Seven years ago, trying to recover from the death of her daughter, Brenda Mosley was introduced to the concept of trauma-informed care. “I was in a state of grief, darkness and despair,” she says. Then she began a three-year, trauma-informed program offered by an organization in her neighborhood of Kensington, Philadelphia, the New Kensington Community Development Corporation (NKCDC). “It was 10 women and we were introduced to all the models of trauma-informed care,” Mosley recalls. “I was...

All of us have people in our lives who helped to shape us into the people and leaders we are today. This podcast flips the script and instead of asking talented professionals about themselves, asks who helped them get to where they are today then interviews that person instead.Whether you are in a helping profession, just want to hear great stories about personal growth, or looking to find out ways you can better support people in your life, this podcast is for you. The People Who Got Me...

Families with young children are currently facing unprecedented challenges and need support now more than ever. To help parents and caregivers access much-needed resources, our friends/partners at the Early Learning Lab just released Stay Play Grow , a free app that provides a one-stop source of trusted resources curated by their team of child development experts, women, and working moms. Parents and caregivers can find tips, tools, and information across four key areas in English and...

As the coronavirus pandemic forces so many to reckon with growing food insecurity and increased health challenges, the Building Wealth and Health Network program of Drexel University’s Center for Hunger-Free Communities is reducing food insecurity and improving mental health – without distributing any food or medicine. How? By focusing on group experiences that promote healing and help people save money and take control over their own finances. Parents of young children, who completed the...

The Office of Advocacy and Reform (OAR), established by Governor Tom Wolf’s 2019 executive order to protect Pennsylvania’s vulnerable populations, today announced the launch of a volunteer think tank comprised of 25 experts representing a diversity of fields and backgrounds who will develop a plan to make Pennsylvania a trauma-informed state. “The people of Pennsylvania are compassionate, thoughtful and resilient. We take care of each other, and that drive to protect our families and our...

“The world of thinking about trauma, the importance of school climate and social-emotional learning is 20, 30, 40 years behind the world of instruction." Joanna Schwartz, a 2nd-grade teacher at Eliza B. Kirkbride Elementary School, was about to take a scheduled break and desperately needed a place to have peace and quiet. But the only place she could find was a broom closet. A few years earlier, in another school, Schwartz said teachers were baffled by a 3rd grader who continually fell...

As a citizen who has reversed more than 100 overdoses, every now and then I have a cry that is so uncontrollable, and painful, and deep, that I wonder if I will ever stop crying. Recently, I experienced one of those cries. It was after reversing a young man who was overdosing who looked just like my son. He was 16 or 17 years old, still with his school ID around his neck. It took three doses of Narcan — the overdose reversal medication — to bring him back. Surprisingly, he wanted me to call...

Thursday marks one year since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which set off a wave of activism across the country, as students and youth called for more gun control and safer schools. Young people in Philadelphia and other urban areas seized the opportunity to bring long-awaited attention to gun violence and trauma that impacts them on a regular basis. But some activists, students, and teachers say one year later, not much has changed in the way of...

How do you get people to support public policies that help children thrive? Do you emphasize the possible health consequences of child abuse, or do you emphasize the financial consequences for society as a whole? If you focus on consequences, does this messaging have the unintended consequence of creating prejudices towards vulnerable children and their families? When it comes to informing and persuading, how we deliver a message matters as much as the message itself. With a $500,000 grant...

We know that many of you on ACEs Connection are doing (or know about) innovative behavioral health work in your communities and we'd love to hear about it! Please help us get the word out about the 2019 Scattergood Innovation Award! We will be accepting applications until Monday, January 7th, 2019 at 5pm EST. Applications will then be reviewed by a panel of expert judges and narrowed to five finalists who will have the opportunity to present their innovative programs at NatCon19 in...

On Tuesday, the City of Philadelphia was awarded a $1 million grant to create a 24/7 trauma-informed facility that will be an entry point into the criminal justice system for children who are arrested. The city was one of five winners out of 35 finalists in the yearlong Bloomberg Philanthropies U.S. Mayors Challenge . The location and an official timeline for the opening of the facility — named the Hub for Juvenile Justice Services — are still being determined, said Julie Wertheimer, the...

Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia, Thomas Scattergood Behavioral Health Foundation, and United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey are pleased to release Trauma-Informed Philanthropy, Volume Two , a new guide that feature s lessons learned from leading local and national efforts that provide insights on strategies for advancing the trauma-informed movement in Philadelphia. The three partnering organizations collaborated in 2016 to publish Trauma-Informed Philanthropy,...

Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia, Thomas Scattergood Behavioral Health Foundation, and United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey are pleased to release Trauma-Informed Philanthropy, Volume Two , a new guide that feature s lessons learned from leading local and national efforts that provide insights on strategies for advancing the trauma-informed movement in Philadelphia. The three partnering organizations collaborated in 2016 to publish Trauma-Informed Philanthropy,...

The Thomas Scattergood Behavioral Health Foundation and The National Council for Behavioral Health are pleased to announce that the application period for the sixth annual Scattergood Innovation Award is open. The award recognizes projects and programs which aim to build a stronger, more effective, compassionate, and inclusive health care system. “The Scattergood Innovation Awards has become a symbol of next-generation thinking in behavioral health and we could not be happier to have the...

When considering implementing trauma-informed practices in your school, you might find yourself asking: How do I know which students have experienced trauma, so I can teach those students in a trauma-informed way? While it’s important to identify students in need of extra support, we can use trauma-informed practices with every single student because they benefit them all. Think of a wheelchair-accessible ramp to a building: Not every single person needs it, but it significantly removes...

The Thomas Scattergood Behavioral Health Foundation is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2017 Scattergood Innovation Award Clifford Beers Clinic's Whole-Family Approach to Child Behavioral Health Care Hopeworks Youth Healing Team PeerTECH: Peer and Technology-supported Self-management Intervention Positive Parenting Program to Improve Problem Behaviors in Pre-School Age Children (PriCARE) StreetChange The winner of the Scattergood Innovation Award and the $25,000 prize will be...

The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) has been law since 2008. MHPAEA provided that health plans could not limit mental health or substance use disorder benefits in a way that was more restrictive than how most medical/surgical benefits were limited. This sounds simple enough, but in this year alone there has been a White House task force , voluminous Department of Labor guidance , a SAMHSA best practices manual , and an Energy & Commerce Committee hearing to find...

The ACEs Messaging Group (AMG) met on Tuesday, December 13 th to discuss small group the work that had been done in November in lieu of a larger group meeting. The group began with a history and overview of the work, revisiting the discussion of particular target audiences: youth, parents of young children, and older adults. Each small group then updated the larger AMG about their work. The group focused on youth reported back about the event that took place at UrbanPromise in which a group...

Responding to the overwhelming demand of funders in the Delaware Valley to better understand the impacts of trauma on our region and how they can apply trauma informed practices to their own work, Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia, the Thomas Scattergood Behavioral Health Foundation, and United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey partnered to produce this hands-on resource that will help funders : Understand the science behind trauma, adverse childhood experiences,...

Leslie Lieberman, staff to the Philadelphia ACE Task Force, wrote this letter to the editor about the end of kindergarten suspensions in the Philadelphia School District: Curtailing K suspensions a good first step The School District of Philadelphia will no longer use suspension to discipline some of its youngest and most vulnerable students ("SRC curtails kindergarten suspensions," Friday). The Health Federation of Philadelphia applauds this decision, which is grounded in a growing...

Have you ever wanted to learn more about the movement in Philadelphia, PA to become a trauma-informed city? The Philadelphia ACE Task Force (PATF) has a new web resource for you! On Monday, August 15th, the PATF launched its new website, www.philadelphiaACEs.org , to keep you informed about our current and past projects, events, and resources for families, community members, providers, and policy makers. Website Highlights Learn about the Philadelphia Expanded ACE Survey, the first ACE...

The ACEs Messaging Group, an ad hoc group of ACE Task Force Members and Community Partners, convened on Tuesday, May 10 th at Friends Center. This meeting served as first re-convening of this group since work that had been done in 2015 around developing messages about ACEs, trauma, and resilience that “catch-on”. The group began by discussing some of this former work and reviewing some guiding principles as they move to narrow messages and test them with focus groups throughout Philadelphia.

School suspension rates have risen in recent years. And since the punishment is linked to more severe problems later in life, such as dropping out of school or ending up in prison, researchers at Stanford University have been looking for ways to prevent it. Researchers asked one group of math teachers to complete a 45-minute online activity about how important it is to respect and humanize students. Meanwhile, another group of math teachers read about how to use technology in the classroom.

For two decades, there's been evidence that people who suffered childhood trauma — violence, sexual abuse or family dysfunction — are much more likely to have a chronic health problems and engage in risky behavior. Now, 14 community health centers around the U.S. are acting as laboratories for an experiment to see if screening and then treating people for trauma can improve the results from treatment they get for their diabetes, heart disease, pulmonary disease or other ailments.

The defendants may be one southern California school district and its top officials, but an unprecedented, class action lawsuit could have a big impact on schools across the country.   Today in Los Angeles, a U.S. District Court judge will...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – July 30, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — Congressman Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL), Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of the Congressional Homelessness Caucus, hosted a briefing with Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), and...

On November 13, 2014 the ACEs Connection community managers held a casual  ACEs Meet-Up  to discuss with interested individuals: “ How do we build a trauma-informed city? “  The group of participants had a discussion around...

Among industrialized nations, the U.S. has the highest number of homeless women and children . Research shows that approximately 92 percent of women in family homeless shelters have experienced severe physical or sexual abuse in their lifetime....