos about inequities in their communities that helped put them at risk for type 2 diabetes. Dr. Jean Junior The response by their peers was enormous, according to Dr. Jean Junior, who volunteered for the project as a pediatric resident at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). “Young people would say ‘You’ve actually gotten me interested.
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April Webinars from Embrace Race
WEBINAR: Thursday, April 16th, 8:30 to 9:30 pm ET What the COVID-19 Crisis Tells Us about Structural Racism Even as COVID-19 leaves its mark across the length and breadth of the United States, we know that some communities are being hit harder than others. The overrepresentation of Black and Brown people among COVID victims in New York City has received lots of attention because of the huge numbers involved, but the pattern repeats itself almost everywhere we have the data to document it.
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Bay Area doctors target health consequences of childhood trauma [sfchronicle.com]
By Erin Allday, 1/5/2020 A screening tool developed by Bay Area pediatricians to identify adverse childhood experiences, ranging from homelessness and food insecurity to physical and sexual abuse, will now help doctors statewide address trauma affecting patients’ health. The California Department of Health Care Services approved the tool — called PEARLS, for Pediatric ACEs and Related Life-Events Screener — last month. As of Jan. 1, its use is covered by Medi-Cal, and it will be available to...
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Budget Recommendations for ACEs Screening (AB340) Implementation
ACEs Screening (AB340) implementation recommendations presented to the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on February 25
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Building Children’s Resilience
Genentech is excited to launch a new philanthropic initiative, The Resilience Effect , to address childhood adversity and its long-term effects on health. For more than 40 years, our company has pursued groundbreaking science to improve the lives of people facing serious and life-threatening diseases. That’s why, when we learned about the emerging science behind the effects of toxic stress and the connection between early adverse childhood experiences and diseases later in life, we knew we...
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Building trust is now a critical part of health care
In a video clip , a hospital patient turns away in protest as a physician enters the room. “Why do you all keep coming in my room!” she asks in frustration. The physician moves a chair out of the way and sits down at eye level with the patient. “You’ve had to see so many people,” he acknowledges. “And I’m tired of it!” she yells. “I already know I have to get both of my legs cut off. That’s what they keep saying. I don’t have a choice!” “You don’t feel like you have a choice,” he repeats...