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April 2017

Death, rapes, and broken bones at Philly's only residential treatment center for troubled youth [Philly.com]

Shortly after David Hess died in a struggle with staffers at Wordsworth last fall, the state shuttered the West Philadelphia facility , decrying it as “an immediate and serious danger” to the children who lived there. The death of Hess, 17 – ruled a homicide – was yet another violent chapter in a hidden history of abuse at the city’s only residential treatment center for troubled young people. In the last decade, at least 49 sex crimes have been reported at Wordsworth, including 12 rapes and...

What's technology got to do with it?

On Saturday 4/29, Michael O'Bryan, activist, artist, Youth Arts Program Manager at the Village of Arts of Humanities and PATF member will explore the role that technology can play in addressing the impact of trauma and physiological stress on individuals and communities. The event will also inquire about the opportunities for technology to aid organizations and people interested in cultivating human well-being. Mike will be giving a short presentation on the current science of how...

Philadelphia ACE Task Force ACEs Messaging Group Meeting

The ACEs Messaging Group met on Tuesday, April 11 th . Representatives from each of the three subgroups focusing on messaging to youth, older adults, and parents of young children were in attendance. The group began with a review of the Philadelphia Block Captains Rally where members from the Older Adults and Parents of Young Children Messaging Groups presented their messaging work. Members interviewed roughly 80 block captains about several messaging options and reported that the block...

Relax, heal, learn (thenotebook.org)

Pam Bunyon faced the 4th graders, some splayed in chairs but most arrayed on the rug before her. On the whiteboard, she showed them the outline of a human head. Next to it were some big words for the 9- and 10-year-olds: Cortex . Amygdala . Brain stem . Bunyon, the counselor at Powel Elementary School, was using science to help students understand their impulses and give them strategies to deal with them. “So we don’t flip out,” as she and the class put it. Bunyon took classes on anger,...

Philadelphia ACE Task Force members educate Baltimore funders about trauma-informed practice

On Monday, March 27th my fellow Philadelphia ACE Task Force member, Suzanne O'Connor, and I visited the Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers to educate them about using a trauma-informed approach in their grantmaking. It was a phenomenal opportunity to speak with dedicated and passionate advocates for trauma-informed care in a neighboring city. We hope that this will open the door for our two cities to share best practices and lessons learned about the growing trauma-informed movement!

Trauma Resilience Model Training Coming to Philadelphia!

Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM) Training is a program designed to teach skills to clinicians working with children and adults with traumatic stress reactions. TRM is a mind-body approach and focuses on the biological basis of trauma and the automatic, defensive ways that the human body responds when faced with perceived threats to self and others, including the responses of “tend and befriend”, fight, flight and freeze. TRM explores the concept of resiliency and how to restore balance to the...

This former Philadelphia cop had an incredibly simple plan to keep kids out of prison. Don’t arrest them. (washingtonpost.com)

Kevin Bethel didn’t become a police officer to lock up children. But it was under his watch as deputy police commissioner that Philadelphia’s school to-prison pipeline was in full effect. Now retired, Bethel is on a mission to keep children out of prison, with a police-led school diversion program that is showing impressive results. “My issue became, what is the trauma of me taking a 10-year-old child, for example, the minimum age for us, putting him in handcuffs, and taking him out of the...

 
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