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California Essentials for Childhood Initiative (CA)

The California Essentials for Childhood Initiative uses a public health and collective impact approach to align and enhance collaborative efforts to promote safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments for children, youth and families through systems, policy and social norms change.

Tagged With "Learn From The World"

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Sesame Workshop and BTC Team Up to Help with Big Scary Feelings during the COVID-19 Crisis

Caring for Each Other: How to Use Sesame Street in Communities Resources for Health Emergencies with Families Now Wednesday, April 1, 2020 @ 3 PM ET We're all in this together, and that's why we're all coming together. Sesame Workshop and the Brazelton Touchpoints Center are partnering on a webinar series, beginning April 1st, to share online resources that can help us handle the sudden changes in our lives when we face health emergencies like the one that confronts us today. As a result of...
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Showing UP for Sophia: Dear John,

Marcella Maggio ·
Dear John, Watching Marriage Story on New Year’s Eve was the ending I needed to witness in order to understand our own. Like Charlie and Nicole, we have history, we share a child, and we both want our child to be raised in an environment where she can thrive. While our similarities don’t stop there, the difference in how their ending started inspired me to follow suit. A mediator encouraged them to write a note of positivity to remember why they got married (together) in the first place.
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Supporting Brain Development in Traumatized Children and Youth

Gail Kennedy ·
This Administration on Children and Families (ACF) bulletin summarizes the effects of early trauma on brain development and looks at steps child welfare professionals can take to screen for developmental delays and identify the trauma-affected children and youth in their care. It also looks at ways to access cross-sector, therapeutic, and evidence-based treatment to encourage healthy recovery for trauma-affected children and youth. HERE TO ACCESS MATERIALS. Document attached.
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Teen and Young Adult Engagement during Covid-19 [positiveexperience.org]

Bob Sege ·
By Dr. Robert Sege, 5/13/20, from positiveexperience.org/blog It’s easy to focus on the negative now that we are two months into the Covid-19 pandemic. Today, we turn our attention to some of the Positive Childhood Experiences that form the basis of HOPE. This blog focuses on how adolescents and young adults across the country have demonstrated their engagement (engagement is one of the 4 Building Blocks of HOPE and has been discussed in a previous blog ). First of all, to state the obvious:...
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The Economics of Child Abuse: A Study of California

Jenny Pearlman ·
While the impact of maltreatment on a child and their family is devastating, child maltreatment also has serious effects far beyond those for the victim. Maltreatment results in ongoing costs to taxpayers, institutions, businesses, and society at large. Local communities bear the brunt of these costs in the form of medical, educational, and judicial costs, though more tragic signs are seen in homelessness, addiction, and teen pregnancy. To create a concrete understanding of the widespread...
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Thinking About Racial Disparities in COVID-19 Impacts Through a Science-Informed, Early Childhood Lens [developingchild.harvard.edu]

By Jack P. Shonkoff and David R. Williams, Center on the Developing Child, April 27, 2020 The COVID-19 virus is ruthlessly contagious and, at the same time, highly selective. Its capacity to infect is universal, but the consequences of becoming infected are not. While there are exceptions, children are less likely to show symptoms, older adults and those with pre-existing medical conditions are the most susceptible, and communities of color in the United States are experiencing dramatically...
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Toxic Stress, Behavioral Health, and the Next Major Era in Public Health
 by Mental Health America

To view the document, click on the following link:  http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/issues/toxic-stress-behavioral-health-and-next-major-era-public-health      
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Webinar: Building Resilient Communities with Elaine Miller-Karas

Natalie Rhodes ·
2019 Webinar Series: Building Resilient Communities Thursday, August 8th, 2019 10:00AM PDT | 1:00PM EDT This webinar will explore integrating a biological based model to reduce the impacts of toxic stress for children and adults. It is a model both for prevention and to use in the aftermath of adverse event. The Community Resiliency Model has been integrated into the Social, Emotional, and Ethical (SEE) Learning Program, a curriculum for schools K-12, inspired by his Holiness the Dalai Lama.
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Webinar Recap: Trauma-Informed Care/Practices in Light of COVID-19: Applying Lessons Learned from Child-Serving Systems with Dr. Melissa Bernstein

Elena Costa ·
On April 29, 2020, the California Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative held a webinar entitled, “Trauma-Informed Care/Practices in Light of COVID-19: Applying Lessons Learned from Child-Serving Systems” and heard from special guest speaker, Dr. Melissa Bernstein, an Implementation Specialist with the Advancing California’s Trauma-Informed Systems (ACTS) Initiative . Dr. Bernstein shared considerations for practical application of key trauma-informed elements put into practice through...
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With a Little Help from my Friends—The Importance of Peer Relationships For Social-Emotional Development [rwjf.org]

Alicia Doktor ·
The Issue Successfully navigating the social world of peers can be challenging. Children and teenagers benefit from the social and emotional support that friends offer, but they can also experience occasional social stressors and peer conflicts. Key Findings Peer relationships provide a unique context in which children learn a range of critical social emotional skills, such as empathy, cooperation, and problem-solving strategies. Peer relationships can also contribute negatively to social...
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Congressional Briefing Addresses Public Policy to Improve Response to ACEs

In the final weeks of the 114 th Congress, Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) welcomed her colleague Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) as a new host in the third and final briefing on addressing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). The December 1 briefing focused on public policies to improve coordination, prevention and response to childhood trauma. In addition to joining forces to raise awareness of the impact of ACEs, Senators Heitkamp and Durbin are drafting legislation based on a framework they...
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Essentials for Childhood Case Study: Collective Impact through Strategic Opportunities

Elena Costa ·
The California Department of Public Health, Safe and Active Communities (CDPH/SACB), Steve Wirtz and Marissa Abbott co-authored a case study showcasing the methodology, successes, and opportunities for improvement from the 2013-2018 Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative. Read more about the lessons learned and how the EfC Initiative will move forward from 2019 and beyond by clicking the attachment below.
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Essentials for Childhood Framework

Emerald Montgomery ·
From the CDC’s Injury Prevention & Control, Division of Violence Prevention: "Safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments are essential to prevent child abuse and neglect and to assure all children reach their full potential. The Essentials for Childhood Framework proposes strategies communities can consider to promote relationships and environments that help children grow up to be healthy and productive citizens so that they, in turn, can build stronger and safer families and...
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For ACEsConnection members only -- a "sneak preview" of 'Resilience'!

Jane Stevens ·
Resilience , a documentary that looks at the birth of the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study and how it spawned a movement across the world, will be coming to your personal screen in April, says Lynn Waymer, KPJR Film’s community engagement strategist. The production team is working out the details to make the documentary, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival to sold-out houses, available to ACEsConnection.com members on Sunday, April 10, at 6 pm PT/ 9 pm...
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Futures Without Violence - Safe, Healthy, and Ready to Learn

Julia Wei ·
Interesting report from Futures Without Violence: Safe, Healthy, and Ready to Learn: Policy Recommendations to Ensure Children Thrive in Supportive Communities Free from Violence and Trauma
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Health Equity: What We Can Learn From The World [rwjf.org]

By Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, October 2019 When it comes to advancing health equity, good ideas have no borders. Like in the United States, countries around the world are grappling with how to make sure everyone in their communities has a fair and just opportunity to live the healthiest life possible. Advancing health equity is emerging as a top priority for European nations, across the Americas, and in other countries like Singapore, Australia, and South Africa. [ Please click here to...
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How Work-Life Balance Helps a Baby’s Brain [LinkedIn.com]

Samantha Sangenito ·
Most of us understand that a baby’s earliest months and years are the most critical for brain development. But did you know that a baby’s relationships with parents and caregivers actually stimulate that process? That’s right: An infant’s connections to nurturing, trusted adults help build the foundation for emotions, language, behavior, memory, physical movement – you name it. Right from the start, as parents, we need to bond with these brand-new little people, teach them how the world...
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Infancy and early childhood matter so much because of attachment (theconversation.com)

We are born to connect. As human beings we are relational and we need biological, emotional and psychological connection with others . Attachment is the relational dance that parents and babies share together. You can think of this when you see a baby look at their parent and they catch each other’s eyes in a wonderful gaze: the parent smiles and the baby smiles and then the parent kisses and the baby coos. Or, when an infant cries to tell their parent they are hungry, and the parent picks...
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January California Essentials for Childhood Newsletter

Julia Wei ·
California Essentials for Childhood has just released its second newsletter. The full newsletter can be found attached. Check it out!
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Love in the TIme of Coronavirus: Inequities and Supporting Children

Bob Sege ·
This blog is re-posted from positiveexperience.org/blog/ Link there for associated resources, and for the other blogs in the series. Having safe, stable, and equitable environments to live, learn and play forms the second of the 4 Building Blocks of HOPE. Children need homes where they feel safe and secure and have their basic needs met. Children thrive in an environment that encourages curiosity and provides opportunities for learning to play and interact with other children. Today’s blog...
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MARC Brown Bag Webinar Series: September Sessions & Archives

Clare Reidy ·
Join Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities (MARC) for a series of free, short (45-minute) webinars with national leaders who will share some of their expertise and engage in dialogue with you on key strategies for creating just, healthy and resilient communities. Seats are limited, but recordings will be available after each session. Register at MARC.HealthFederation.org/BrownBag for the following sessions: Thursday, September 7 @ 1pm ET Melissa Merrick, PhD —Preventing Child Abuse and...
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New Report Explores Paid Family Leave: How Much Time is Enough?

Brigid Schulte ·
A growing body of research is finding that, on the whole, job-protected paid family leaves of adequate duration and wage replacement lead to more income and gender equality, significant reductions in infant, maternal and even paternal mortality, improved physical and mental health for children and parents, greater family stability and economic security, business productivity, and economic growth.
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Next "A Better Normal" community discussion series: April 2, 2020/ Secondary Traumatic Stress and Caregivers

Jane Stevens ·
Our next COVID-19 "Better Normal" community discussion is Thursday, April 2, with Vic Compher and Rodney Whittenberg, producers of CAREGIVERS (Portraits of Professional CAREgivers: Their Passion, Their Pain). These wonderful folks are bringing an entire team of people from the secondary traumatic stress committees from the Philadelphia ACE Task Force (PATF).
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Podcast: Alison Cebulla Discusses Paid Parental Leave, Toxic Stress, and ACEs on Hometown Radio Show

Alison Cebulla ·
Click here to listen here to the audio recording. This summer I joined Hometown Radio Show host Dave Congalton to discuss a series of public health issues. I'm Alison and I'm a Master of Public Health student at Boston University. I spent the summer interning for ACEs Connection. In this episode, which was broadcast live from San Luis Obispo, CA on July 30, 2019 at 5pm, and was #3 in the series of 4 episodes, we discussed the absence of federal level paid parental leave policy in the United...
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Raising of America Streaming online for free and Broadcasts on WORLD Channel

Julia Wei ·
From Feb. 1st - 15th, anyone can stream the entire series at www.raisingofamerica.org -- for free . And on Feb. 3rd or Feb. 7th , most public television stations will broadcast The Raising of America-Signature Hour on their WORLD Channel during prime time. 
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2017 Kids Count Data Book [aecf.org]

Alissa Copeland ·
Wednesday June 14th the Annie E. Casey Foundation released the 2017 Kids Count Data Book - State Trends in Child Well-Being. This comprehensive report is " a premier source of data on children and families." You can download the report from this post, as well as on the Kids Count website , where you can also access an interactive data map in their Data Center . This is an invaluable amount of data available to the public, relevant to anyone working with children and families - with the...
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7 Ways to Help a Child Deal with Traumatic Stress

Hilary Jacobs Hendel ·
Traumatic stress feels awful. Thankfully, there are small things we can all do to help relax a hyperaroused nervous system.
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A Smarter System: Addressing Social Determinants of Health as a Cost-Saving Measure

Olivia Kirkland ·
by Edward Schor, MD, Senior Vice President at the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health The importance of social factors in determining individuals’ health status and their use of health care services has been receiving increasing attention. A recent report from the Bipartisan Policy Center suggests that opportunities to control health care costs reside primarily in addressing patients’ social and behavioral care needs. The report lays out the arguments for integrating social and...
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"ACEs Resilience and Recovery" presented at Marin Communications Forum

Donielle Prince ·
First 5 Marin Children and Families Commission featured Jane Stevens in a Marin Communications Forum event on Monday, May 15. Thanks to the hard work of host Michelle Fadelli of First 5 Marin, a full Embassy Suites ballroom of up to 180 Marin County service providers, from a variety of agencies, gathered.
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An opportunity to shape the Children's Bill of Rights in California

Donielle Prince ·
The ACEs/Resilient Sacramento community is ideal for providing insightful feedback about the needs of California's children!
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Book review: "Once I was very, very scared," a book on childhood trauma

Beth Grady MD ·
The past few years have brought a wealth of evidence for the impact of childhood trauma on lifelong health. The AAP has recognized the importance of childhood trauma with conferences (2015 Violence, Abuse and Toxic Stress: An Update on Trauma-informed Care in Children and Youth) and resources ( AAP Trauma Toolbox for Primary Care .) Like many pediatricians, I have been grateful for the attention to and evidence base for an area of pediatrics I see on a daily basis but for which I have felt...
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California Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative’s “Enhancing the Collective Vision” Slides Are Available and Opportunity to Participate in an Orientation Webinar

Elena Costa ·
The California Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative convened more than 65 stakeholders on Friday, July 12, 2019 to assess the current state of collective action around adverse childhood experiences (ACEs); align EfC Initiative goals and project interventions with existing efforts; identify mutually reinforcing activities; and establish a collective agreement on how to strategically promote Safe, Stable, Nurturing Relationships, and Environments (SSNR&E), to prevent and reduce child...
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California is failing our kids [SactoBee.com]

Jane Stevens ·
California’s economy is the seventh-largest in the world, and home to global industries that have revolutionized our way of life. Yet when it comes to caring for our children, we are failing to provide the essential services they need to thrive and succeed. The facts are disturbing and unacceptable. California ranks 49th among the states for standard of living for kids; roughly half of children are in families in or near poverty; nearly three-fourths of our youngest kids don’t receive health...
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Call for Presenters: Early Education Conference

Sasha Silveanu ·
The California Council of Parent Participation Nursery Schools (CCPPNS) hosts the premier early education conference for the cooperative preschool community in California. The 2018 Conference, "Time to Connect," will be coordinated by the the San Francisco Council of Parent Participation Nursery School. When: March 9 & 10, 2018 Where: Hotel Kabuki, San Francisco CA The early education convention draws parents and teachers from around the state of California and is open to all, not solely...
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Can big data help prevent child abuse and neglect? [centerforhealthjournalism.org]

Marianne Avari ·
By Giles Bruce, USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, June 24, 2019. Emily Putnam-Hornstein thought there had to be a better way to protect kids. The USC professor of social work had seen the statistics: roughly 7 million children come to the attention of child welfare authorities every year in the United States; one in three American kids will be the subject of maltreatment investigations in their lifetimes. “Do we really think a third of American children are so endangered they need...
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Re: A community-based approach to supporting substance exposed newborns and their families

Karen Clemmer ·
Such a complex conversation... This is an area of passion for me - having worked with high-risk perinatal population for many years, conducted focus group interviews with women who were "clean" and in a treatment program - and heard first hand how and why they became pregnant while using - I was always surprised what they shared, and came to realize my assumptions were not accurate. I would urge the group to seek opportunities to work further upstream focusing on "preconception" or...
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The important role of policy in addressing childhood trauma during COVID-19 and beyond

Renee Gross ·
Over the past few months, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused everyone to grapple with uncertainty and manage new stressors at home, at work, and in our communities. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll indicated that 45% of Americans report that the current crisis is harming their mental health. We are facing unprecedented disruption in our daily lives and navigating a world of school and business closures, job losses, social distancing, food access and housing constraints, and other types...
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Webinar Recap: Fostering HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences) during COVID-19 with Drs. Robert Sege and Dina Burstein

Elena Costa ·
On June 16, 2020, the California Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative held a webinar entitled, “Fostering HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences) during COVID-19" and heard from special guest speakers, Drs. Robert Sege and Dina Burstein from the HOPE Project at Tufts Medical Center . Drs. Sege and Burstein presented research and data supporting the benefits and importance of Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs), background on the HOPE Project, and the relevance to ACEs...
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Resilience in the Face of Covid-19: What the Data Shows [positiveexperience.org/blog]

Chloe Yang ·
Dr. Robert Sege, 7/29/20, positiveexperience.org/blog In times and places when Covid-19 is on the upsurge, most of us worry about our own safety and that of the ones we love. Is it a safe to go to work? It is safe for children to go to school? When will the pandemic and this uncertainty ever stop? At other times, public health restrictions are first in our minds—we can’t gather to celebrate or mourn, we need to wear masks to protect others even if we don’t feel sick ourselves, and every...
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Community Trauma Prevention Starts with Parent-Infant Relationships

Claudia Gold ·
The COVID-19 pandemic has called on us to find creative ways to connect and learn. In rural western Massachusetts I had scheduled a training for 20 practitioners who work with parents and infants to meet together for two days of learning on April 15 and 16th. Instead I rapidly adapted the training to the online setting. I have had the pleasure of meeting weekly with an extraordinary group that includes peer recovery coaches on the front lines supporting moms with opioid use disorders,...
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Prevention is Essential: Collective Impact Coalition Promotes Safe, Stable, Nurturing Relationships and Environments for All Maryland’s Children

Anndee Hochman ·
When members of Maryland’s State Council on Child Abuse and Neglect (SCCAN) began in 2006 to examine what their state was doing in the realm of prevention, they discovered a gaping hole. Many participants in the 23-member Council—people working in child welfare, mental health, law enforcement and advocacy groups—knew about ACEs and about the corrosive effects of early childhood maltreatment. But they discovered, through informational interviews across different sectors and an environmental...
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Building Synergy and Connection Across the Essentials for Childhood Initiative Convening Summary and Presentation Slides

Elena Costa ·
The Essentials for Childhood Initiative is pleased to share the Building Synergy and Connections Across the Essentials for Childhood Initiative Convening Summary and Presentation Slides. The Convening Summary contains a detailed overview of the information shared and the feedback provided by the participants during the convening. You will find these documents attached below. The EfC Initiative team appreciates the speakers and coalition chairs that served as panelists and the attendees who...
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Better Normal March 26: Positive and Adverse Childhood Experiences (PACEs): What Happens in Childhood Matters

Natalie Audage ·
We at PACEs Connection are particularly interested in the interplay between positive and adverse childhood experiences. Here’s some of the relevant research:
Calendar Event

The Hidden Biases of Good People

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CDSS/OCAP Child Abuse Prevention Month Webinar Series: 4/14 "Power of Connection" at 11 AM

Elena Costa ·
The California Department of Social Services, Office of Child Abuse Prevention (CDSS/OCAP) are hosting a webinar speaker series for Child Abuse Prevention month. Please see the attached for information on the webinars in the series, presenters, and the links to registration. Tomorrow, there will be a special presentation from Kevin Campbell on the topic of the “Power of Connection” at 11 AM. Kevin Campbell is an American Child Protection and Children’s Mental Health Innovator and the founder...
 
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