By Annabelle Timsit, Quartz, March 21, 2020 James is 3 years old and presents with chronic asthma, allergies, and eczema. Lola is five and overweight. Emma is 11 and struggles to focus on her homework, often gets into fights at school, and has trouble sleeping. These (fictional) children may seem like they have little in common—but that’s because you don’t have all the information. You don’t know, for example, that James’ father has bipolar disorder and misuses his prescription medication.

With every risk factor or adversity we face, the best response is one based on protective factors - ways to buffer the storm. No question, the coronavirus and its implications are significant. But how do we support staying safe and connected when social distancing and other recommendations take us away from direct relationships? When the Community Resilience Initiative was created, it offered the benefits of protective factors to the risk factors identified as Adverse Childhood Experiences.

Colleagues, These are not easy times for public health, WSPHA is here to support you. We have set up a daily public health support group via Zoom . The group will be open daily (7-days/week) from noon to 1:00 PM . You are welcome to join for the whole hour, or just a few minutes as you are able. I f you would like the link/phone number to join, email me at jeff@wspha.org If there is interest to have other groups at different times, please let me know and we will arrange them. You are all so...

On Friday, March 20, 2020, you're invited to join me to talk about how we, as a community, can continue to guide and educate ourselves about to deal with the effects of the spread of Covid-19, and how to continue those efforts with people who don't yet know about ACEs science. And, given this last week, how we can provide more support to stay in the front of our brains instead of feeding our amygdala.

Times in our community have been challenging and traumatic recently. Shining a light on how we can come together and support one another is vital during this time, and is just what Kwabi Amoah-Forson is doing with The Peace Bus. This is incredible work and reflects the importance of connectivity at this time. Please consider supporting the work Kwabi is doing, and share with others to spread the word! Per his recent Facebook post: "Fear, division, and safety have been the reoccuring themes...

Santa Rosa, CA, resident Lisa Marden watches her 15-month-old baby gleefully play with magic markers and relays how she’s been coping with feeling anxious. (We're using a pseudonym to protect the family's privacy.) “I’m just super stressed out with everything, and as soon as I eat anything, I get nauseous, so I’ve been eating snacks instead of meals,” she explains to Liz George, a field nurse with the Maternal/Child Field Nursing team of Sonoma County, CA, who has been seeing Marden on home...

From Child Trends, March 6, 2020 Child Trends’ new project with MDRC, “ Reconnecting Youth: Putting Out-of-School, Out-of-Work Youth on a Path to Self-Sufficiency ,” is seeking information about programs that provide services to help young people ages 16 to 24 advance on education and employment pathways. This project is focused on the population of young people who are out of work and out of school, sometimes called disconnected or opportunity youth. The information gathered will result in...

From the World Health Organization https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/coping-with-stress.pdf?sfvrsn=9845bc3a_2 Thanks to Anne Johnston, Clark County Public Health and others from Clark County who shared this on Facebook. Is the COVID-19 outbreak stressing you out? This sheet from the World Health Organization has great tips for coping with the fear and uncertainty. Self care is important.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS 4th Annual Philadelphia Trauma Training Conference Purposeful Action to Strengthen Families, Communities and Systems JULY 28-30, 2020 JEFFERSON'S EAST FALLS CAMPUS PHILADELPHIA, PA 19144 We are looking for: 90 minute presentations 3-hour intensive workshops, AND poster presentations Visit http://bit.ly/PTTCProposals to submit a proposal. DEADLINE: MARCH 6, 2020

Last month, we officially launched the ACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities. We are SO excited about this! And the communities that are part of the handful of ACEs initiatives that are piloting the Cooperative are, too! Before describing the Cooperative, I want to reassure our 40,000+ members and 277 ACEs initiatives (plus another 100 in development) that have communities on ACEs Connection that nothing on ACEsConnection.com changes! Membership is and remains free ! And it will remain...

Presented by Region IV Public Health Training Center Speaker: Dr. Linda Hoopes "Dr. Linda Hoopes helps individuals, teams, and organizations learn to thrive in turbulence." Some of the key points were: Building Blocks of Resilience Calming yourself Choosing a strategy – Reframe the challenge, change the situation, accept what is Solving problems – Problem solving “muscles:” Positivity, Confidence, Connection, Experimenting, Structure, Priorities, Creativity Managing energy – physical,...

From the Art of Participatory Leadership website: "What would it look like for our communities to work together in a healthy way to address wicked problems such as homelessness, health, and climate change while building resilience? Join us for 3 days of learning, innovation, and capacity building. Together, we will explore what's possible when people and organizations from across our communities are fully engaged in and accountable for not only identifying promising strategies to address...