Blog

Please help us welcome Ingrid Cockhren as the newest member of our ACEs Connection team. Ingrid is our new Midwest community facilitator. She comes to us with seven years of experience in ACEs science, childhood trauma, brain development and psychology. She has been working with children, adolescents and families for the last 15 years and is currently the chair of Parent and Community Education of ACE Nashville, a collective impact ACEs initiative. She is a psychology professor at Tennessee...

https://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/northbay/sonomacounty/8612421-181/kaiser-hope-1-million-grant

I found the gift within the struggle.

The Metro guard told me he’d never seen anything like it in all his years working for DC’s Metro system, people chalking love, togetherness, inclusion messages just off the top of the escalator at the Foggy Bottom Metro stop, the place where the white nationalists will step when they get off the metro, and where they’ll begin their march to Lafayette Square across from the White House Sunday at 5:00. We – people from various faith communities – gathered the night before at Western Ave.

In a recent article "Technology and ACEs Prevention: How We Upgrade Our Vital Work", Gregory Sherrow brought our attention to the possibilities that computer technology, artificial intelligence and computer visualization could help people recover from childhood trauma. There were many ideas proposed, some are fascinating while other are controversial and even disturbing. Personally, I never enjoyed video games. One of my friends have told me that there is a virtual community that uses all...

he tragedy of suicide occurs on a daily basis at the rate of one death every 40 seconds, but it often doesn’t hit the news until high-profile celebrities become a part of the fray. Celebrity deaths over the last few years have pierced an illusion that they have it all. The passing of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain and fashion designer Kate Spade sparked increased awareness because they were household names. In the US suicide rates have increased by 25% since 1999. With these tragedies comes...

Married people who fight nastily are more likely to suffer from leaky guts -- a problem that unleashes bacteria into the blood and can drive up disease-causing inflammation, new research suggests. It's the first study to illuminate this particular pathway between bad marriages and poor health, said lead author Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, director of the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. The study appears in the journal...

At this women’s prison in upstate New York, puppies are proving to be more than just woman’s best friend. “They make you feel like you’re worth something,” says Dunasha Payne, an inmate at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. “And they make you wake up every day, that you have a purpose in life and that you’re not just a prisoner.” Payne is part of Puppies Behind Bars , a program that teaches inmates to train puppies as service animals for veterans and first responders suffering from PTSD.

Last fall, as the GOP and the Trump administration worked overtime to sell the American public on its package of tax cuts, Kevin Hassett, chair of the president's Council of Economic Advisors, made a bold prediction : The average American household would see their annual income increase by $4,000-$9,000 due to the legislation's business tax cuts. Hassett also said he expected to see "an immediate jump in wage growth." And while most in the GOP were hesitant to go quite as far as Hassett, the...

We are thrilled to announce the premiere of Wrestling Ghosts , a documentary about breaking the cycle of trauma, at the LA Film festival on Sept. 27th. “Incredible. Haunting and strange and beautiful and incredibly moving.” -Dan Cogan, Founder Impact Partners Wrestling Ghosts follows the epic inner journey of Kim, a young mother who, over two heartbreaking and inspiring years, battles the traumas from her past in order to create a new present and future for her and her family. In this...

Do you remember when weekly news stories of our children being traumatized, tortured and killed became the new normal? If our children had a voice and vote, which they don’t, I believe they would all ask for the right to grow up in safe homes with healthy parents, and be able to learn in high-functioning schools. Our never-ending cycle of child tragedies begs the bigger question, which we pose in our book Anna, Age Eight: who are the real monsters here? Is it the parents who inflict these...

When the history of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) prevention is written 100 years hence, we wouldn’t be surprised if the conclusion comes down on the side of technology connecting us in profound ways that leads to a compassionate society that prioritizes all its children. As someone who is often referred to as the "IT guy" on ACEs prevention projects, I love technology. But before I start gushing about the promises of technology, a sober assessment is in order, especially when it...