Dear Jo:
First, thanks for writing AND sharing. I'm so sorry for your early life experiences and the way trauma shaped your life, your Dad's life, and death. My father was a veteran (Vietnam) and alcoholic who was violent to himself, my mom, and with his children which meant he had to have supervised visits to see me and my sister, and did that only a few times before disappearing from our lives.
One of the things I love about this site, and part of what brought me here, is that ACEs Science doesn't focus only on abuse that happens to us kids, but also the neglect, and how we've been impacted by addiction, loss, the trauma and abuse our parents were acting out or we witnessed. And also, because we can share how we find healing as individuals, families, and communities and how complicated it can be and what we are doing in our own families, healing, work, writing, organizations, etc.
So thanks for sharing about your organization and book. As for who is seeing your post, we have over 40,000 members of ACEs Connection. That said, we all can't read everything that's posted so it's not clear how many are going to see this post. To find board members, I suggest going to ACEs Connection Sonoma County if you are looking for people who are local. And I'm going to tag my colleague @Karen Clemmer as well who might have other suggestions.
And we have lots of interest-based communities you may be interested in here and where you may wish to share your writing and about your organization. I'm the Community Manager of Parenting with ACEs but there are many others! A few are as follows:
ACES in Education We share ideas, information, and stories about mitigating the effects of adverse childhood experiences in the K-12 environment.
Parenting with ACEs How do we honor both lived & learned expertise to break down barriers between parents & professionals? How do ACE-impacted families best access healing, hope & health? How might parent education, training, & support services if co-created with families & in the community?
Practicing Resilience for Self-Care & Healing “We have the capacity, within ourselves, to create better health," writes Donna Jackson Nakazawa. We can improve our health no matter what our ACE score. Learn resilience practices that reduce stress hormones in our bodies & brains. Understand how pain, shame & trauma make self-healing harder. Explore research & resources. Share stories, struggles & successes. Practice resilience.
Books! Educational Videos! Documentaries! Here's a place where you can review books, educational dvds and documentaries that relate to ACE concepts or trauma-informed practices. "Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world." ~ Nelson Mandela
Also, we do have staff here who can help if you have questions about the site and how/where to post, etc. Thanks for the work you are doing!
Warmly,
Cissy