Philadelphia Group Blogs

In partnership with Councilwoman Helen Gym, Councilman Al Taubenberger, and documentary filmmakers Vic Compher and Rodney Whittenberg, the Philadelphia ACE Task Force co-hosted a screening of Portraits of Professional Caregivers: Their Passion. Their Pain. and briefing about Secondary Traumatic Stress for Philadelphia City Council on Friday, April 21 st . Councilmembers, their staffers, and other community leaders attended the screening and briefing. The audience was struck by the depiction...

Three to four houses had recently burned down in Tommy Joshua’s North Philadelphia neighborhood. In an empty lot behind his home, Tommy came to figure out the origins. The youth of the neighborhood used that space to hop around on the furniture, play with the debris, and kick the wood. From an early age, Tommy questioned the suffering in the world. His earliest memories are of the broken school system, dysfunctional families, and homelessness. He turned to his mother for answers and she...

On the Table Philly is a forum designed to engage area residents in an open dialogue, foster new relationships and inspire solutions to strengthen communities. On May 23, 2017, Philadelphia area residents will gather in small groups across the region to share a meal and discuss the opportunities and issues we face in our region. These conversations can inspire new ways we can work together to make our communities stronger and more dynamic. The Philadelphia Foundation and the John S. and...

As the nation’s poorest big city, it is common knowledge that tens of thousands of students struggle with food insecurity. The federal Community Eligibility Program makes it easy to provide every student in Philadelphia with free breakfast and lunch. Unfortunately, too many of Philadelphia’s students attend schools that don’t prioritize increasing access to these meals. Students who eat school breakfast perform better in school than children who don't, yet: Only 39.6% of public school...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

We are trying to scoop water out of a boat which has gaping trauma-holes in the bottom.

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 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...

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...