April 2017

In recognition of Child Abuse Prevention Month, the California Departments of Public Health, Health Care Services and Social Services, and multiple community partners welcomed Dr. Kenneth Epstein to speak about his work highlighting trauma and resilience-informed practices. The event was also co-sponsored by ACEs Connection Network, Kaiser Permanente, and UC Davis Medical Center. Dr. Epstein leads the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s (SFDPH) Trauma-Informed Systems Initiative,...

Paula Braverman of the The Center on Social Disparities of Health writes: In 2009-2011 and 2014 The Center on Social Disparities of Health worked with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to produce a series of issue briefs on the social determinants of health that would have solid scholarship but be aimed at a wide, non-technical audience. A number of people who teach graduate or undergraduate courses are using these issue briefs as core curricular materials. RWJF and we would be...

In California, AB 254 authored by Assemblymember Tony Thurmond (D-Richmond) will ensure access to health and mental health services for all students. The bill passed the Assembly Health Committee this afternoon. “We cannot continue to allow children that suffer from health conditions to fall behind in school and slip between the cracks,” said Thurmond. “All students, regardless of economic circumstances, deserve an opportunity to pursue an education and get the healthcare they need to remain...

California’s Central Valley stretches from Bakersfield in the south to Redding in the north. The Valley encompasses a great deal of the state’s interior, and includes major cities including Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto, Visalia and Bakersfield. Though it is not as densely populated as the major cities of California, the valley’s substance abuse and addiction rates are well above those in the metropolitan areas. Drugs are Abundant in California’s Central Valley Though much of Central Valley...

California education officials last week bragged about the seventh consecutive year of improvement in the statewide high school graduation rate, which reached 83.2 percent for the class of 2016. That was 0.9 percentage point above the previous year. However, behind that omnibus number is a world of variety, both among ethnic groups, school districts and individual high schools. EdSource has created a database that families and educators can use to look up how well their districts and schools...

This conference seeks to bridge the wisdom, perspectives, and experiences from the faith-based community to those of our Black Child Legacy Campaign communities to reduce African American child deaths in Sacramento County. In Sacramento County, African American children die at twice the rate of any other ethnicity. The four leading causes of death are perinatal conditions, infant sleep-related deaths, child abuse and neglect, and third –party homicide. The Black Child Legacy Campaign is the...

Back for the second year, Beyond Paper Tigers conference will take place June 28th and 29th in Walla Walla, WA. Featuring Dr. Ken Ginsburg from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia as the keynote speaker, BPT builds on the story of one community and how they've learned that embracing trauma-informed care and implementing ACEs science truly takes a village. Operationalizing the latest in brain science, BPT will provide concrete strategies for intervention with youth, families, and communities...

t Cherokee Point Elementary School, first-grade teacher Hagit Patolai roams her classroom to asses student progress on a “fact versus opinion” writing assignment. She crouches down to read over the shoulder of a boy, asking him to point to the words (beautiful and cool) that indicate his illustrated story about a rainbow is based on his opinions. Why are people’s opinions important, she asks. It’s a question that gets at more than the lesson at hand. Patolai keeps detailed records on the...

Save the Date: Tuesday, July 11 4CA Policymaker Education Day on Childhood Adversity, Sacramento The California Campaign to Counter Childhood Adversity (4CA) invites you to Sacramento for Policymaker Education Day. Our lawmakers need to hear from you about how adverse childhood experiences and childhood trauma affect your community and what they can do to help. Join with allies from across California to engage your elected officials on this important issue. Who: 4CA Policymaker Education Day...

Last week, a group of California-based foundations announced a $1.3 million investment into nonprofit community-based organizations in 11 of the state’s counties, including Los Angeles, through the Positive Youth Justice Initiative. This comes after two previous investments as part of PYJI’s three-phase initiative to eliminate racial disparities and transform the state’s juvenile justice system to better serve California’s vulnerable youth in need of trauma-informed care. This third monetary...

GK comment: Think about applying for funds to create trauma-sensitive environments & approaches to help students thrive. Visit the ACEs in Education group for ideas... The California Learning Communities for School Success Program (LCSSP) provides funds to local education agencies to support programs aimed improving student outcomes by reducing truancy and supporting students who are at risk of dropping out of school or are victims of crime. The LCSSP is the result Proposition 47,...

America today is beset by a New Urban Crisis. If the old urban crisis was defined by the flight of business, jobs, and the middle class to the suburbs, the New Urban Crisis is defined by the back-to-the-city movement of the affluent and the educated—accompanied by rising inequality, deepening economic segregation, and increasingly unaffordable housing. [For more of this story, written by Richard Florida, go to https://www.citylab.com/politics/2017/04/new-urban-crisis-index/521037/]