Your voice today is needed to contact Thurston County Commissioners, to oppose expanding prison infrastructure. Background: Our Thurston County Commissioners are deciding this Thursday morning (April 23), whether or not to proceed with a zoning change to allow additional acres to have prisons built on them. Adding your voice today can help steer tax dollars away from expanding prison infrastructure. ACTION TO DO ideally by Wednesday April 22 but better late than never: Leave a message for...

The Arc of King County Advocacy Team April 2020, COVID-19 and mental health - A newsletter to support King County's developmental disabilities community Have stress? Resources to support mental health Parenting in stressful times - Facebook Live Mental health referrals for youth Disability resources for COVID-19 DD Virtual Town Hall, on tape Need 0-3 supports? Dear King County Parent and Family Coalition members and friends, Staying connected is so important during this time - simply seeing...

“What are your signs of stress?” asked the leaders of a recent mindfulness webinar hosted by the Philadelphia ACE Task Force (PATF), held during the week that U.S. cases of COVID-19 neared half a million and more than sixty Philadelphians had died of the disease. Participants spilled their responses into the chat box: “headache…teeth grinding…can’t think clearly…nervous stomach…ruminating thoughts…muscle pain…itchiness…bad dreams.” [ At left: #TakeCarePHL during COVID-19 #StayHome #StaySafe.

By John Woolfolk and Maggie Angst, The Mercury News, April 14, 2020 Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday he is coordinating with governors in Oregon and Washington to end the statewide stay-home order he imposed nearly a month ago to slow the spread of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, a surprise shift as hospitals here see fewer patients than expected. Newsom gave no timeline Monday for lifting California’s first-in-the-nation stay-home order issued March 19 but said that he would provide details...

By @Anndee Hochman “What are your signs of stress?” asked the leaders of a recent mindfulness webinar hosted by the Philadelphia ACE Task Force (PATF), held during the week that U.S. cases of COVID-19 neared half a million and more than sixty Philadelphians had died of the disease. Participants spilled their responses into the chat box: “headache…teeth grinding…can’t think clearly…nervous stomach…ruminating thoughts…muscle pain…itchiness…bad dreams.”

You are extraordinary. Writing this post feels like I have come full circle. In April of 2019, Alfred White reached out to me on ACEs Connection. Shortly after, we spoke at length about the plans he had to create a place of healing and hope in Federal Way and King County, Washington, specifically for individuals with a history of trauma and who were now impacted with symptoms such as addiction and homelessness. I recall sharing with Alfred that there was such a need for this in that...

In a conversation this morning, like I know many are having, the question of staying hopeful amidst the pain and suffering so many are experiencing in this pandemic came up. It made me think of author Pauline Boss and her book Loss, Trauma and Resilience: Therapeutic Work with Ambiguous Loss. When first introduced to this book many years ago, I was intrigued with the term "ambiguous loss" and found that several events in my life fit Boss' statement that those who suffer losses without...

Description: To support tribal public health emergency response to COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is announcing a new, non-competitive grant CDC-RFA-OT20- 2004 Supporting Tribal Public Health Capacity in Coronavirus Preparedness and Response. To carry out public health emergency response activities in response to COVID-19, CDC is awarding at least $40,000,000 of initial funding to federally recognized tribes and tribal organizations that contract or compact...

By Deborah Wallace, April 3, 2020, Parade Parents who are working at home during the coronavirus quarantine face many challenges. But the boundaries between work and home life are blurred even more when your child has autism. To commemorate National Autism Awareness Month in April , international autism expert Temple Grandin spoke to Parade.com about how parents and caregivers can help their families thrive during this unprecedented time of isolation. Grandin, Ph.D., professor of animal...

Strengthening Families Washington at the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF), in collaboration with Perinatal Support Washington (PS-WA), is pleased to announce that funding is available for perinatal mental health community capacity building. We i nvite Requests for Application (RFAs) from Washington State organizations interested in collaborative efforts to increase community-wide awareness and develop resources to support perinatal mental health. The RFA form is available...

Washington State Essentials for Childhood is launching a series of lunchtime webinar series. Series three and four webinars are: 3 Guiding Truths for Building Regulation and Resilience in Children with Significant Trauma Related Needs Time and Date: April 14, 2020; 12:00 – 1:00pm Presented by: Tiffany Sudela-Junker Mother by adoption, Tiffany Sudela-Junker shares stories from her own personal and parenting transformation along with the science & insight that led her to uncover Three...

Kids at Hope, in partnership with Arizona State University's Center for the Advanced Study and Practice of Hope, is keeping hope at the forefront of our minds with their Hope Forums - the next two coming up on April 1st and 8th! On April 1st, founder Rick Miller will be joined by: Special Guest: Erin Gruwell , an American teacher known for her unique teaching method, which led to the publication of New York Times bestselling book, The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used...