Thank you to everyone who reached out to legislators for our rally day on House Bill 914 Support Our Direct Care Workforce! A special thanks to Lutheran Family Services , Universal Mental Health Services , Alexander Youth Network , A Small Miracle and ACI-Dungarvin (North Carolina) , for having attendees who came to the legislature! If we missed anyone else who came to Raleigh, we apologize and hope you will let us know you were there! We had a fantastic press conference with Representative...

Benchmarks' Partnering for Excellence is thrilled to share the Save the Date for this year's conference! The conference will take place September 11th & 12th in Winston-Salem. It is sure to be an exciting couple of days and more details will be forthcoming.

Dr. Sharon Portwood, a valued member of Benchmarks' Partnering for Excellence Leadership Team, is now serving on the American Psychological Association's Committee for Children, Youth, and Families and is helping to raise awareness of ACEs. Dr. Portwood, who also teaches at UNC Charlotte, has opened this recent newsletter with an article on research and policy implications. The newsletter continues by highlighting four different articles regarding ACEs across domains from education to...

In just six weeks, stakeholders from across North Carolina will get together to learn about system integration work with youth involved with child welfare. This is the third annual Benchmarks' Partnering for Excellence (PFE) Conference and this year, we have decided to really focus on "Creating Nurturing Systems". While the daily work of PFE can be hard and challenges us to think of new ways to meet the needs of the family, the annual conference offers us a way to celebrate our successes and...

Benchmarks will be hosting the Partnering for Excellence Conference for the third time this year. The conference is instrumental in bringing together professionals and those with lived experience. Through a combination of experiential activities, panels, and keynote speakers, the audience learns about the impact the Partnering for Excellence initiative can have as well as being encouraged to go out and be changemakers. This year promises to be even better than those in the past as the...

Authored by Keesha Corbin, Partnering for Excellence Project Coordinator Walking through the doors of the Renaissance Hotel in Asheville, North Carolina, there was a bustle of excitement. Everyone came to life during the first presentation by Mary Lynn Barrett as we sung together as an audience. Next came the presentation that everyone had been waiting for, Dr. Felitti, the researcher that gave a new meaning to the work of so many in the audience. Looking around the audience, I saw many...

At the heart of Benchmark’s Partnering for Excellence (PFE) Annual Conference is the commitment to bring together professionals and those with lived experience. This includes being sure that professionals hear from young adults who have experienced child welfare and “grownups” who share their story often or who may have never shared their story publicly before. This year was no different. But, what was different this year was the bonding that took place between those with lived experience.