“As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself and one for helping others.” ~Audrey Hepburn I remember this moment vividly, almost as if I was in her classroom yesterday. The elementary student ran over to me, a grin spreading wide across her face, before she wrapped her arms into a tight hug around my legs. Her eyes glowed with excitement as she told me she had recognized me from helping in her classroom a previous year. After four years of reading to...

In April we recognized National Child Abuse Prevention Month, an opportunity to highlight the importance of working together as a community to keep families strong so that children and youth are safe and thriving. Each year, our local campaign has a theme. This year, we invited you to focus on how community support strengthens families. The conditions in which people live, work, play and learn can have a big impact on wellness. Adverse community environments can create challenges for...

July is a time to celebrate all summer has to offer by building bridges and innovating with community to get to the heart of trauma-informed awareness and resilience building. This month, we’ve added new July dates to the summer 2023 *CRC* curriculum—but that’s only half of the good news. Last year, the CRC began as a pilot program. Now that it's evolved, what better time to bring accelerator participants together in a PACEs Connection CRC community than the summer? We are proud to announce...

Awareness about health outcomes are as much about the long-term impact caused by adverse childhood experiences as they are by positive childhood experiences. By providing education on trauma-informed awareness and resilience building frameworks, the CRC Accelerator certification is a tool for both.

The Bridges to Resilience conference is one of the most recognized conferences in California’s coastal tri-counties. Bridges to Resilience seeks to increase understanding of the widespread impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), and provide hopeful strategies to build resilience within our communities and across systems of care throughout the Central Coast.

The 2023 Bridges to Resilience conference inspired us all to think more deeply about HOPE and how we might increase access to positive experiences for children and youth who have been exposed to high doses of adversity. In this post-pandemic world we recognize that many of our youth are suffering and in need of support. The November Lunch & Learn hosted by the KIDS Network of Santa Barbara County explored the four building blocks of HOPE from a youth perspective and elevated youth voices...

A resilient community fosters a network of people and resources that can adapt, learn, and thrive in the face of challenges. Building such a community requires intention and effort. One example of such an effort is the Self-Healing Communities (SHC) project in Lompoc, a collaborative partnership between local government, nonprofits, and community members who share the responsibility and long-term commitment to its success.