Blog

Last week, on two separate days in Los Angeles and in San Francisco, about 150 people (total) convened to listen and brainstorm about creating trauma-informed communities. Futures Without Violence, which is rolling out its Changing Minds campaign later this year, hosted both events.  Some very interesting and important themes emerged from the two days: Residents with lived experiences should participate in the decision-making bodies of service providers and vested...

The Community & Family Services Division at the Spokane (WA) Regional Health District has come through again, with a Spanish version of the parent handout (in English) that we posted last year , and which has been downloaded thousands of times. The English versions came about whiledoing a story about the trauma-in formed elementary schools in Spokane, WA .I interviewedp ublic health nurse Melissa Charbonneau who said that she'd been giving an...

Harmonium staff pictured (left to right ) Front row: Brian Newcomer, Rosa Ana Lozada, Heidi Echeverria, and Janice Tangback Back row: Amy De Meules, Natalie Kessler, and Justin Campbell There’s almost a Zen-like feeling when you walk into the office of Rosa Ana Lozada, chief executive officer of Harmonium, Inc. The deep red accent wall, large corner windows, and small Japanese fountain send a message that a trauma-informed, resilience-building mindset starts at the top of this...

A North County nonprofit that houses homeless families says it will walk away from roughly $95,000 in federal funding rather than comply with new regulations that forbid it from requiring residents to stay away from drugs. Solutions for Change is one of several homeless agencies in the region working to respond to a new federal policy called Housing First that focuses on getting people into permanent homes with no strings attached. The philosophy is a monumental shift in fighting...

"We're committed to lifting up the work around healing, belonging and inclusion," said Joey Bravo, program associate at The California Endowment (TCE).  Joey and his colleagues with TCE's Center for Healthy Communities supported the creation of a series of videos that capture the groundbreaking efforts of the San Diego Unified School District's campaign to create trauma-informed schools.  In this series of videos, SDUSD's transformation of their discipline policies...

Yes, that's at 2 p.m. this Thursday at the Lobero Theater , California's oldest, continuously operating theatre! James Redford, who directed  Resilience , will be doing a Q-and-A following the screening on Thursday. (He will not attend the Friday screening.) Resilience premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday, Jan. 22 , followed by several more screenings last week.   Here's the description from the Resilience page on the Santa Barbara International Film Festival web...

Children's Bureau - Office of the Administration for Children and Families - January 25, 2016 This report presents national data about child abuse and neglect known to child protective services agencies in the United States during federal fiscal year 2014. http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/resource/child-maltreatment-2014

Last week, I was fortunate to be a part of a small group of professionals in San Diego to attend the Academy on Violence and Abuse preconference session for the 30 th Annual San Diego International Conference on Child and Family Maltreatment. The conference draws over 1,800 professionals in the maltreatment field from around the world each year. The session, titled: Building Trauma Informed, Resilience, and Healthy Communities: Regional, National, and Global Perspectives , had an ambitious...

As a college student, Rob Bonta had a summer job working as a counselor for troubled kids. Now, two decades later he is bringing legislation to address some of the needs he saw then. “I worked with some of these kids as a counselor out of college, and I’d walk them home and hear some of these stories,” Assembly member Bonta (D-Oakland) said. “Shootings they heard. Or shootings they witnessed the night before.” It was the summer of his junior year at Yale, when...

Just moments into watching "Paper Tigers" last August, Angie Dillon Shore and Socorro Shiels found themselves wiping away tears.  By the film's conclusion, Angie, a former youth counselor and current Upstream Investments Program Manager, and Socorro, then the Superintendent of Santa Rosa City Schools both felt compelled to take immediate action.  What if together, these two women could bring the film to local educators and parents?  Could the film change the conversation...

We welcome guest author Godwin Higa, Principal, Cherokee Point Elementary School City Heights, San Diego whose work with childhood adversity and trauma is making a difference in the lives of children.  At Cherokee Point, located in San Diego's City Heights neighborhood, nearly all of our students deal with some sort of childhood adversity. A hundred percent of our students receive free lunches, and most live under the federal poverty guideline. Many of our students' families face daily...

The 30th annual San Diego International Conference on Child and Family Maltreatment kicks off next week at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina.  This annual event brings an estimated 1,800 - 2,000 multidisciplinary professionals in the child abuse field from around the world each year.  This year, the Academy on Violence and Abuse (AVA) is hosting one of the preconference sessions on Sunday, January 24th from 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM.  This session, titled: Building Trauma...