Hi, Everyone: Here’s the state profile for California. To review the entire profile, open the PDF that is attached to this post. If you have corrections or additions, please leave them in the comments section of this post. We’ll be reviewing the comments regularly and doing fact-checks. The information you give us will also help us determine how to organize and expand the information in the state profiles. We will be turning this post into a living profile that, with your help and input,...

Spring is the time for rebirth and new beginnings! As we look around, we can observe nature around us awakening after a long winter sleep. A true sign of resilience. At Origins , we have been lucky enough to create a space for growth and learning for both groups and individuals who work towards creating environments of healing and resilience over the winter months. After completing the first round of The Resilience Champion Certificate of 2018, we have 23 graduates putting their action plans...

Join us on Tuesday, April 3rd for a VIMEO Virtual Screening of the award-winning film, RESILIENCE: The Biology of Stress & The Science of Hope - a critically acclaimed documentary chronicling a new movement among pediatricians, therapists, educators and communities, who are using cutting-edge brain science to disrupt cycles of violence, addiction and disease. RESILIENCE: The Biology of Stress & the Science of Hope is the latest film from documentary Director-Producer James Redford...

Dr. Nadine Burke Harris is a pioneering physician who delivers targeted care to vulnerable children. Her groundbreaking research shows how childhood adversity such as abuse, neglect and even divorce can change our biological systems – from stress responses and growth rates to diabetes, heart disease and more – and that these changes can last a lifetime. Burke Harris will reveal not only how deeply our bodies can be imprinted, but also what we can do to break the cycle. Presented in...

On the Friday after the deadly shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, Matthew Mayer, a professor at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education, got an email during a faculty meeting. The email was from Shane Jimerson, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Both specialize in the study of school violence. That email led to nearly two weeks of long days, Mayer says, for some of the leading experts in the field. On conference calls and in Google docs...

In the wake of the Jan. 9 mudslide that devastated Monetico neighborhoods, Santa Barbara County has unveiled new disaster preparedness policies to improve communication between the county and citizens. The new policies include a 72-hour evacuation timeline, an interactive county map and new storm evacuation definitions. Residents can type their address into the map to determine whether they are in a high-risk area. “We have to continue to get better and learn more from every disaster,” said...

Key issues include getting emergency alerts, knowing evacuation routes, and having shelter and communication plans Evacuations are common for wildfires in Santa Barbara County and elsewhere, but the last two months have been unprecedented in terms of the size and length of mandatory evacuation zones for the Thomas Fire and Montecito mud and debris flows. FEMA’s ready.gov , Southern California’s Ready! Set! Go! program and Santa Barbara County’s Aware & Prepare initiative all have one...

Grief and Stress Still Very Much Present, Weeks After Disaster To respond to the emotional fallout sparked by this winter’s onslaught of fire, mud, and boulders, Hospice of Santa Barbara had to double its number of intake workers — from one to two — and bring on four more bereavement counselors. Among mental-health responders, that was just the tip of a very large iceberg. Hundreds of mental-health responders — some licensed clinicians and others trained in the mental-health equivalent of...

A hug may be comforting to many children, but for a child who has experienced trauma it may not feel safe. That’s an example used by Julie Kurtz, co-director of trauma informed practices in early childhood education at the WestEd Center for Child & Family Studies (CCFS), as she begins a trauma training session. Her audience, preschool teachers and staff of the San Francisco-based Wu Yee Children’s Services at San Francisco’s Women’s Building, listen attentively.

Soon after the sun set over Santa Barbara, Ann Hagan grabbed a marker and wrote a short message to the 20 strangers who died in the devastating Montecito mudslides. “In our hearts,” she wrote before signing her name on a whiteboard put up at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse. Hagan was one of thousands of people who huddled at the courthouse late Sunday evening to take part in a candlelight vigil. “This is a healing experience for everyone here,” said Jennifer Adame, 44, of Santa Barbara.

First, I was obsessively seeking out news of the fire. I worried about the well-being of friends and colleagues, monitored air-quality levels, juggled the physical and emotional needs of two very scared daughters, evacuated or helped others to evacuate, all while trying to continue to do as much work as possible. It was intense. Then, just as firefighters heroically saved our beautiful community, and life was starting to get back to normal with the dawn of a New Year, we’ve been hit with...

The Red Cross shelter, set up at Santa Barbara City College, has been encouraging mud-flow refugees to register themselves at its “Safe and Well” program to let friends and family know they are okay. Online, the resource is at redcross.org , under first the Get Help and then the Contact & Locate Loved Ones buttons (after that, scroll down to After a Disaster). People can also call (805) 681-5542 either to list themselves as safe and well or to find someone who many have registered...