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Health and Wellness Town Hall - August 5th, 2020 3-4:30PM PDT Adverse Childhood Experiences 101 Class How ACEs Impact the Black, Brown, Indigenous, and other Communities of Color This event will be led by Alfred White. Alfred is the founder of The League of Extraordinary People. After nearly 40 years experiencing homelessness, Alfred swallowed a 1/4 ounce of crack cocaine in 2004 and nearly died. He awoke paralyzed and that is when he made the decision to seek help for his history of...

By Austin Frakt, The New York Times, July 13, 2020 According to the best data available , as summarized in a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States could prevent two-thirds of maternal deaths during or within a year of pregnancy. Policies and practices to do so are well understood; we just haven’t employed them. A first step is measuring maternal death rates, which is harder than you might think . The death needs to be directly related to the pregnancy or...

By John Bailey, Education Next, July 2020 A consensus is growing among health officials that American schools, virtually all of which closed their doors this March, will be able to reopen in the fall. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in early June that “the idea of keeping schools closed in the fall because of safety concerns for children might be ‘a bit of a reach.’” That’s good news: the sooner kids get back to school, the...

By Caprice Young, Ed Source, July 13, 2020 Before you can reach a student’s head to learn, you have to reach their heart and earn their trust. Educators should strive to be that support, especially during this pandemic and amid the civil unrest we are experiencing. It’s likely that the trauma some students were experiencing before the pandemic struck may be escalating as a result of being forced to shelter at home. When school starts up again in the fall and on-site instruction resumes (even...

By Jason Brennen, Katheleen Guarino, Jennifer Axelrod, and Simon Gonsoulin, Chapin Hall, July 2020 Trauma is a widespread, harmful, and costly public health problem. Children and adolescents are particularly affected by trauma. The majority of youth in the United States will be exposed to at least one traumatic event before the age of 18; many will be exposed to multiple forms of trauma. Unaddressed childhood trauma can have significant negative consequences on future health and well-being.

By Michael Fitzgerald, The Chronicle of Social Change, July 8, 2020 When a young pregnant mom informed her prenatal care providers that she had smoked marijuana to relieve stress, nausea and poor appetite, they didn’t seem concerned. But after the birth of her son a few years ago in a Bronx hospital, a test of the baby’s urine came back positive for cannabis, and the hospital quickly called child welfare authorities. They presented her with an ultimatum: Enter a residential drug treatment...

Brian Semsem, a pastor based in Fresno, California, who has been working with troubled youth and adults for most of his professional life, says when he first learned about ACEs in 2014 from a colleague in a county foster youth program, “I started seeing numbers over everybody’s head.

Please join us this Friday, July 17th as we speak with @Rebecca Lewis-Pankratz for our next A Better Normal discussion at 3p.m. EST. This conversation, hosted by @Cissy White (ACEs Connection Staff) and moderated by @Alison Cebulla (ACEs Connection Staff) will be about building community, ending poverty, and and parenting with ACEs. Rebecca will share her personal story as well as her work with families, schools, and communities. Click here to register. About Rebecca's Lewis-Pankratz (in her...

Please welcome the following five communities to ACEs Connection. The Rainbow Resilience Connection of LGBTQ+Survivors Details about each one of these communities can be found below. The Rainbow Resilience Connection of LGBTQ+Survivors: Welcome! This group is for anyone who identifies as part of the LGBTQ+ Community or who supports the community. Community Managers: @Jenna Quinn (ACEs Connection Staff) and @Mary Giuliani ACEs Connection Community Facilitators For questions about starting or...

By Sara Gottfried, Dr. Sara Gottfried MD, July 13, 2020 I take respectful care of my patients regardless of skin color, but in the past few years, I’ve realized that is not enough. There are many sources of information that have influenced me. Conversations, particularly a recent interview with integrative physician Andrea Pennington MD. Books, mentioned in this article, including How to Be an Antiracist by Boston University Professor Ibram X. Kendi and founder of the Antiracism Center for...

From Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, July 2020 The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Culture of Health Prize (the Prize) elevates the compelling stories of places where residents are working together to transform education, jobs, transportation, housing, and more so better health flourishes for all. A Culture of Health recognizes that where we live—such as our access to affordable homes, quality schools, good jobs, and reliable transportation—affects how long and how well we live.

By Brianna M. Harvey and Kenyon Lee Whitman, The Chronicle of Social Change, July 8, 2020 The current Black Lives Matter uprisings have the nation activated. Many white people are now realizing police brutality and how it disproportionately impacts Black people. As of June 10, five of the 10 books on the New York Times nonfiction best-selling list were books on racial and social justice, signaling that people are beginning to engage with what Black people have been trying to survive since...