The Walla Walla Valley Chamber of Commerce hosted their 137th Annual Community Awards last week, and one of Community Resilience Initiative's trainers-- Tony McGuire-- was recognized for his service to our community. As an instructor of basic carpentry at the local Washington State Penitentiary, Tony is so much more than that- he is a mentor, champion, communicator and lifelong learner of what makes us human together. His gift to the world is his ability to share the insights of the...

I was reflecting on another event-packed Resilience Awareness month, with Family Fun Nights, City and County Proclamations, Yard Signs, Banners and flags, sandwich boards, Screenager documentary, resilience tips daily and sheep brains. Wait, what? Sheep brains?? Yes! In partnership with Whitman College's Science Department, we used sheep brains as part of our STEAM events and they were a hit! One grandmom reported it was her grandson's favorite! Another family came back to a second event, to...

We developed ACEs Connection's Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Tool — called the Inclusion Tool, for short — to ensure that ACEs initiatives across the world focus on being inclusive when forming a steering committee, recruiting leaders, providing education about ACEs science, recruiting members, or providing resources and services within their communities. The more inclusive your ACEs initiative is, the more diverse it will be, giving your initiative a real shot at achieving equity and...

On a beautiful fall Saturday at our local Farmers Market, we encouraged kids (and parents) to paint a rock, and then hide it somewhere to surprise the individual discovering the rock with its message of kindness, encouragement or even emojis! The Community is the Solution puzzle was a great conversation starter with adults, and was a natural kick-start to explaining our work!