Tagged With "Monthly Sonoma County"
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A Year of Ripples and Streams: Sonoma County MARC Update
Holly White-Wolfe, an analyst for the Sonoma County Human Services Department , marvels at the changes that have happened in a short amount of time. A few months ago, she and Karen Clemmer, then Coordinator of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health for the County Department of Health Services , were comparing notes on how their respective agencies were building trauma-informed capacity among employees and trying to embed that knowledge in practice. “A year ago,” Clemmer said at the time, “we...
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ACEs and Resiliency Fellowship - New Offering for Trauma-Informed Action
We are excited to report we secured additional funding and support to continue the ACEs and Resiliency Fellowship! We are now ready to offer all of our Master Trainers and Presenters additional training opportunities as “Trauma-Informed Agency Champions.” (Limited spots will also be offered to other community members who want to join in.) Our new program will combine two tracks, led by Sonoma County Office of Education: Trauma-Informed Agency Champion workshops (register for 1-3 workshops)...
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ACEs & Resiliency Master Trainer Program - Apply Today
ACEs & Resiliency Fellowship Master Trainer Program Sonoma County ACEs Connection received a grant from the Health Federation of Philadelphia to establish the Master Trainer program. Program This Master Trainer Program is designed to build a group of local experts on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) and resilience science. Learn to promote understanding and how to apply the science to improve health and well being across the lifespan. Application Click here for your application (PDF)...
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ACEs Connection Agenda 2/28/18
Hi everyone, Attached you will find the agenda for the upcoming Sonoma County ACEs Connection meeting. I hope to see you all there! This is a special meeting that will be held at Sonoma County Office of Education with Laura Porter as our guest. Holly Wolf-White will give us a summary of all of our accomplishments to this date and we will talk about the future of our coalition. Sonoma County Office of Education 5340 Skylane Blvd Santa Rosa, CA 95403
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ACEs in Public Policy
Did you know that California is currently considering 4 pieces of legislation that seek to address trauma and childhood adversity? ACE's Connection members recently (July 2017) participated in a P olicy Maker education Day on Childhood Adversity . Jessica Hackwell, Karen Clemmer, Carla Denner, Nick Dalton, and two youth from Sonoma County partnered with the California Campaign to Counter Childhood Adversity (4CA) to ensure our policy makers understand the terms "adversity," "trauma," and...
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ACES members participate in a daylong training on Talking about Trauma: Tips and tools for communicating effectively
Sonoma County ACES Connection members participated in a daylong training on Talking about Trauma: Tips and tools for communicating effectively presented by Berkeley Media Studies Group. The Prevention Institute in the heart of Oakland was the...
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Action Alert: Provide feedback on the county fire recovery plan!
If you were unable to make it to any of the Fire Recovery Community Listening Forums hosted by the Sonoma County Office of Recovery and Resiliency has in July and August, you still have a chance to provide your feedback to the Draft Recovery and Resiliency Framework. The framework covers five strategic areas: Community Preparedness and Infrastructure, Housing, Economy, Natural Resources, and Safety Net Services.
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Add the Issue of ACEs to the Sonoma County Fire Recovery Plan!
As part of coordinating Sonoma County’s recovery from last year’s fires, The County Board created the Office of Recovery and Resilience. They are now in the process of collecting input on their first draft of a recovery plan. I attended the first of several community meetings on July 10 th , 2018. The plan concentrates on addressing five strategy areas; Community Preparedness and Infrastructure, Housing, Economy, Natural Resources, and Safety Net Services. As someone interested in ACEs and...
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Addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences [KRCB Radio]
Bruce Robinson, news director at KRCB, the NPR affiliate in Sonoma County, interviewed me prior to the Blue Ribbon event last month. Here's a link to the interview, which is in three parts (3:30, 43 seconds and 35 seconds). ...
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Addressing Trauma and Building Resiliency as Comprehensive Disaster Planning and Response
The attached memo is intended to make observations about communities affected by disaster-related trauma, and to offer recommendations for trauma-informed recovery. Community examples provide case studies or models for other communities grappling with similar issues. Suggested resources and tools provide communities with support for accelerated action. Memo authors represent active cross sector networks that contribute to resilient community infrastructure development, awareness building,...
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After 5-year journey to integrate ACEs science, Santa Rosa, CA, pediatric clinic is trauma-informed, from head to toe
Dr. Meredith Kieschnick was among the first physicians in the U.S. to hear the term, "adverse childhood experiences". That was in 1998, early on in her career as a pediatrician, when the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study) published its initial findings in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine . “I attended a conference at which (Dr. Vincent) Felitti spoke,” she recalls. Felitti, at that time director of the Health Appraisal Center at Kaiser Permanente...
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Agenda for 1.23.19 meeting
ACEs Enthusiasts Community Meeting PUBLIC ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND! Date: January 23, 2019 Time: 3:30 to 5:00 Location: Child Parent Institute : 3650 Standish Ave., Santa Rosa, CA 95407 About this community: We bring the community together to prevent, heal, and treat ACEs while promoting resiliency. New Year - New Focus! With start of new year, Sonoma County ACEs Connection will re-start fresh with a community focus, while seeking opportunities to leverage and coordinate with others. Welcome...
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ACEs Champions Science Series: Allen Nishikawa: ACEs Storyteller Helps People Develop Their Resilience
Sonoma County ACEs Connection members Allen Nishikawa and Lena Hoffman at California Policymaker Education Day, 2018 Allen Nishikawa, a sansei, or third-generation Japanese American, majored in political science and American history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he participated in antiwar (Vietnam) marches. But it was his experience as a military brat — moving from school to school across the U.S. and even to Japan as a child — that shaped his own childhood experiences and...
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ANNOUNCING: $700,000 GRANT TO SONOMA LAND TRUST TO PROTECT CRITICAL OPEN SPACE LAND AT SONOMA DEVELOPMENTAL CENTER [CFSC]
By Caitlin Childs, June 26, 2019, Community Foundation Sonoma County We are so pleased to announce this wonderful news: Thanks to the vision of a family that cared deeply about the future of Sonoma County, the Sonoma Land Trust has received a $700,000 grant from Community Foundation Sonoma County and our regional affiliate the Sonoma Valley Fund to protect more than 700 acres of open space, trails and natural resources at the site of the former Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC). This grant...
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Antidote for Sonoma County homelessness: Homes, job training [PressDemocrat.com]
Mateo Swaim-Brouwer, 21, shoveled gravel in the hot sun Tuesday at a home under construction on a Cotati cul-de-sac. It was manual labor, without pay, rewarded only by a pizza lunch break with his co-workers. Swaim-Brouwer, wearing a neon green Habitat for Humanity T-shirt, was happy to be there. A simple matter of payback, he said, recalling the six months he and his mother were homeless, living in a shelter and on the streets of Santa Rosa. The two-bedroom wood-frame home, beige with white...
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April 28th Mindful Educators Retreat
In support of the growing needs of our students and our schools, we are happy to announce our next retreat for educators, counselors, and parents... Mindfulness for Busy People: Finding Stillness Think you are too busy for mindfulness? Think again! CLICK HERE TO REGISTER In this nourishing retreat for educators, counselors, parents, and anyone working with youth, we'll explore mindfulness practices that fit into your daily life. Participants will learn how to cultivate an inner-resource of...
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Are We Crazy About Our kids? Documentary Short Film and Panel Discussion
Are We Crazy About Our kids? Documentary Short Film and Panel Discussion by Russian River Cradle to Career Collaborative Thursday, April 27, 2017 6:30pm-8:30pm Rio Theatre 20396 Bohemian Highway Monte Rio, CA 95462 TO RSVP CLICK HERE “Every dollar we put into high-quality early childhood education we get $7 back in reduced teen pregnancy, improved graduation rates, improved performance in school, reduced incarceration rates. The society as a whole does better.” President, Barack Obama...
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Attachment Theory and Perpetrators of Intimate Violence: From Reactivity to Responsiveness with Daniel Sonkin, Ph.D.
Dr. Sonkin will describe how attachment can offer insights into the causes of, and treatment for intimate partner violence (IPV). Daniel Sonkin, Ph.D. is a License MFT in independent practice. Since 1978, his work has focused on the treatment of couples and individuals experiencing IPV. As one of the early specialists in the field, Dr. Sonkin has developed a widely-used protocol for treating perpetrators. He is an international speaker on IPV and the author of numerous publications. Friday,...
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Aurora Santa Rosa Hospital Plans to Add 49 Beds in 2019 [Sonoma County Gazette]
Tucked away from the cross-town traffic, off Fulton Road in West Santa Rosa, is a dedicated mental health hospital and Outpatient Program Center situated on 10 grassy, tree-lined acres. Since 2013, when Aurora Santa Rosa [ASR] opened, the facility has offered a full range of mental health services including 95 available beds for those in need. Thirty-eight of those beds are dedicated to adolescent-only units. This is a very nice facility. CEO, Susan Rose , has been at Aurora since 2015. She...
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Back by popular demand: Group managers' workshop May 10! (Save the date!!)
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,...
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Back by popular demand, PART TWO: SAVE THE REAL DATE -- MAY 12!!
Hi, Everyone: For those of you took note of this blog post -- Back by popular demand: Group managers' workshop May 10 (Save the date!!) -- we had to make a few changes because of conflicts and venue availability. So, the REAL date for the NorCal community groups is May 12, and it will be in Sacramento, which we figured was fairly central for people coming from Sonoma, Yolo, Napa, Sacramento, Butte, Eldorado, Shasta and Mendocino counties (and perhaps a couple more). We're hosting the...
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Bay Area 'shelter in place' expected: Only essential businesses open in 6 counties with 6.7million people until April 7 [sfchronicle.com]
By Erin Allday, San Francisco Chronicle, March 16, 2020 Six Bay Area counties are expected to announce a “shelter in place” order for all residents on Monday, directing everyone to stay inside their homes and away from others as much as possible for the next three weeks as public health officials desperately try to curb the rapid spread of coronavirus across the region. County authorities were expected to announce the move at 1 p.m. and gave a draft of the order to media outlets to prepare.
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Beloved Community - "What does it take to lift up all members of our community?"
Last February, Kanwarpal Dhaliwal of RYSE came to Sonoma County and urged us to consider re-framing our thinking around how we label trauma and resiliency. She outlined a vision for creating a "beloved community" together. I just heard her speak again in Philadelphia, and felt deeply grateful for her continued urging to get under the layers of pain in Sonoma County. If you'd like a shot of passion in your arm, check her out in this video where she gives a similar presentation:
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Blue Ribbon Event on April 23
April is Child Abuse Prevention month. This year, Prevent Child Abuse-Sonoma County and Child Parent Institute have planned some special offerings. Here is a listing. Please note that ACEs Connection founder and editor, Jane Ellen Stevens, will...
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Bridges to Resilience: Santa Barbara and Sonoma County Share the Passion
On October 16, I joined in Santa Barbara's Second Annual Bridges to Resilience Conference . Surrounded by "our people" or 300+ folks like us who care deeply about ending childhood adversity, I basked in the waves of passion passing back and forth between presenters, participants, and organizers. With the fires raging in our community at the same time, it was hard for me to consider leaving my post at one of the shelters to participate in this event. However, I convinced myself attending this...
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Bringing ACEs Passion to the Commission on the Status of Women
Harnessing the wisdom that comes from challenging life experiences is a gift - and, it takes strength. Finding a pathway to healing , through expressive art, writing, and kayaking are just some of the ways that Michelle Denham role models the value of self-care. Michelle brings this wisdom to her role on the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women . CSW Commissioner Michelle Denham As a passionate Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) champion , Michelle brings a trauma informed lens...
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Building Resilience - Mind Body Medicine Hike
Mind Body Medicine workshops and hikes in Santa Rosa and Glen Ellen
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Building the Occupy Bench, the new circular conversation starter in the plaza [Sonoma West]
Building the Occupy Bench This handsome circular bench, created by Jim Wheaton, Steve Pierce and Peter Santulli was installed on the downtown plaza in Sebastopol on Thursday, Nov. 29. The city of Sebastopol initiated the building of the circular Occupy Bench of Sebastopol to commemorate the Occupy Movement (2011-2013) and provide a place for community discussion in the downtown plaza. Wheaton, Santulli and Pierce, along with many others, have spent three years working to build the bench.
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California Child Welfare Policy and Progress, Winter Issue
The California Child Welfare Co-Investment Partnership Report This issue of in sights provides an overview of the latest legislative developments in California, including data and perspectives on the policy and practice transformation taking place with the Continuum of Care Reform (CCR). Beyond a comprehensive summary of child welfare state legislation, this issue also includes a discussion on the key provisions of the Family First Prevention Services Act. The issue concludes with...
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California Counties Encouraged to Apply for Mental Health Wellness Grants [Sonoma County Gazette]
“There is no better investment we can make today than in the next generation of adults who will be the workers, parents, leaders, and caretakers of the world,” Treasurer Ma said. The deadline for counties to apply for grants is Thursday, February 28, 2019, at 5:00 p.m. Non-profit corporations also are encouraged to contact their counties to apply jointly. The California Health Facilities Financing Authority (CHFFA), chaired by Treasurer Ma, will distribute the funds through the Investment in...
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Calling all Bay Area Health Centers! Grant opportunity for your clinic to become trauma-informed!
FIND MORE INFO: https://www.careinnovations.org/resilience-2018/ KEY DATES Informational Webinar : Wednesday, April 4, 2018 at 12-1:30pm Application Deadline: Monday, April 23, 2018 at 5pm Cohort Announced: Friday, May 25, 2018 Program Kickoff Meeting: Tuesday, June 12, 2018 (half day in the Bay Area) An exciting opportunity came to my inbox this morning! In partnership with Genentech Charitable Giving, the Center for Care Innovations (CCI) is launching the Resilient Beginnings Collaborative...
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Change in Meeting Dates for Sonoma County ACES Connections
Our meetings are usually on the fourth Wednesday of the month. But with both Thanksgiving and Christmas occurring so close to our next regular meeting dates, we were concerned that people might not be able to attend these two important meetings....
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Check out page 5 in “Spotlight on Sonoma County Schools” in the Aug. 5th PD. “Healthy Minds: The Foundation For Learning”.
Check out page 5 in “Spotlight on Sonoma County Schools” in the Aug. 5th PD. It’s the article “Healthy Minds: The Foundation For Learning”. So wonderful to see community effort around promoting youth social-emotional learning and trauma-informed care! Check out the full article here Thank you Kate Jenkins for sharing this article with us.
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Child-Friendly Space Offering Transitional Support and Relief
CHILD-FRIENDLY SPACE UPDATE: "Hello! You are receiving this email because either you or someone you know has been greatly affected by the recent wildfires . I am writing this email from a facility that has graciously opened its doors and allowed The School Box Project to create a child-friendly space to provide support and relief for children of all ages with various special needs. The operation will be framed with trauma-informed care and Universal Designed Learning principles in mind. The...
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Ciudad de Sonoma Reunión de Nuestra Comunidad (Sonoma Valley Community Gathering)
Ciudad de Sonoma Reunión de Nuestra Comunidad (Sonoma Valley Community Gathering) February 26 @ 6:00 pm Free COMIDA GRATIS — FREE DINNER ¡Únete a la conversación! Celebrando nuestra comunidad identificando metas para introducir un proyecto de una comunidad que se sana por sí mismo. Con el propósito de aumentar la salud y prosperidad de las familias en la ciudad Sonoma. Comida Gratis – Habra cuidado de niños y actividades. Si desea más información, póngase en contacto con Richard De León:...
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Close to Home: Why we need to expand access to early childhood education [PressDemocrat.com]
Many people don’t know that 90 percent of a child’s brain develops before the age of five. The early childhood years are critical for laying the foundation for the rest of a child’s life. Early interaction with parents, child-care providers and siblings all shape the nature and development of a child’s brain. But knowing something and doing something about it are two very different things. We need to ensure that every child in Sonoma County has access to quality preschool to give them a...
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Come to our final meeting of 2015!
Dear Sonoma County ACES Connection members, I am excited to remind you that our next meeting is Wed 12/16 from 12:30 to 2:00 in the Public Health building located at 625 Fifth Stree t Santa Rosa, 95404. Several members indicated that they were feeling conflicted, they wanted to be at our meeting and also attend the training at Child Parent Institute, and as such we will push back our start time to 12:30 and end at 2:00 so everyone has the...
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Coming Wednesday: Live chat about Sonoma County's housing crisis [PressDemocrat.com]
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.
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Community After Disaster, a Therapist’s Musings
Here in Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino counties, the entire community experienced prolonged and extensive hyper-arousal – days on end of watching and wondering where the fires would burn next, and far too many sleepless nights. According to the literature on disasters, what follows is a brief honeymoon period, characterized by community cohesion and gratitude. Sonoma County showed up for each other in major ways in the past couple of weeks, and the outpouring of gratitude to the first responders...
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Community Partners Invited to Share Ideas for Recovery
From the Sonoma County Office of Recovery: Sonoma County Recovers Together Come share your ideas about what actions will lead to a successful recovery and resilient future for Sonoma County. Topics include: preparedness, infrastructure, housing, economy, natural resources, and safety net services that are important to your organization, including health and human services. July 10 th , 6 - 8 pm: Sonoma County Office of Education July 11 th , 6 - 8 pm: Sebastopol Center for the Arts July 25...
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Community Profiles from selected CA ACEs Initiatives and Programs
CA communities and organizations from across the state shared information about their trauma informed and resilience building initiatives at the Child Adversity Policymaker Awareness Day on July 11, 2017 in Sacramento. The event, organized by 4CA ( California Campaign to Counter Childhood Adversity) , educated state legislators about the impacts of child adversity across the lifecourse and strategies for preventing ACEs, healing trauma and creating resilient communities. A series of twelve...
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Conference Scholarship for Beyond Paper Tigers
Congratulations to Dave Rose and Nikki Jackson of Petaluma City Schools for winning this scholarship! The Sonoma County ACEs Connection Steering Committee voted to create a scholarship for educational professionals to attend the upcoming " Beyond Paper Tigers " conference in Walla Walla, Washington. This event is sponsored by our fellow MARC grant community in Washington, and offers Sonoma County the potential to build on our many local screenings of Paper Tigers. "The documentary Paper...
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County Supervisors Approve Recovery and Resiliency Framework
SANTA ROSA – On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors approved the Recovery and Resiliency Framework which serves as a vision and approach for how Sonoma County will recover and emerge more resilient from the October 2017 wildfires. The Framework was prepared by the County’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency in collaboration with other County departments and agencies, cities and other jurisdictions, nonprofits, and other community stakeholders. “In 2017, a catastrophic wind storm created a...
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Stress-related hormone cortisol lowers significantly after just 45 minutes of art creation
I know that I'm preaching to the choir with this article ( Stress-related hormone cortisol lowers significantly after just 45 minutes of art creation ), but I'd like to share a personal story and along with it a some floating hopes I have in all of this trauma-informed work that we strive to do. My Brief Story I didn't always like to paint. In fact, I hated it because I was high-achieving and didn't think I was good enough to do it. One day my senior year of college, a friend of mine (let's...
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Disaster Funds List
Attached you will find a list of participating organizations donating funds to victims from the Northern CA fires. If you or someone you know is seeking assistance, please check out this list.
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Does every child in Sonoma County to feel loved?
Imagine, if every child in Sonoma County felt loved and nurtured ...we could request this community training ... for FREE! Thoughts? Does anyone from SCAC want to participate in the Humboldt " Prevention Visioning Meeting " to learn more, and bring this opportunity back to Sonoma County?
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Don't let the ACES train leave without you!
By: Kate Jenkins, M.A. As a member of the Sonoma County ACEs Connection, I would like to help stir interest among folks to be part of the ACEs Connection. Over the months that I have been part of the ACEs Connection, I have observed that your...
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Dovetail Learning's TOOLBOX a resource for schools seeking to be Trauma-Informed
Bryan Clement, Dovetail Learning, gave a compelling presentation to the ACEs Connection community coalition in late January. He began with a video showing how kids are putting social and emotional skills into action in their school settings (there's a version with Spanish subtitles here ): TOOLBOX clearly offers great tools for strengthening relationships between folks of all ages. It also provides the language and framework creating a strong relationship-based foundation for schools seeking...
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DRAFT notes from our October 2019 meeting
Draft notes from our October 23, 2019 meeting Welcome: For all who could join our meeting on October 23rd, thank you for your participation! Together we can broaden our understanding of how ACEs impact our communities and what folks are doing to address ACEs. In October we welcomed David Beck MD a local Psychiatrist, Lynn Burke from Drug Abuse Alternatives Center (DAAC) Perinatal Program and we welcomed the return of Carla Denner LCSW who is now with DHS - BH- Alcohol and Other Drug...
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‘Tapping’ brings stress reduction to Sonoma’s fingertips [Sonoma Index Tribune]
To some people the word “tapping” may no longer involve dance steps or metal taps on shoes. Tapping now also refers to a holistic technique that relieves pain, stress and anxiety. Those interested in learning more can attend a workshop on “Tapping,” which will be held at Presentation School on Feb. 28 as part of the school’s yearly Speaker Series. “The school has been introducing students to ideas such as growth mindsets and mindfulness and stress reduction for years,” said Scott Parker,...