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By Cathy Krebs, The Imprint, August 12, 2020 “I can’t breathe.” These words are now painfully familiar. They were the last words of George Floyd who died on May 25, when a police officer pressed his knee to Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes as well as Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who was killed in 2014 after being put in a chokehold by New York City police. They were also the final words of a boy who died 24 days before Floyd, not at the hands of law enforcement, but at the hands of...

By Alia Wong, The Hechinger Report, August 10. 2020 Zachary Carr hadn’t known Victor for long. Carr, 21, began tutoring the rising fifth grader in mid-June, shortly after wrapping up his junior year at Middle Tennessee State University. But Carr had spent enough one-on-one time with Victor to discern that the boy was unusually fidgety during their latest morning session. Victor had made lots of progress in math since he began meeting twice a week with Carr at a Nashville-area Boys &...

From Housing Matters, Urban Institute, August 12, 2020 What happens in our neighborhoods is reflected in our schools. Inequality in our neighborhoods translates to inequality in our schools. And discrimination that has a hand in shaping our neighborhoods, has a hand in shaping our schools. About 70 percent of K–12 students attend an assigned school . If housing near higher-performing public schools is unaffordable, then those schools are also out of reach. Housing vouchers help nearly 2.2...

Hi Folks, I had the honor of appearing on Teri Wellbrock's, The Healing Place Podcast a few weeks ago. Teri is a gracious host and we had a lot of fun with this show, despite the seriousness of some of the topics. Who doesn't like to chat about the joys of dissociation? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMv9ZMAw_t4 A deep, yet smile-filled conversation with Michael Skinner, musician and trauma advocate. Please join us as we sit down to discuss: * his role as a musician and the importance of...

How does the rhythm of the heart tell us so much about how our nervous system is handling or recovery from stress and trauma? In this episode, Matt and Jeff take a dive into the exciting connection between HRV and the health of the brain and nervous system. If you have ever heard Matt talk about the brain, you know how excited he was for this episode of the Heart Rate Variability Podcast!!! https://optimalhrv.com/podcast/neurobiology-heart-rate-variability/

Written by Kazu Haga on August 18, 2020 from Waging Nonviolence We are traumatized. Let’s start there. Trauma can be defined as your body’s reaction to experiencing or witnessing something deeply disturbing. Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is a condition caused by exposure to a distressing event “outside the range of usual human experience.” A global pandemic. The resulting economic crisis. Videos of police killing unarmed Black people. Images of federal troops in military fatigues...

August 25 Webinar Will Feature a RWJF Culture of Health Prize-winning Community's Green Initiatives A green vision for economic growth can have a positive effect on health outcomes in a community, something 2019 RWJF Culture of Health Prize-winner Gonzales, California has experienced firsthand. Join us for a webinar on August 25 to learn from the City of Gonzales about the Gozales Grows Green (G3) initiative, and how a collaborative, multi-sector enterprise like G3 can foster environmental...

A Kansas-licensed social worker, Vanessa Lohf was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas, where she still lives and works in public health by facilitating the Trauma-Informed Systems of Care Initiatives (TISC) team at the Wichita State University Community Engagement Institute. She also manages the Kansas ACEsConnection network , where she regularly posts about news and resources for communities and organizations throughout the state. Lohf says that Wichita is known as the “Aircraft Capital of...

We're very excited to announce the launch of our next online course: Preparing Your Practice for ACEs Screening . This is the third in our series of four courses assisting clinics in starting or improving an ACEs screening program. This course will enable you to: Discuss key Electronic Health Record build components for data capture and monitoring. Apply quality/performance improvement methodologies to adversity screening. Understand how to align adversity screening with other organizational...

By Brittany Valentine, Al Dia Social, August 14, 2020 An elementary school teacher from Mexico, identified only as Nay, is receiving the recognition and appreciation that she deserves for her service to students on the autism spectrum. Because schools have been closed during the pandemic, many students have been left without the resources they need to continue their learning, like books and internet access. The teacher from Apaseo el Alto, Guanajuato, wanted to make sure her students don’t...

You could say that Ann Penn-Charles, a native of La Push, Washington, was a natural resilience builder even before there was an ACE Study. La Push is a Native American reservation on the western edge of Olympic National Park, where the Quileute Nation ancestors of “Miss Ann”, as she is known, have lived for generations. Although she faced hardships growing up on the reservation, including having her first child when she was a junior in high school, she was able to graduate with the support...

Moving prevention upstream Visit the Resilient Wisconsin website to find out how the Wisconsin Department of Health Services is using upstream prevention strategies to address the root causes of trauma and build resilience in communities across Wisconsin. ACEs, adversity's impact Adverse childhood experiences and decreased renal function: Impact on all cause mortality in US Adults Child sex abuse survivors are five times more likely to be the victims of sexual assault later in life Mental...