Blogs

Community Resilience Initiative is seeking an innovative and passionate individual to join our organization as an Associate Director (AD). Based in Walla Walla, WA , the AD reports to the Executive Director and to the Board of Directors. Job Overview The role of the Associate Director is to sustain the resilience-based, trauma-responsive capacity building work at the local, regional, state and national stage for which CRI is recognized. Success in this position will be evidenced by...

Community Resilience Initiative is incredibly grateful to all who attended, helped created, and supported our 2019 Beyond Paper Tigers Conference! We were honored to be joined by approximately 450 people from 23 different states and 2 Canadian provinces. Each session felt charged with energy due to the passion and dedication from each of our attendees. CRI was thrilled by the participation, whether during the pre-conference social, or in the creation of the 7-Sentence Stories! And...

It was an incredible opportunity to experience the Beyond Paper Tigers Conference this year. One of our Head Start teachers, Lyn, and myself arrived in Pasco a day ahead to participate in the Course 2 Trauma-Informed training offered by Community Resilience Initiative. Thus began our excitement that would last for the following days - the training giving us strategies and ideas to improve the work we do in serving children and families. Following the training was a networking opportunity...

CRI is excited to announce new trainings! We will have online trainings in July, and an in-person training in September. July Online Trainings CRI Course 1 LIVE WEBCAST: Trauma-Informed Training A dynamic 2 part six-hour LIVE WEBCAST course, Course 1 introduces CRI’s capacity-building framework for building resilience, KISS. Knowledge, Insight, Strategies and Structure describes our community’s learning and movement from theory to practice and how to implement evidence-based strategies into...

Resources for individuals, organizations, and communities moving along trauma and hope-informed pathways in order to: Prevent and mitigate adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Promote resilience and safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments. Promote equity and racial justice. Prevent substance abuse and promote mental health. … so that all children, youth, families and communities have equal opportunity for educational success, economic stability, health, and well-being.

“I believe that everyone, especially a child, deserves to know how their brains are shaped by environment, to then understand their capacity for building proactive protective factors. We all deserve to be super heroes as we do the best we can to consciously live life well. ” - Teri Barila The superheroes we learn about in comics, movies, and TV shows swoop in to save the world with their incredible powers, to shield people from harm. But in our world, no matter how much we wish to protect...

"In our community, we were first exposed to ACEs and brain architecture. We frequently talked about the impact of ACEs. Until this happened when Dr. Rob Anda came in . Because of this brave mom who shared her 10 ACE childhood Because of that vulnerability in a first exposure to ACEs Until finally… I finally knew we had to do this And now I was convinced to start CRI." - Our own Teri Barila uses the 7-Sentence Story model to tell of CRI's Incubation Stage. We are excited to bring to you a new...

"The world breaks and afterward many are strong in the broken places" - Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms During the BPT Pre-Conference on June 25th, CRI will be screening Broken Places - a documentary that posits why some children are severely damaged by early adversity while others are able to thrive. Filmmakers explored 40 years of film archives following children who experienced immense childhood stress, watching with curiosity as some overcame hardship and thrived in their adult...

“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in” -Desmond Tutu. This quote captures the essence of why resilience matters. To CRI, Resilience is not about “lifting yourself up by your bootstraps” or “bouncing back” from serious harm or injury. To us, Resilience is about self-discovery and self-awareness based on what the ACE Study, neurobiology, and epigenetics tell us about our development. It is...

There are hundreds of untold stories about rural health care and precious few resources to tell those stories. Report For America, The Spokesman-Review and the Innovia Foundation have all committed to do something about that. On June 4, The Spokesman-Review will welcome Arielle Dreher as our rural health care reporter. Report for America is a national service program that places talented emerging journalists into local news organizations to report for one to two years on under-covered issues...

A red hand over her mouth. The letters MMIW painted down her leg. What message was this high school track star sending? When photographer Alex Flett attended the WIAA 1B State Track and Field Championships at Eastern Washington University , he didn't expect that to capture an iconic image of a high schooler with a powerful message. Rosalie Fish, from Muckleshoot Tribal School in Auburn, WA, showed up on the track with a statement painted on her body—a red hand covering her mouth and the...

CRI is excited to welcome back Jane Stevens, Founder and Publisher of our very own ACEs Connection, to the 2019 Beyond Paper Tigers Conference in Pasco, Washington. Jane will be hosting a BIG IDEA session titled, "Reaching the Tipping Point." Reaching the national — and your local — tipping point. How can we do that in the next five years? And what happens when we do? We REALLY need to reach a tipping point —ASAP! —in educating people about ACEs science, engaging organizations in the ACEs...