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The US Department of Health and Human Services CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recently updated information about the states' inclusion of the ACE module in the BRFSS (Prevention Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey). CDC reports that “…since 2009, 42 states plus the District of Columbia have included ACE questions for at least one year on their survey.” In 2018 alone, 17 states included the ACE module, four of them (Idaho, Indiana, New Jersey, and West...

This is a reminder that applications for the CDC Adverse Childhood Experience (ACEs) Research & Evaluation Fellowship ( announced last month on ACEs Connection ) are due April 24. The new fellowship position reflects a growing ACEs capacity within the CDC. The announcement states “The selected candidate will assist with research related to evaluating comprehensive community-based prevention strategies for primary prevention of ACEs (i.e., potentially traumatic experiences, such as child...

National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition aims to learn more about individuals’ experiences of child removal, the impacts these experiences have had on them and their descendants, and the methods that individuals are successfully using for healing intergenerational traumas News Release National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS), the First Nations Repatriation Institute, and the University...

MEDFORD, Ore. – Most people deal with some level of trauma in their life. Now, some are turning to an alternative practice to heal their pain. Mariane Ballete, the manager of Rasa Yoga Center , said her life began to unravel 11 years ago because of two deaths in her family. “One of the big losses of my life was when I lost my twins over 11 years ago and it spiraled me to want to move out of my life,” Ballete said. It’s a feeling of hopelessness that is all too common. “I think about it all...

ROSEBURG — A move to improve the care of foster children relegated to living in hotels has resulted in 25 percent more children removed from their families being housed in institutions such as former juvenile jails, The Oregonian/OregonLive has found. The children being sent to cinderblock facilities are often the most traumatized and difficult to care for. Most are teens but the state is looking at expanding institutional programs for children as young as six. A year ago, Oregon child...

New Portland curriculum helps students identify sex trafficking, exploitive relationships Youths are taught that the dynamics of a coercive relationship emerge slowly after a power imbalance is established Many youths caught up in the deceptive world of sex trafficking might not even realize it, said Emmy Ritter, executive director of Raphael House, which serves survivors of domestic and sexual violence. “It’s more subtle than a pimp picking them off the street,” Ritter said. “A boyfriend...

A hearing will be held on April 3 on a recently introduced bill ( SB 1037 ) to create a task force to determine how to make resilience training available to all Oregonians in response to climate change. Under the bill, an 18-member task force would be created to study aspects of psychological, emotional, and psychosocial resilience education and skills training. The Oregon members of the International Transformation Resilience Coalition (ITRC), including ITRC coordinator, Bob Doppelt, have...

ASTORIA – On a still sunny fall day, two women sit in the grass by the Columbia River to eat their lunch: cheesy potatoes, cooked carrots and chicken. The meal is supplied by Filling Empty Bellies, a nonprofit that serves lunches to people in need six days a week in Astoria’s People’s Park. The park is unidentified and is easily overlooked as green space along the Astoria Riverwalk and across from the tourist-filled Mo’s Restaurant, which opened a year ago. The two women, who asked not to be...

COMMENTARY | Oregon researchers are working to unravel the connections between personal health and societal influences Two Portland-based healthcare research organizations are collaborating to understand how social determinants of health impact measures of health care quality. Why is this important? Research suggests that the social determinants of health – the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age – may contribute more to health outcomes than medical care . These...

This winter, a group of students from Sunnyside Environmental School formed a Houselessness Cohort to better understand the issue of homelessness. Working with Street Roots, the group embarked on a letter-writing project to collect student perspectives on the issue. The following is a selection of those letters. Dear Street Roots, MY NAME IS IVAN MANNING and I am part of the houseless cohort at Sunnyside Environmental School. How I feel about homelessness is very mixed because I know there...

For 31 years, Andy Mangels, 52, and his husband, Don Hood, 61, lived in an apartment in the Goose Hollow neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. In December, the owner of their building changed. Hood, who is a disabled veteran who had been working for 12 years as an onsite manager for the apartments, was laid off. Then their rent was raised 113 percent. Mangels said the news was more than just shocking. They were now facing displacement from a neighborhood they had called home for more than three...

The Northwest Tribal Epidemiology Center (NWTEC) partnered with the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) to gather input on top health issues that are most important to American Indian/Alaska Native residents of Oregon. Feedback from residents helped informed a community-based steering committee at OHA pick the top five priorities in February 2019 for Oregon’s 2020-2024 State Health Improvement Plan (SHIP). A total of 215 survey responses were collected in a two-month period, which provided an...