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Jonathan Rollstin is often unaware that a train is coming until the moment it has arrived. Where the homeless man’s encampment is situated, trains barrel past about 50 feet away, on tracks splitting the graffiti-marred girders of a Highway 101 overpass south of the Petaluma Village Premium Outlets. Despite the obvious dangers and prodding by police, Rollstin, 39, refuses to quit his illegal set-up. “I want to be alone. I don’t want to be in a shelter,” he said Monday...

In Healdsburg, the priciest real estate market in Sonoma County, it’s probably not a surprise that housing tops the list of concerns for residents. A new poll found that more than seven in 10 Healdsburg residents are worried about the lack of housing for working families. Asked to rank the most pressing issues facing the city, housing costs and lack of housing options rose to the top in a city-commissioned poll conducted last month that also shows support for loosening the city’s...

I am happy to announce that I have been endorsed by the state of California as an Infant-Family Mental Health Specialist. Please see the attached press release. Jenni Silverstein

We’re planning a series of one-day regional workshops for ACEs Connection group managers. We’re planning three events: one in Southern California on May 4, one in Northern California (maybe in Vallejo...somewhere as central as possible) on May 10, and another in the San Francisco Bay Area sometime later in May. We have room for about 40 people at each workshop -- that means between four and six people from each existing or developing groups in Northern California (Sonoma,...

Ed. note: These kids are 13 years old! It sounds as if this school administration and staff is in dire need of learning about trauma-informed schools, and of taking measures to institute trauma-informed practices! Has the Sonoma County ACEs Connection group had any luck in reaching out to them?  ___________________   Back-to-back fights this week injured two Windsor Middle School students and led police to arrest four others on suspicion of assault or weapons possession. One boy...

As a college student, Rob Bonta had a summer job working as a counselor for troubled kids. Now, two decades later he is bringing legislation to address some of the needs he saw then. “I worked with some of these kids as a counselor out of college, and I’d walk them home and hear some of these stories,” Assembly member Bonta (D-Oakland) said. “Shootings they heard. Or shootings they witnessed the night before.” It was the summer of his junior year at Yale, when...

Just moments into watching "Paper Tigers" last August, Angie Dillon Shore and Socorro Shiels found themselves wiping away tears.  By the film's conclusion, Angie, a former youth counselor and current Upstream Investments Program Manager, and Socorro, then the Superintendent of Santa Rosa City Schools both felt compelled to take immediate action.  What if together, these two women could bring the film to local educators and parents?  Could the film change the conversation...

Are you a tenant or a landlord in Sonoma County? Have you been reading our series over the last couple of days about the substandard housing in Sonoma County? If not, catch up here. Explore the topic further with the reporter responsible for the series, Angela Hart, in a live chat on Wednesday, Jan. 27 at 12 p.m. Angela will discuss her reporting, the growing housing crisis and possible solutions.

The effect of squalid housing on people’s health is difficult to determine in Sonoma County because there is no study, stockpile of data or government agency that tracks illness in connection with living environments. Though doctors and scientists are building consensus through research, the connection remains largely anecdotal, witnessed by physicians or reported by tenants’ rights advocates on a case-by-case basis, The Press Democrat found as part of a yearlong investigation...

A local Petaluma group kicked off 2016 by inviting Karen Clemmer, PHN, and Brian Farragher, Executive Director of Hannah Boys Center to speak about preventing, healing, and treating Adverse Childhood Experiences. Erin Hawkins, Community Outreach Program Manager of the Petaluma Health Care District, encouraged members of the  Community Health Initiative for Petaluma Area (affectionately known as "CHIPA" to many members) to ponder the impact of ACES on the health of Petaluma...

....“Resilience” was our second film of the day... All about ACE (Adverse Childhood Experience) and the need to take this seriously now on our country. Hanna is embarking on an ACE project at Sonoma Charter school this year! The trauma we all experience in our early years has tremendous impact on us educationally and emotionally. To read the entirety of this very short article, go to: http://www.sonomanews.com/home/5114803-181/film-producer-nelson-blogs-from

Dear Supporters & Friends, We look forward to seeing you next Wednesday January 27, 2016 from 12:30 2:00 in the City View Rooms at 625 5 th Street. Our upcoming agenda and meeting materials are attached, and minutes from December follow here: December 14, 2015 Paper Tigers is a testament to what the latest development science is proving: that one caring adult can help break the cycle of adversity in a young persons life. Sonoma County ACES Connection...