Blog

Dear friends, We are excited to see you again (or for the first time) next week for Resilient Sonoma – Sonoma Resiliente, this Wednesday 6-8pm at the Hanna Boys Center Legacy Room. We will share updates for the next steps so we can then collectively agree on how we can best move forward collaboratively. Please mark your calendars for the next meeting and kindly RSVP . Light food will be provided. Here are some key follow-up items to keep in mind as we prepare: Open to All Interested...

Kalia Mussetter of Living Bridges " Bringing people together for transformative community service," invites you to read the attached Peer Voices Now! newsletter. Kalia writes: "Please enjoy this beautiful newsletter. It is rich with fine, heartfelt writing by many local mental health Peer Providers; talented individuals who serve our mental health stakeholder community every day. There is a focus on experience of both loss and healing from the recent fires, as well as moving accounts of peer...

As far back as she can remember, Berkeley City College Mental Health Specialist Janine Greer understood that there was a connection between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and health. She had a sense early on that racism figures large in that equation. “Looking around in my community – I’m African American, I noticed that even people who had healthy habits got funky diseases,” she said. “And I’m thinking there must be some sort of health trouble that happens if you’re always stressed.”...

At the end of 2017, Community Foundation of Sonoma County and Napa Valley Community Foundation enlisted the Center for Effective Philanthropy to conduct a survey of local nonprofit organizations about the impacts of the wildfires on the people they serve and on their organizational capacity to provide services in response. While reading CEP Advisory Services " 2018 Wildfire Response Survey " report through an ACEs and trauma-informed lens, the following findings jumped out at me: 1. Mental...

Applications due June 18. Application link included in this post

The Road to Resilience: A Public Health Approach to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) I was privileged and excited to present Neurobiology of Trauma and Resilience to this powerful and attentive group of over 200 state health workers on May 10. We talked about childhood brain development, effects of ACEs, genetics and epigenetics, and neurology of stress, trauma and resilience. From this conference I anticipate statewide action, hopefully impacting thousands if not millions of California...

Wildfire Survivor Mental Health Training Save the Date! Skills for Psychological Recovery Training July 27-28, 8:30 - 4:30 Location: Sonoma County (Site TBD) 12 CE's for Psychologists, RNs, LMFTs, LPCCs, LCSWs, LEPs Trainer: Dr. Patricia Watson is a senior educational specialist for the National Center for PTSD, and assistant professor at Dartmouth Medical School in the Department of Psychiatry. Patricia Watson, Ph.D. is a senior educational specialist for the National Center for PTSD,...

RSVP @ summit.sonomacountyrises.org Limited Seating Available What: A call to Sonoma County leaders to boldly place equity and community voice at the center of our recovery and rebuild process. What does this look like? Who decides? How is equity reflected in our housing, employment, schools and environment? When: June 4, 2018 5:30pm (doors open) Food, drinks, and mingling from 5:30-6 Presentations begin at 6pm

Attached find a 2018 version of Sonoma County community profile detailing information about your community ACEs initiative. This will be shared with CA legislators at the Trauma-Informed Policymaker Awareness Day on May 22nd in Sacramento. I attach it here as a PDF ready to print and share! I also have uploaded into 'Resources for Downloading' the same PDF, and an editable Word document so that you can update or otherwise improve it. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to...

California schools ravaged by fire, floods and mud this year have mostly re-opened and are diving in to a new semester, but district leaders say they’ve learned some crucial lessons about handling natural disasters that all schools could benefit from. “A disaster could happen anywhere at any time in California,” said Steven Herrington, superintendent of the Sonoma County Office of Education, where two public schools were destroyed, nearly a dozen schools were damaged and hundreds of students...

Dube writes on February 7, 2018 a compelling article on the Conversation . "The interconnection between education and health is well established. Take, for example, smoking. Smoking continues to be the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the U.S. The highest percent of smoking is seen among persons with less than a high school or General Educational Development (GED) high school equivalency diploma , and the lowest is among persons with a bachelor’s degree or higher. Trends in...

Debbie Mason of Healthcare Foundation Northern Sonoma County writes: I wanted to give you an quick update on The Wildfire Mental Health Collaborative and ask for your help in getting the word out about a convening of wildfire survivor mental health services providers – and mapping of services. Please share the info! The Wildfire Mental Health Collaborative is now rolling out several of the planned strategies available to nonprofits, mental health professionals and survivors to use in serving...