Three years ago, the story about how Lincoln High School in Walla Walla, WA, tried a new approach to school discipline and saw suspensions drop 85% struck a nerve. It went viral – twice — with more than 700,000 page views. Paper Tigers , a documentary that filmmaker James Redford did about the school — premiered last Thursday night to a sold-out crowd at the Seattle International Film Festival. Hundreds of communities around the country are clamoring for screenings. After four years of...

Join the Minnesota Department of Health for the inaugural monthly statewide Mental Well-Being and Resilience Learning Community TUESDAY MAY 30 th 10:00-12:00 REGISTER HERE TO PARTICIPATE SITES ? Registration includes a list of sites near you. NO SITE ADDRESS? We will update site addresses as identified. Hosts will also email participants before the event. NO SITE NEAR YOU? Email anna.lynn@state.mn.us to confirm if one is currently available or to become a host. OTHER QUESTIONS? See...

15 th Annual Minnesota Pinwheels for Prevention Tribe/Community Awards Each year, Minnesota Communities Caring for Children (MCCC) recognizes statewide tribes and communities that have consistently worked to create safe and healthy environments for children and families. We want to celebrate the crucial work of these communities that are creating spaces and opportunities for their children to thrive by enhancing prevention initiatives and family and children’s services. We are happy to...

May 23, noon-1:30pm: The Practice and Power of Engaging Parent Leaders with Lisa Deputie & Roxy Foster This webinar is about understanding the best practices of engaging parents with professionals. We will focus on strategies that empower parents to create change for themselves, their families and communities. We will discuss and explore the following questions : Why would parents want to be involved? Why would staff want to be engage in parent involvement? Why is parent involvement...

Linsey McMurrin, an SEL and Prevention Specialist with Peacemaker Resources, is an enrolled member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. She is program manager of Girls Lead on the Go!, a leadership program for young women, and is an organizer of the Bemidji Area Truth and Reconciliation Initiative, a grassroots effort to promote truth-seeking, healing and change through increasing understanding and building relationships among area indigenous and non-indigenous communities. Linsey is certified...

May 11, noon-1:30 pm: World View Dave Ellis Every day we engage with people who are very different and similar from us: race, gender, ethnicity and more. Epigenetics tells us that we are more alike than different. So why can’t we just get along? Our worldviews -values, beliefs, assumptions, attitudes and ideas- impact everything from how we understand the nature of reality to how we respond to the environment around us. It informs our goals and desires, shaping conscious and unconscious...

I would like to share some learning opportunities with you. Share these with all who will listen. REACH Stewartville learned last week that we will be receiving a Star of Innovation Award at the 2017 Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals Summer Conference at Breezy Point Resort this June. We will also be doing 2 presentations at the conference on June 14th. Encourage school administrators in your area to attend this conference to learn more about ACEs and how REACH...

Recent federal legislation put forward by senators Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Al Franken (D-MN) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) proposes to address the issue of childhood trauma through the creation of a federal trauma task force. The Trauma-Informed Care for Children and Families Act would gather federal officials and members of tribal agencies to create a set of best practices and training to help create a better way to identify and support children and families that have experienced trauma. In...

Tuesday, May 9th Time: Welcome at 8:30am Training from 9:00am- 4:00pm Where: Lifetrack Building 709 University Avenue W Saint Paul, MN 55104 To Register and for more Information please contact: Lisa Deputie, ldeputie@pcamn.org or 651.325.9391 The Circle of Parents Facilitator Training is designed to train individuals as facilitators of Circle of Parents groups. These groups provide caregivers across Minnesota with mutual self-help support environments for talking about their parenting...

T here is a scene in James Redford’s new film, Resilience , in which a paediatrician cites a parental misdeed so outmoded as to seem bizarre. “Parents used to smoke in the car with kids in the back and the windows rolled up,” she says, incredulous. How long ago those days now seem; how wise today’s parents are to the dangers of those toxins. Yet every week in her clinic in the Bayview-Hunters Point area of San Francisco, children present with symptoms of a new pollutant – one that is just as...

Nearly 40,000 Minnesota children were suspected of being abused or neglected in 2016, 25 percent more than 2015, state officials said Tuesday in a worrisome report that also noted a huge jump in maltreatment investigations. The data posted by the Minnesota Department of Human Services didn't explain the increases in detail but said the spike likely came from "increased awareness about child protection issues, changes in how reports are reviewed and a growing opioid crisis." Children in...

April 12, noon-1:30: Trauma-Informed Approaches in Minnesota Schools Dr. Mark Sander, Hennepin County; Stacy Bender-Fayette and Sharleen Zeman-Sperle, Peacemaker Resources Many Minnesota schools are trying innovative approaches to promote social emotional learning and to make the classroom a safe learning environment for children who have experienced trauma. This webinar is a chance to hear from three such innovators: Dr. Mark Sander, a psychologist working in the Minneapolis Public Schools...