Blog

SANTA ROSA - Teacher Linda Severs lost her school but not her house. Parent Matt Todhunter lost his home but not the school his children attended. And Debra Sanders, who has spent the last six years providing school services for homeless families, suddenly found her own family in that same classification. Northern California’s Oct. 8 wildfires were among the most destructive in U.S. history, and in Sonoma County, they uprooted an entire school system. As the fires raged, nearly all of the...

On October 16, I joined in Santa Barbara's Second Annual Bridges to Resilience Conference . Surrounded by "our people" or 300+ folks like us who care deeply about ending childhood adversity, I basked in the waves of passion passing back and forth between presenters, participants, and organizers. With the fires raging in our community at the same time, it was hard for me to consider leaving my post at one of the shelters to participate in this event. However, I convinced myself attending this...

Several ACEs Connection members should be feeling proud about now. Karen Clemmer, Carla Denner, Jessica Hackwell, Nick Dalton, and several others joined the 4CA Campaign to educate legislators about ACEs and trauma . Our partners with First 5, Maternal Child Adolescent Health, and the County Board of Supervisors also wrote letters to state policy makers urging consideration of a bill requiring trauma screenings for all children who receive MediCal support. And....drum roll please... As of...

Here in Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino counties, the entire community experienced prolonged and extensive hyper-arousal – days on end of watching and wondering where the fires would burn next, and far too many sleepless nights. According to the literature on disasters, what follows is a brief honeymoon period, characterized by community cohesion and gratitude. Sonoma County showed up for each other in major ways in the past couple of weeks, and the outpouring of gratitude to the first responders...

Just one month ago, on September 28, First 5 and partners pulled together a few hundred community members for an Early Childhood Mental Health Summit called " Building Relationships to Support Families in Times of Stress ." With the local wildfires distressing many families and children, community support is needed now more than ever. The event aimed to ensure participants: 1.) Expanded their understanding of Early Childhood mental Health as the capacity to form close relationships, manage...

My friend Isabel with Raizes Collective is putting together a special el Día de Muertos event, and invites you to sponsor an altar. (Sponsorship form attached.) The entire community is also invited to come out and celebrate during two special community events. Isabel writes: Raizes continues to be committed to making platforms for artists to mobilize and bring our community together to begin the process of healing through our arts and cultural programming. We are asking for your support by...

Earlier this month, Chandra Gosh Ippen came to Sonoma County to present the Ripple Effect training on complex trauma. She shared many wonderful concepts and resources with us including her book "Once I Was Scared." Just two short weeks later, fires ravaged our community, and Dr. Gosh Ippen felt inspired to scribe another story to. This story serves as a tool for parents to talk about the fires with their children. (Parents, be sure to read this on your own to preview the content and make...

Thursday October 26th a couple of Sonoma County ACEs members will be m eeting informally around 9:30am at Coffee Catz in Sebastopol - we just want to get together and check in with one another. Please feel to join us. If this is something we want to continue - we can look into times and locations that work best for most. But for now - it is Coffee Catz this Thurs at 9:30am ! Hope to see you there! Karen 6761 Sebastopol Ave, Sebastopol, CA 95472

Kate Jenkins is sharing her feelings about the recent fires and is wondering how others are doing. Please feel free to post a comment . It will be sometime before we have another face-to-face meeting and this might be a good way for us to stay connected. I've lived in this county for 47 years. This is longer than I've lived anywhere else. I consider this home. Each glimpse of the devastation hurts my soul.

CPI has been working with their staff and community partners to contribute some help to the families in our community. Here is a flyer of free services that we can offer now and in the coming months. Please see the attached file for the complete schedule of offerings.

Preparing People for Climate Change in California Conference For Social Service, Climate, Disaster Management, Social Justice, Faith & Other Leaders on Building Individual & Collective Human Resilience for Climate Traumas When: Wednesday-Thursday, January 24-25, 2018 Where: The California Endowment's Oakland Conference Center, in Downton Oakland, CA. Early-Bird Discount Registration Rate Ends November 15, 2017! Details and registration here: ...

I just received a compelling email from the Hanna Boys Center reminding us to care for our bodies and hearts during this time of great stress. One incentive to care for yourself is the idea that "well staff serve well." As my friend Clare suggested earlier today, "It's the idea that we need to put on our own oxygen mask in order to live long enough to help others. Still, many of us don't know where to start with supporting our own wellness. This worksheet (attached) offers many simple...