Tagged With "Choosing Love in Our Brave New World"
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How Poverty Alters the Young Brain
Eric Jaffe of City Lab wrote a compelling article in June 2015 showcasing how new research reveals a strong connection between income and the surface area of several key neural regions. "At the lowest end of the income spectrum, little increases in family earnings could mean larger differences in the brain. At the middle and upper income levels, though, the money-brain curve flattened. In other words, wealth can’t necessarily buy a better brain, but deprivation can result in a weakened one.
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How Poverty Alters the Young Brain by Eric Jaffe
“Behavioral scientists have made some truly groundbreaking insights into the cognitive costs of poverty in recent years. We now know, for instance, that scarcity puts a huge strain on our mental resources—the equivalent of stripping 13 points off our IQ, or losing a night’s sleep—making it that much tougher to handle daily tasks or decisions. That’s just one of many findings pointing to the same conclusion: poverty literally alters the way you process the world.” Click here to read the full...
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How the Body Keeps the Score: Intensive Trauma Treatment Course [pesi.com]
By Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, PESI, January 7, 2020 Trauma is horrendous. It overwhelms its victims and often the people who try to treat it. It reshapes one’s sense of self, bodily experience and brain organization — leaving people stuck in terror, isolation, and shame. My life’s work has been to find the most effective pathways to healing trauma. It’s why I founded the Trauma Center, have been part of groundbreaking research, and wrote the #1 New York Times bestselling book The Body Keeps...
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How To: ACEs & Resiliency Fellowship
Would your community like to start an ACEs & Resiliency Fellowship to help spread awareness and build capacity for action? Sonoma County would like to share our tools and lessons learned with you. 1. What was the ACEs & Resiliency Fellowship? This remarkable program is unique to Sonoma County California. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) & Resiliency Fellowship is a 9-month intensive interdisciplinary program designed for community members who serve as community educators...
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How We Transform the World to 100% Clean Renewable Energy (sonomacountygazette.com)
His license plate reads WWS ERA , which stands for Mark Z. Jacobson ’s predicted era of Wind, Water, and Solar energy. Dr. Jacobson, a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford and director of its Atmosphere/Energy Program, spoke at the Praxis Peace Institute in Sonoma on January 4th—an event co-sponsored by Sonoma Clean Power. In 2011, with Mark Ruffalo and Josh Fox, he formed the Solutions Project, ( http://thesolutionsproject.org ), a political advocacy group, combining...
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Humanidad - New Multicultural Mental Health Resource
As someone who has worked with several new immigrant groups, I know that mental health services are often the most needed, yet most under-utilized service for such populations. Stigma about mental illness, the need to conform to two (or more) sets of cultural expectations and unfamiliarity with western talk therapy are just some of the barriers. It's exciting to have multicultural staff like Maria Hess and Claudia Avalos involved in this effort. They are well known to, and respected by, both...
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In ACEs Connection webinar, physicians talk trauma, offer tips for helping pediatric immigrant patients
Dr. Raul Gutierrez, a pediatrician in the San Francisco Bay Area, said he and his fellow clinicians see constant fear and its health consequences every single day among the largely immigrant and Latino population they serve. It’s all the result of anti-immigrant policies and the news cycle that feeds the fear. Dr. Raul Gutierrez “It is almost inescapable with the repercussions of immigration policy on the radio, television, social media and from friends and family,” Gutierrez told the 69...
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In Partnership with Wilmington University, DHSS Begins Yearlong Initiative to Train 1,000 Staff Members in Trauma-Informed Approaches to Assessing and Meeting the Needs of Clients [news.delaware.gov]
NEW CASTLE (March 12, 2018) – The Department of Health and Social Services is partnering with Wilmington University to train more than 1,000 frontline DHSS staff in better assessing and addressing the needs of clients statewide, many of whom have experienced trauma in their lives, during the kickoff of a yearlong Trauma-Informed Approach initiative. Wilmington University’s nine-week training session for 26 supervisors and trainers from the DHSS Divisions of Social Services, Child Support...
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Interview with Dr. Nadine Burke Harris on Weekend Edition
Listen to the interview "What Do Asthma, Heart Disease and Cancer have in Common? Maybe Childhood Trama". https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/01/23/578280721/what-do-asthma-heart-disease-and-cancer-have-in-common-maybe-childhood-trauma Burke Harris is the founder and CEO of the Center for Youth Wellness in San Francisco. She's spent much of her career trying to spread awareness about the dangers of childhood toxic stress. Burke Harris just released a new book, The Deepest Well: Healing the...
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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...
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James Redford and Sonoma County Leaders Discuss Resilience at Sonoma Film Festival
On April 2, film maker James Redford screened his new movie "Resilience" at Sonoma's Film Fest. "I had too much content to create just one film. Paper Tigers became a vehicle for talking about Adverse Childhood Experiences. We furthered the message of hope in the follow-up film Resilience." Redford shared his discovery of the Felitti and Anda study on Adverse Childhood Experiences . "I thought to myself, this study came out almost twenty years ago and the whole world isn't taking action?" He...
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James Redford: The Fairfax filmmaker is back at this year’s festival with a look at an alternative teaching method that is having a lot of success
The Mill Valley Film Festival will be screening the documentary, Paper Tigers, twice: Tuesday, Oct. 13 at 5:50 pm in the Cinearts Sequoia Theater in Mill Valley. Friday, Oct. 16, at 3 pm at the Lark Theater in Larkspur. Click here for tickets....
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January is Positive Parenting Awareness Month Time to Renew, Refresh & Recharge [Child Parent Institute]
Another year has flown by, leaving me wondering where the time went. As I think about my family’s milestones and memories over the past year, I’m reminded of how often I get consumed by work, my family’s hectic schedule, and the never-ending list of household chores. It’s easy for my family to go through the motions of our daily routines – get up, go to school or work, come home, eat, do homework or work, go to bed, repeat, repeat, repeat – and even be in the same room without really...
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Saint Joseph Health Hospice Offers Gentle Reminders on Self Care
In the midst of the devastating fires that continue to threaten our county, we at St. Joseph Health Hospice Grief Services would like to offer a few gentle grief reminders for anyone touched by these events . Whether you personally have experienced a loss, you are supporting others, or even witnessing the events remember: We all grieve differently, and ALL grief is valid. Extreme Self Care While chaos is swirling we must try to drink plenty of water , eat whenever possible, sleep even if...
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[June 14] Hanna's Professional Networking B'fast: Jessica Jackson
After her husband was incarcerated, she set out to change the prison system. Bringing together unlikely allies, identifying breakthrough policies, and implementing new approaches to safety and rehabilitation.
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Kaiser Supports North Bay's VOICES through Youth & Trauma Informed Care Grant
"Kaiser Permanente Northern California Region—Community Benefit Programs (KPCBP)’s Youth and Trauma-informed Care grant program (YTIC), through which 20 community based agencies and school based health centers were funded in 2014, is a critical strategy for addressing community violence by focusing on prevention as well as healing. Experience of trauma in childhood is associated with a range of negative health, social, and educational outcomes. Trauma is frequently undiagnosed or...
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Last Month's Early Childhood Mental Health Summit - Let's Put Our Learning into Practice Now
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...
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Leaders in SF public housing deal with their own and community trauma head on
Sengthong Sithounnolat, Jeris Woodson, Donald Greene, Ashley Blanco On a recent Saturday, 10 people gather around a table at the offices of Trauma Transformed in Oakland, Calif., where quotes from figures like Frederick Douglas, Nelson Mandela, and Coretta Scott King grace one wall as light streams in from a skylight above. The group is known as the Resident Warriors, which meets weekly. One participant talks of her recovery from addiction and her mother’s murder. Another mentions being...
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Learning the Game [National Conference of State Legislatures]
By Tommy Neal, 6/26/18, for Our American States NCSL Podcast Of all the games in town it would be difficult to find one more mysterious, unpredictable and least understood than the state legislative game. It is, however, a game not to be taken lightly. What your state legislature does affects many facets of your life—the taxes you pay, the highways on which you drive, public schools, the state supported colleges and universities you or your children may have attended, the state parks that...
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Legislation Signals Growing Support for Significance of Trauma Indicators [CaliforniaHealthline.org]
As a college student, Rob Bonta had a summer job working as a counselor for troubled kids. Now, two decades later he is bringing legislation to address some of the needs he saw then. “I worked with some of these kids as a counselor out of college, and I’d walk them home and hear some of these stories,” Assembly member Bonta (D-Oakland) said. “Shootings they heard. Or shootings they witnessed the night before.” It was the summer of his junior year at Yale, when...
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Lesson learned integrating ACEs science into health clinics: Staff first, THEN patients
Nearly two years ago, a team of colleagues at LifeLong Medical Clinics jumped at the opportunity to integrate practices based on ACEs science to prevent and heal trauma in their patients when it joined a two-year learning collaborative known as the Resilient Beginnings Collaborative (RBC). A few months after training began, the staff realized they had to put on the brakes.
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Lisa Manthe and New Directions Trauma-Informed Education Center Gets Super Bowl 50 Grant and Award
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7xavT5Cijc&list=PL1pvyhY72Ld2_4Y9CE-vcA409HlRpgVeX&index=5
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Living near SMART tracks, Petaluma homeless face danger [Petaluma360.com]
Jonathan Rollstin is often unaware that a train is coming until the moment it has arrived. Where the homeless man’s encampment is situated, trains barrel past about 50 feet away, on tracks splitting the graffiti-marred girders of a Highway 101 overpass south of the Petaluma Village Premium Outlets. Despite the obvious dangers and prodding by police, Rollstin, 39, refuses to quit his illegal set-up. “I want to be alone. I don’t want to be in a shelter,” he said Monday...
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Local Teachers Love Learning about ACES!
Grace Harris MFT, Parent Resources Director for Child Parent Institute reported that she recently presented to staff at several schools on ACES and Trauma Informed Care (TIC). When asked, less than 10% of school staff said they were aware of...
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Love Our Neighbors Training:Bystander Intervention for Hate & Bias Incidents
Love Our Neighbors Training: Bystander Intervention for Hate & Bias Incidents Tuesday, February 14, 2017 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM (PST) 300 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Suite 520 Oakland, CA 94612 This Valentine’s Day, BARHII’s Structural Racism and Social Determinants of Health Committee would like to invite you to a training that addresses what we can do as individuals to protect and support the members of our community who are vulnerable to racist, sexist, homophobic, islamophobic attacks and...
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A Santa Rosa neighborhood’s love wipes out hate [PressDemocrat.com]
One man late Thursday night sprayed three hateful words on the garage door of a northwest Santa Rosa family. Sunday afternoon, a clean-up crew of more than 50 people appalled by the display of racism, showed up to wipe away the graffiti and show Fijian immigrants Di and Bentley Chong Wan that one guy with a spray can doesn't speak for them. Residents of the older subdivision near Coffey Park streamed into the cul-de-sac where the Wans have rented a home for the last year bearing covered...
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Lumpers and Splitters: Who Doesn’t Believe in ACES?
Here’s the problem. Since you are reading this on ACES Connections, you are likely not the type of person who questions ACES. Like me, when you first heard about ACES, you shouted “Eureka!” or felt the heavens open up or maybe simply thought “Well, that makes sense.” Writing this blog, I’m preaching to the choir. After all, there is so much scientific evidence to support ACES, doesn’t everyone believe it? Well, working in Public Health...
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Mapping the ACEs science movement — How close are we to a tipping point?
[Note: This is most of a keynote presentation I gave at last week's sold-out National ACEs Conference in San Francisco. The energy at this conference was incredible. To all who attended, thank you for doing so. To those of you who weren't able to attend, we hope the posts about the conference give you some idea of the speakers and sessions.] We have come an extraordinarily long way in spreading the word about ACEs science. During the first National ACEs conference in Philadelphia five years...
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MARC Booklet 2016: Features Sonoma County
Please find attached the 2016 booklet for the Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities (MARC) project, including Sonoma County and the other 13 communities that have been selected to participate in this 2 year learning collaborative. This is a great summary of the work happening in all 14 communities across the country. I am looking forward to working with you all as we tell your story to the world!
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MARC Group Postings
Dear Sonoma County ACES Connection members, This morning I was reading the ACES Connection's MARC group postings and when I read the WA state proposal, I had to share. There seem to be many similarities to what we want to accomplish, although we are working on a smaller (local) scale - maybe we might learn from their statewide processes too? Very exciting! I particularly like how they are planning to bring their individual partners together into a more formal group and their shared decision...
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Marin Community Clinics in California screen babies for ACEs, provide support in effort to prevent trauma
When Marin Community Clinics (MCC) first considered screening their patients for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) they already had decided that if they were going to prevent children from acquiring ACEs, they had to take a radical approach.
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Material from Neurobiology: the Powerful Science Behind your ACEs Work - ACEs & Resiliency Community of Practice Session
Thank you to all who attended our Community of Practice Event Neurobiology: the Powerful Science Behind your ACEs Work! Attached are the materials from our day together. If you would like to register for our June event you can register using this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/trauma-informed-organizations-community-of-practice-tickets-31518134589
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Materials from Culture, Compassion, Competence and Humility Community of Practice Event
Thank you to all who attended our Culture, Compassion, Competence and Humility Community of Practice Event! Attached are the materials from our day together. Also, below you will find a link to the Brené Brown video on empathy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw If you would like to register for our March event you can register using this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/building-resilience-on-a-solid-foundation-community-of-practice-tickets-30963526742
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Medi Cal Managed Care: Partnership Healthplan of California Expanded Substance Use Disorder Services
Click here to learn more: Partnership Wellness and Recover Program Spring 2020 Partnership is working to ensure that our members get effective and appropriate behavioral health care services (mental health and substance use treatment services) in all 14 counties we serve. Expansion of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Services PHC’s 14 counties have long supported SUD treatment services through the Drug Medi-Cal program. In the coming months, these services will be greatly expanded in eight of...
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Mental health collaborative tackles fire-related trauma in Sonoma County [pressdemocrat.com]
When a North Bay fire survivor walks into her private practice office, Santa Rosa psychologist Alisa Liguori Stratton never presumes to know exactly what they’re going through. Liguori Stratton, who lost the Fountaingrove home where she and her family lived, has a pretty good idea of the type of post-fire trauma many are suffering, whether they lost a home or not. But the experience — the 15 minutes she and her family had to flee their home, the loss of everything they own — is not a type of...
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SONOMA COUNTY MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES ACT (MHSA)2017-2020 Three-Year Integrated Plan & Annual Update for 2015-2016
To read the full report, click here : Mental Health Services Act Integrated Report 2017 - 2020 Or see attached for a printable version of the report.
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Middle school tackles everybody's trauma; result is calmer, happier kids, teachers and big drop in suspensions
Sixth grader Cayla White (right) helps lead class meditation with Niroga Institute’s Lauren Banister (photo: Laurie Udesky) ________________________________ During the 2014/2015 school year, things were looking grim at Park Middle School in Antioch, CA. At the time, staff couldn’t corral student disruptions. Teacher morale was plummeting. By the end of February 2015, 192 kids of the 997 students had been suspended -- 19.2 percent of the student population. “I was watching really good people...
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Minutes from our May 27th meeting
May 27, 2015 QUOTE: Never before in the history of medicine have we had better insight into the factors that determine the health of an individual from infancy to adulthood, which is part of the life course perspective—a way of looking at life...
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Minutes of the 6/13/2017 Membership Meeting
Membership Committee Minutes - June 13, 2017 Humboldt Room, Public Health, 625 5 th Street, Santa Rosa Present: Sal Strawbridge, Allen Nishikawa, Chair Old Business Membership Survey – Allen reported that we have received no new responses in the past two weeks. We have received a total of 21 responses and should proceed using the prior analysis based on those responses. New Business Review of Current Membership – Allen presented a spreadsheet coding the 160 persons on the current mailing...
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Minutes - SCAC Membership Meeting
Minutes - SCAC Membership Meeting Location: Humboldt Room, 415 Humboldt. SR Date: Tuesday July 18, 2017, 1-2PM Present: Allen Nishikawa, Chair, Salvador Strawbridge Feedback from Steering Committee on Membership Committee recommendations - Allen reported that the Steering Committee discussed the proposed two membership levels and decided to not adopt that distinction at this time. Ballots will go out to the full mailing list, and anyone can run for office. Reports on membership outreach...
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Mobilizing ACEs, Trauma, and Resilience Networks to Support and Strengthen Pandemic Response Efforts [MARC.HealthFederation.org]
By @Anndee Hochman
“What are your signs of stress?” asked the leaders of a recent mindfulness webinar hosted by the Philadelphia ACE Task Force (PATF), held during the week that U.S. cases of COVID-19 neared half a million and more than sixty Philadelphians had died of the disease.
Participants spilled their responses into the chat box: “headache…teeth grinding…can’t think clearly…nervous stomach…ruminating thoughts…muscle pain…itchiness…bad dreams.”
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Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities Year in Review
Also available at: https://conta.cc/2Sgc2Ia LOOKING FORWARD ... 2020 vision Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities (MARC) has exciting projects underway, including a national survey of ACEs/trauma/resilience (ATR) networks in partnership with NORC at the University of Chicago and a website redesign to create a searchable digest of resources for networks, by networks. In the new year, we aim to unlock the power of networks to inspire and accelerate trauma-informed change across the...
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Monthly Meeting for May, agenda, notes, etc
Quick reminder, we meet the 4th Wed of each month, from 3:30 to 5:00 at Child Parent Institute. Please join us if you can! See below and attached for details regarding our May meeting. Karen
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Mother: 11-year-old boy injured in Santa Rosa park shooting is 'not the same kid' [Press Democrat]
By Chris Smith, Aug 12, 2019 for the Press Democrat As we anguish from the plague of mass shootings, a boy who took a stray bullet as he left soccer practice in Santa Rosa two months ago resists the fear that would have him simply hide from the world from now on. “He’s not the same kid,” the sweet-tempered 11-year-old’s distraught mother told me. “He’s afraid something’s going to happen to him, or to us.” I know the names of the boy and his mom but won’t mention them because they’re...
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Must see movie! This Sunday in Sonoma at Sebastiani Theater
"And Now, Love," is an award-winning documentary memoir on the life and work of Dr. Bernard W. Bail, a highly decorated World War II American Jewish veteran who was captured by the Nazis and rescued by a secret love affair with his German nurse. After the war, Bail came to believe that all wars are the manifestation of the wars within ourselves. Dedicated to healing mental anguish, he became a doctor and psychoanalyst who developed a theory called the “mother’s imprint,” focusing on...
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My hopes for a trauma-informed California
Every evening, I try to engage my daughter in reflection, gratitude, and hope. I try to practice the same, but tonight, I felt the need to share with you all. Today I had the opportunity to attend the Toward a Trauma-Informed Northern California Summit 2018 – it was an incredible experience. We were welcomed with a moving, informative, and engaging keynote speaker, Dr. Isaiah B. Pickens , who laid the foundation for what would be a day of growth, reflection, connection, and peer support. He...
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National Wellness Week is Coming - September 11-17
National Wellness Week is September 11-17 this year. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) offers free resources to support Wellness Week and promote Wellness. Here is a link to a 3-minute video on the 8 Dimensions of Wellness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDzQdRvLAfM&feature=youtu.be. And a pdf is attached. Enjoy!
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New 5 Year El Dorado County ACEs Collaborative Action Plan Workbook for 10/2018-10/2023
Attached is the 5 Year El Dorado County ACEs Collaborative Action Plan Workbook for 10/01/18-10/01/23. Action Plan updated as of 5_2019.
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New brief from MARC: Building Stronger Networks
Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities has released a new brief, Building Stronger Networks (May 2019) . Drawing from existing literature and informed by a series of interviews conducted by Dr. Andrea Blanch and Dr. David Shern, this brief explores how a framework recognizing adverse childhood experiences, trauma, and resilience (ATR) can facilitate community collaboration. See what movement builders from across the country have to say about the value-added of the ATR framework in...
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New California Laws May Prevent the Overmedication of Foster Kids (elevaterehab.org)
In the past, lawmakers didn’t think twice about how doctors treated foster children suffering from emotional traumas such as abandonment and abuse. Nobody controlled how often practitioners prescribed psychiatric drugs that had serious potential for doing more harm than good. Today, investigations into California’s foster care system shed light on the doctors who fuel medication problems by inappropriately prescribing narcotics to the state’s most vulnerable children – ultimately leading to...