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Sonoma County PACEs Connection (CA)

ITRC 2018 California Conference: Preparing People for Climate Change in California

 

 

To See the Conference Agenda, List of All-Star Speakers, and To Register Click Here

Why Should Californians Attend This Unique Conference?

From high levels of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), to job and financial struggles, racism and other forms of inequity and injustice, traumatic stress is epidemic today. Climate change will aggravate all of these existing adversities, and add many new ones as well. Yet, California is leading the U.S. in finding innovative new ways to address personal, family, and community traumas--and on reducing carbon emissions. This conference will show how, by breaking down silos and connecting these issues, California can also lead the nation in building widespread levels of personal and psycho-social-spiritual resilience for the hardships generated by rising temperatures and produce multiple benefits for individuals, families, communities, and our planet's climate.

Here is the challenge:

Even with aggressive emission reductions, global temperatures will rise by 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5C) above pre-industrial levels, possibly within just 9-10 years, and likely far higher afterwards. Humanity is entering an era of dramatic changes in the earth's climate and ecological systems that for decades will produce gut-wrenching shocks and stresses for people until successful emission cuts bring temperatures back down to safe levels again.  

The U.N. Inter-Agency Standing Committee states that mental health, psychosocial, and humanitarian crisis are often closely connected. Yet, almost no attention has been given to preparing people in California for the psychological and psycho-social-spiritual impacts of climate change. 

Many individuals and groups statewide are consequently unprepared for the challenges that lie ahead. Many are also unaware of how climate adversities can be used as transformational catalysts to bring people together across racial, ethnic, religious, geographic, and economic lines and create tangibly better conditions for everyone while doing what's needed to reduce the climate crisis to manageable levels.

This conference will directly address these risks and opportunities by explaining:

  • How, left unaddressed, the disasters and persistent overwhelming stresses generated by climate change will produce rising psychological problems including severe anxiety, depression, PTSD, and suicides, as well as psycho-social-spiritual maladies such as child and spousal abuse, crime, we vs them hatred, and violence that threaten the safety, health, and wellbeing of everyone.
  • How these harmful human reactions also threaten to staff efforts to cut carbon emissions and delay efforts to reduce global temperatures to manageable levels.
  • How building widespread levels of psychological and psycho-social-spiritual resilience can minimize the harmful human reactions to climate impacts by creating a trauma-informed and skilled populace and bring people together to engage in actions that greatly enhance personal, social, and ecological wellbeing.  

The conference will achieve these goals by:

  • Offering a diverse array of informative presentations and workshops by leading experts who will describe preventative skills, tool, and policies that can be applied at the individual, family, organizational, and community levels to build psychological and psycho-social-spiritual resilience.
  • Providing an opportunity to meet and network with people from the non-profit, public, and private sectors and civil society from throughout California and elsewhere working on similar issues.
  • Facilitating the development of action plans attendees can use to expand existing or launch new initiatives to grow a powerful human resilience building movement in California. 

California can lead the way again!

Many states are following California's lead on reducing greenhouse gases. It also has some of the leading programs focused on preventing ACEs, advancing social equity, and addressing other injustices and adversities. This conference will show how by linking these efforts, California can build a powerful human resilience-building movement that prevents harmful reactions to climate-enhanced traumas and stresses and many other adversities, while advancing social equity and reducing carbon emissions. 

Our Conference Founding Co-Sponsors Include:

  • American Public Health Association
  • Southern California Public Health Association
  • Local Government Commission: Leaders for Livable Communities
  • National Council for Behavioral Health
  • ACEs Connection Network
  • The Trauma Resource Institute
  • Bay Area Center for Regional Disaster Resilience
  • 350 Sacramento
  • 350 San Diego
  • Interfaith Power and Light
  • Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities (MARC) Program
  • Hanna Institute at Hanna Boys Center
  • Sonoma County ACEs Connection
  • Tijuana River Nat. Estuarine Research Reserve Coastal Training Program
  • The Center and Library for the Bible and Social Justice
  • Willamette University Dept. of Psychology

Who Should Attend This Conference?

This conference is a unique educational and networking opportunity for professionals and laypeople alike from California and elsewhere engaged in: 

  • Public health and health equity
  • Mental and behavioral health
  • Individual and collective trauma
  • Organizational trauma and health
  • Community violence
  • Climate mitigation and adaptation
  • Social equity and justice
  • Climate justice
  • Faith and spirituality
  • K-12 and higher education
  • Disaster preparedness & response
  • Ecological sustainability and restoration
  • Others interested in helping individuals, organizations, and communities address climate adversities as well as personal, collective, and systemic traumas.

 

Early-Bird Discount Rate Ends October 15, 2017!

To See the Conference Agenda, List of All-Star Speakers, and To Register Click Here

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