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The updated parent handouts are now available in Spanish as well as English and Dari. Here's the blog post with links to all three versions of each flyer. All versions of the Understanding ACEs and Parenting to Prevent & Heal ACEs parent handouts can be downloaded, distributed, and used freely. Both flyers were made with generous support from Family Hui, a Program of Lead for Tomorrow, who is responsible for making the Spanish and Dari translations available. These are updates of the...

According to several recent surveys, around one in five — or about 400,000 — California community college students has experienced homelessness in the last year. Thousands more are at risk of becoming homeless. Calling that number “shocking, alarming and tragic,” Assemblyman Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto, on Tuesday outlined a new bill — AB 302 — that would force community colleges to allow homeless students to sleep inside their vehicles in campus parking lots overnight. “Shame on us if we turn...

In 2015, Dr. Beth Pletcher, a pediatrician and associate professor specializing in genetics, was at the annual conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics in Washington D.C. when she heard two speakers that forever changed her work with medical students. Dr. Beth Pletcher “I went to two talks on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) that were so mind-boggling to me that I decided on my drive back to New Jersey that I had to do something about it,”says Pletcher, director of the Division...

Elaine Miller-Karas, executive director and co-founder of the Trauma Resource Institute, has been invited to attend the launch in New Delhi, India, of a special program initiated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Miller-Karas is one of the key developers of the Trauma Resiliency Model® (TRM) and the Community Resiliency Model® (CRM) – biological-based models designed to help people recover from toxic stress. Miller-Karas has shepherded the Trauma Resource Institute since its birth in 2006 into...

Four years ago, Dorothy Gorder was living under the I-5 bridge in downtown Seattle. Addicted to meth and heroin, she lived in makeshift shelters fashioned out of cardboard boxes and pallets, draping clothing to block out the wind. Her car had been stolen. Gorder left behind a son in Montana, who was living with his grandmother. A daughter to whom she'd given birth while homeless was taken away and adopted by a foster family. Then she got pregnant again, with another son, and resolved to turn...

Our state is poised to take a vital leadership role. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have been part of a national dialogue for over 20 years, since Kaiser Permanente and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted their ground-breaking study in the 1990s. While this public awareness has been important to our understanding of the social and economic consequences of ACEs, and we are making great strides in responses to the crisis, we still have yet to translate that effort...

H.O.P.E. aims to create a community for students who have gone through adverse childhood experiences. A new student group that started at the University of Minnesota last month hopes to provide support and teach coping mechanisms to students affected by traumatic events during childhood. H.O.P.E. is working to create a community for students with traumatic childhood experiences while raising awareness of adverse childhood experiences. The student organization was founded by research...

Native students face the highest rates of inequity in higher education because of systemic and structural barriers On February 6, the American Indian College Fund released a report identifying eight powerful declarations that colleges and universities should do to better support Native students and make them visible at their institutions. This work was in response to a college tour incident at Colorado State University, after which made many Native students and families questioned who...

State Rep. Dave Paul, D-Oak Harbor, got his first bill through the House of Representatives. The House passed a bill on Tuesday that helps low-income students pay for dual-enrollment programs such as College in the High School or Running Start. House Bill 1973 establishes a pilot program for financial assistance for these students. “Students shouldn’t have to take on enormous debt in order to attend and graduate college,” said Paul. “This is a creative and cost-effective solution to help...

Press Release — New Survey of California Community College Students Reveals More than Half Face Food Insecurity and Nearly 20 Percent Have Faced Homelessness March 7, 2019 Sacramento — More than half the students attending a California community college have trouble affording balanced meals or worry about running out of food, and nearly 1 in 5 are either homeless or do not have a stable place to live, according to a survey released today. Click HERE to read the press release and click HERE...

On a wall at Santa Rosa Junior College’s newly expanded Dream Center is a framed, whimsical drawing of a woman with her eyes closed and hair windswept, surrounded by dozens of monarch butterflies. Above her head, white letters read: “My dreams are not illegal.” For many of the 1,800 students at the college who are undocumented, monarchs, which migrate thousands of miles between Mexico and Canada, symbolize hope. “When students walk into the center, I hope that they see the empowerment and...

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