August 2016

The ACEs Messaging Group, a subgroup of the Community Education Workgroup, met on August 9 th to further discuss their project to develop messages about ACEs and resilience. They reviewed the work from their previous meeting, during which they broke into small groups based on target audience focus and developed Message Boxes, an activity developed by Spitfire Strategies . The youth message group discussed the need to validate the adaptive behaviors that youth present when they have...

Last year 448 kindergartners were suspended from schools in the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). Last week, t he School Reform Commission announced... that it has approved revisions to the Student Code of Conduct that will remove suspensions as punishment for Kindergarten students. The Philadelphia ACE Task Force applauds this change which is based on a growing awareness in the SDP that many of the challenging behaviors that precipitate suspension of young children have their roots in...

To view the Community Health Explorer, click here . The Community Health Explorer is a joint project between the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Public Health and Office of Open Data and Digital Transformation . The Explorer is intended to provide easy-to-use, responsive and accessible visualization tools for viewing the vast amount of data collected annually for the Community Health Assessment (CHA). The CHA is a systematic assessment of population health in Philadelphia, highlighting...

Fellow Philadelphians! Have you ever wanted to learn more about the movement in Philadelphia to become a trauma-informed city? The Philadelphia ACE Task Force (PATF) has a new web resource for you! On Monday, August 15th, the PATF launched its new website, www.philadelphiaACEs.org , to keep you informed about our current and past projects, events, and resources for families, community members, providers, and policy makers. Website Highlights Learn about the Philadelphia Expanded ACE Survey,...

Effective education 'reform' is student-centered

This is an accessible, practical article. After a brief definition and explanation of resilience, it gives 20 easy, realistic strategies for building resilience in children. Share this with everyone you know! http://www.heysigmund.com/building-resilience-children/

Philadelphia has plenty of primary-care providers overall, but there is far less access to care in communities with the highest concentrations of African American residents, according to a new study. While the general findings were not a surprise - highly segregated black (and, to a lesser extent, Hispanic) areas were known to have fewer medical practitioners - the difference was bigger than the researchers had expected. The effect was independent of neighborhood poverty rates, which turned...

Philadelphia University’s Community and Trauma Counseling program offers a 4-course certificate for master’s-level professionals. The Certificate of Advanced Studies in Trauma Counseling provides an advanced understanding of trauma theory, principles, tools and strategies that support trauma-informed practice with adults and children. A new cohort will begin Late August with enrollment in the first course in the program: Foundations of Trauma Counseling. Please find a complete list of...