A year after 85 people died in the wildfire that swept through Paradise, CA, and nearby towns, one of the town’s survivors will talk about how she and others are using resilience practices in their recovery from the trauma.
On Wednesday, Nov. 13, Paradise resident Kelly Doty will have a conversation with Elaine Miller-Karas, who developed the Community Resiliency Model (CRM). Doty, who lost her home in the fire, and Miller-Karas will discuss resilience education skills designed to help people better prepare for and handle climate crises. We will hear first-hand from Doty how well the program, which includes three phases of intervention of the Community Resiliency Model Disaster Relief Program, has worked for her and her family. We’ll also learn how it has been for her, as a mental health professional, to share the model with others as she has helped her community in its recovery from last year’s devastating fires.
This is the last of three webinars that ACEs Connection is hosting on how climate crises impact humans. The one-hour webinar begins at 2 pm ET/ 1 pm CT/ 12 pm MT/ 11 am PT.
In the first webinar, Building Resilient Communities, Miller-Karas explored integrating a biologically-based model to reduce the impacts of toxic stress for children and adults. She detailed the connection between the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and using tools in the Community Resiliency Model to help prepare for climate trauma and to help prevent more ACEs as people cope with the stress of a climate disaster.
The second webinar, Integrating Climate Traumas into ACEs Prevention was led by Bob Doppelt, executive director of the Resource Innovation Group, and founder and coordinator of the International Transformational Resilience Coalition (IRTC). He discussed how climate change creates personal, family and community traumas and toxic stresses, how those stressors trigger feedback loops that expand and aggravate ACEs.
In it we learned that prevention is the only realistic solution to slowing climate change and preventing the proliferation of ACEs that come with it, as resources and human capacity to respond rationally are severely impacted in climate disasters.
Elaine Miller-Karas, MSW, LCSW, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Trauma Resource Institute
Kelly Doty, MA, Strengthening Families Program Manager, Youth for Change
Host/facilitators:
Carey Sipp, ACEs Connection
Alison Cebulla, ACEs Connection
“I attended Trauma Resource Institute’s, Community Resiliency Model training in August of 2018. I came away from TRI with a greater sense of self-awareness, a newfound understanding of what resiliency really is, and an eagerness to begin implementing the CRM skills in my day-to-day duties.
Upon my return, I am happy to say I began utilizing my newfound skills-not only in a professional capacity, but also in a personal capacity. “ – Amy Gallardo, Child Interview Specialist, Multidisciplinary Coordinator, Kids Hope, Washington
The artwork is an original piece titled “Someone at the Door” by Chicago artist Ken Shaw. I bought it about 35 years ago.
(The first part of this piece was written in-the-moment, as an email to a friend following what, for me, was a traumatic experience. The second part of this piece was written about 10 days later, as part of a healing reflection. It occurs to me that this experience, and the reflections, might help someone else experiencing trauma and/or seeking compassion for self or others.)
PART 1 – AN EMAIL TO A FRIEND AFTER THE TRAUMA.
A woman just banged on my door and damn-near broke it down. It scared the bejesus out of me. F*#k. Half-asleep I opened the door. She was looking for Jake. No Jake here.
I talked to her for a couple of seconds and then she reached into her purse for God-knows-what. THAT’S WHEN I FREAKED. Was she reaching for a gun or a knife? I didn’t know. I closed the door. She pushed and pushed against it, but I finally got it closed and locked.
Then she got mad. And started yelling and then kicking the door. Kicking the door. Kicking the door.
Heart in my throat. I found my phone and called the police.
They arrived and found her next door, banging on that front door, looking for Jake.
They got her down the steps and have been out in the street with her for 15 minutes. God. CPTSD (Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) City.
Drunk, doped, and psycho people freak me out.
I was already agitated having gone to sleep worried about the political tension between the USA and Iran. These existential threats weigh heavy on me. Potential war. Australia burning out of control. Floods swamping the South. Then there is my dog, Cosmo, barking, barking, barking.
My heart is pounding out of my chest.
Writing this is helping me calm down.
I am here. It is now.
I’ll play Scrabble on my phone. I’ve read that playing a game after a traumatic event can help prevent Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I wonder if it can help folks who, like me, already have Complex PTSD and don’t want it to get worse because of some random-ass occurrence like a large and apparently out-of-control woman trying to break down your door while accusing you of harboring a guy named Jake?
Okay. Breathe deeply. I wonder if the police will check on me or not. Damn. I could be having a heart attack and they wouldn’t even know. And I could do something about that. I could call them and say, “Please come check on me.” Okay. My heart rate is slowing down a bit.
Damn. I had gone to bed early because I didn’t sleep well the last two nights. Both nights I’d checked my phone during the night. That is not a smart thing to do when I want a good night’s rest. I flunk sleep hygiene.
Well, the police left. I don’t know what happened to that woman.
She was about 5’9 and probably weighed 180. I’d opened the door thinking it was my housemate’s son banging on the door. Maybe he and his mom had driven straight through the night and were back from their trip.
I’m so damned glad I got the door closed. She just kept kicking it. For about two minutes she kept kicking on it. I cannot believe the police didn’t ask me if I wanted to press charges. I get that pressing charges would just extend the trauma. But they didn’t even come back up the steps to check on me or call. Nada.
What a weenie I am. There are people in flood zones, fire zones, war zones and I’m freaking out because a tanked-up human tried to kick the door down. But, trauma is trauma. A friend would remind me not to diminish how terrified I was; I am. Again, she reached into her purse, I thought she had a gun. Guns terrify me. Absolutely terrify me. Mention them and sometimes I can smell gun oil.
Okay. I am gonna be alright. I’m gonna play Scrabble for a few rounds. I suck at
Scrabble. I’ll do it anyway. I’ll get up and dance to discharge all this adrenaline. I remember the Community Resiliency Model (CRM) advice and push against the wall. This helps.
I put my back against the wall and breathe and push, using my thigh muscles to really press in. I turn around and face the wall and push, push, push on the wall.
This helps. I jump up and down. I do pushups.
I have power and agency. I am strong and I’m in my body. This helps. I have choices. I have choices.
I can drink water and eat and go to the bathroom and turn on music or a movie or write. I have choices. I am alive and I have choices. It is 2 a.m. or so and I can write some more and I have choices. Thank God for choices.
PART 2 – A FEW DAYS LATER:
I look back on the whole experience of the woman at my door and I am overwhelmed with compassion for myself as a little girl. When I was a child, my father, who was a traumatized human himself, would often wake us all up in the middle of the night after a night of drinking. He fought with my mom. He had a hair-trigger temper. He grabbed her by her hair, twisted her arm behind her back. Smacked her.
One time he broke the glass to get into the back door.
Another time there were gunshots.
Guns were always around and, in my mind, were a constant threat. I was always afraid that he would use one on Mother or himself or on all of us. Or one of our pets.
And so as I reflected on the recent night and all of those nights as a terrified, helpless child, I felt tremendous compassion for myself that I went through that kind of trauma and drama night after night. And that day after day I would want to go back to sleep and not go to school because I was so very tired. But Mother always pushed me to get dressed and out the door to school so she could go to work.
Never, that I remember, did we ever stay home after one of those crazy nights.
So that little me would go to school. Lots of times I would get carsick on the way to school, get there, go in, and have a hard time not throwing up.
It wasn’t until third grade, when I began to have sleepovers at friends’ houses, that I got my first glimpse that other people’s dads didn’t break into their homes in the middle of the night.
In addition to feeling tremendous compassion for my younger self, I thought about the woman who tried to kick the door down. I began having compassion for her. Hell, if some things in my life hadn’t gone SO WELL, I could have been her.
I also know the experience of this woman coming to my door was random, not intentional, as the adverse experiences in my childhood were. I began wondering how she ended up in this neighborhood. She is somebody — a daughter, sister, aunt, niece, maybe even a mom — and she is NOT her behavior. She could have just been out for a cocktail and somebody could have slipped a “Mickey” into her drink. Or she could have been out drinking because she was in horrific grief. We never know why people do random, sometimes bizarre things.
My dad? I feel compassion for him too. I have for years, thank God. I’ve felt compassion for both of my parents. I think he drank and acted out because he was in pain from his childhood trauma, and from World War II, when, as a young submariner, there is no telling what kind of fear he experienced.
His trauma doesn’t excuse his violence. But seeking to understand the roots of his behavior has softened my heart and helped me to forgive and move on and to have, sometimes for long stretches, healthy relationships with men I have loved.
I am grateful that I can look at my father and mother, both of whom terrified me, with compassion. They were also terrified and terrorizing. Like the woman at my door.
And THAT is the whole point of integrating this new knowledge about ACEs science into our lives, right? A “turnaround”?
Somebody in the cycle has to stop and connect with the reality that the behavior of someone who is acting out – drinking or raging or whatever – is not about us.
It is about the person who is acting out and something that happened to them, some pain they are expressing in a way that is the best way they can in the moment. And probably most of their acting out is a cry for help. I have to remember that.
And in my job with ACEs Connection, I know I have to remember this and move forward with compassion, and model this to the people with whom I work. I want to show people how to not traumatize and terrorize already traumatized people. And that is why I need to practice self care, compassion, and compassion for others.
Days later, as my body still works to settle down after those flight-fight-freeze moments of terror, this means I treat myself gently.
Christine Cissy WhiteIt’s not trauma-informed unless it’s informed by trauma survivors.
Carey: What an important, beautiful and clear piece of writing to show the then/now/then/now push and pull when it comes to our responses, reactions, and how we relate to ourselves during and after current fear and trauma. It all gets tangled and intertwined. I appreciate you sharing your responses and how you calibrated over time. I especially love your current compassion for the child you were who didn’t have the same knowledge, resources, languages, and tools and then the compassion for others past and present, including those who caused your fear. That moved me so much. Keep writing!
I wish I had my NFB machine I’m gonna get. If you wanted, I would come find you and I would do all I could to help. I’m so sorry.
Tina – That is so sweet!
I love neurofeedback and have been doing it for two years. My NFB provider in Wilmington saw me two days later and it was a big help. I go weekly. Used to go twice a week. NFB is a big part of my self-care program! We should talk. We will talk. Thank you!
And I am doing well. Have wonderful friends here. A good EMDR therapist. I reached out for help. Looked at what went “right” that night (police here quickly; support from friends; I knew to practice extreme self care; it was random and I live in a normally extreme light peaceful neighborhood; etc.)
Dana BrownInterim (Volunteer) Executive Director PACEs Connection
Dearest Carey: Thank you for your courageous, insightful, wise words, Carey Sipp. Your reflective thoughts carry a lifetime of pain, abuse, fear, hope, compassion, and love.
Compassion with self, and others in our lives who we have a relationship with, and folks in the public we don’t know well, permeates through your blog. Highlighting “voice and choice” when you didn’t have a voice (childhood – woman banging on your door) and your life’s evolution to deeply knowing you have choices (self-soothing strategies, the “turnaround”, the CRM model) will plant seeds of hope within all who read your piece.
Much Love and Light surrounding you, Carey, as your healing journey continues. I love you dearly…
TraumaInformedJobs.com is a new job board for the trauma and resilience communities. PACEs Connection members can save 10% on posting with code PACES10
Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris joined Gov. Newsom for the first time last week to announce a number of actions leaders have taken to address the pandemic.
By Genoa Barrow, Sacramento Observer, April 17, 2020
As a pandemic sheds a spotlight on long-standing health inequities for African Americans, California’s surgeon general looks to find lasting solutions.
Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris was named to the new position created by Gov. Gavin Newsom in January 2019. She is an African American pediatrician, entrepreneur and nonprofit CEO from San Francisco, where she founded the Center for Youth Wellness in the predominantly Black Bayview-Hunters Point area. She’s known nationally for work and research around health equity, early childhood and adverse childhood experiences, and toxic stress. She lists these as her top three priorities as surgeon general.
Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris spoke with The Sacramento OBSERVER Tuesday, sharing her role in the fight against the coronavirus, how COVID-19 can exacerbate the chronic stress African Americans often face, and the impact the virus is having on African Americans overall.
Evelynn Hammonds, who chairs Harvard’s department of the history of science, has spent her career studying the intersection of race and disease. She wrote a history of New York City’s attempt, a century ago, to control diphtheria, and is currently at work on a book of essays on the history of race, from Jefferson to genomics. Hammonds’s area of expertise is especially relevant today: while the data is incomplete, at this point in time, African-Americans represent nearly a third of U.S. deaths from the coronavirus pandemic and thirty per cent of covid-19 cases, despite making up only about thirteen per cent of the population. Hammonds noted recently, “This new development of what has happened with the pandemic with respect to African-American communities” is “perhaps an old development.”
I spoke by phone with Hammonds, who is currently hosting a series of Webinars with academics and experts at Harvard on African-Americans and epidemics in American history, from the eighteenth century to the present day. As she stated in one of the sessions, “I can’t imagine saying that we have to wait until this pandemic has passed to make clear what kinds of structural inequalities and implicit and explicit biases are at work.” During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed why African-Americans were once thought to be immune to various diseases, how this belief morphed into the fear that they were spreaders of contagion, and what lessons can be learned from a Civil War-era smallpox outbreak.
The second of two free Community Resiliency (CRM) webinars with Elaine Miller-Karas, key creator of the CRM, will be held Thursday, May 14, from 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET, (10 a.m. CT; 9 a.m. MT, and 8 a.m. PT) and will include the practical application of tools of the model. CRM is an ACEs science-based biological model for helping individuals become emotionally regulated during natural disasters and other dysregulating times.
Miller-Karas will be joined by CRM trainers from Wilmington, NC:Allison Wine, behavioral specialist, andKelly Purcell, instructional coach and multi-tiered support specialist.
Thursday’s webinar will include an explanation of CRM tools, including tracking, resourcing, grounding, gesturing and spontaneous movements, and shift and stay. The 90-minute webinar also includes many of the model’s key concepts, as well as the opportunity to practice exercises to help participants “embody” the use of the tools.
Miller-Karas, who is also the founder of the Trauma Resources Institute, a nonprofit organization working to cultivate trauma-informed and resiliency-focused individuals and communities throughout the world, will lead the webinar.
Miller-Karas will be joined by CRM community trainers Kelly Purcell, an instructional coach and multi-tiered support coordinator at a Title One elementary school in Wilmington, NC, and Allison Wine, a pre-K behavioral specialist for 41 classrooms in the New Hanover County, NC, early childhood education program.
The overview, which offers information and tools you can use immediately to help regulate your central nervous system (share with your family members!) is being offered to members of ACEs Connection as well as to members of the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP).
“Elaine Miller-Karas is recognized worldwide for her groundbreaking work, and we appreciate her offering this overview, with tools and resources people can use right now in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, to help themselves and others. She will also help us understand more about the importance and benefits of our making this kind of training available to the community at large,” said Dan Press, founder of CTIPP.
Mebane Boyd, executive director of the New Hanover Resiliency Task Force, in Wilmington, NC, has seen positive results from her community’s investment in training people from across all sectors in the CRM model.
“Over 1,000 individuals in our county have received training in the Community Resiliency Model. Investments have been made to teach how to first recognize one’s own biological responses to stress and then skills to bring one back into their ‘Resilient Zone.’ This zone is where individuals can function as their best self despite the stress and trauma responses that their nervous system exhibits. From teachers to social workers to first responders who have received resiliency training, we are hearing about the benefits of how this is paying off not only in reducing their own trauma, but their increased awareness of the needs of their co-workers and family members,” said Boyd.
Registration information:
If you registered for the first webinar, held last week, you are automatically registered for the second webinar. If you did not register for the first webinar, click the link below to register for Thursday’s webinar.
By Darrell Steinberg, Los Angeles Times, May 11, 2020
When she was in her late 70s, my late grandmother Henrietta became an unofficial mental health provider. Often housebound because of physical ailments, Grandma needed a volunteer effort she could do from her living room, so she became involved with the Jewish Family Services agency, calling half a dozen seniors every week.
The people she was assigned needed a sympathetic ear, and she’d talk for hours with them — about family, memories and the things that mattered in their lives.
My grandmother was the “service provider,” but she received as much as she gave. She had no formal training or license, just the gift of connecting and the will to help.
I’ve been thinking about my grandmother lately because of our current crisis. Over the last month, I’ve heard more than once that the COVID-19 pandemic, as difficult as it is, will be followed by a second pandemic of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress, born of unprecedented economic dislocation and isolation. We are already seeing it.
The Rev. William J. Barber has long tackled the issues of race, poverty and hatred. His Poor People’s Campaign in June will hold a digital assembly and march on Washington to draw attention to civil rights issues. Hari Sreenivasan spoke with the reverend about the impacts of COVID-19 on communities of color for our on-going initiative “Chasing the Dream: Poverty and Opportunity in America.”
Hari Sreenivasan:Reverend William Barber, thanks so much for joining us.When you see those statistics about how disproportionately affected people of color are in this, why do you think that the country is not as shocked as they ought be?
Rev. William Barber:Well, first of all, we’re not getting all the statistics. I mean, we get like in Mississippi, 80 percent of the people in one area that died from COVID-19. It might be we’re not as shocked because we weren’t dealing with it before. And we weren’t shocked when a quarter million people were dying from poverty and no income.[Please click here to read the full transcript.]
Some have called the pandemic “the great equalizer.” But the coronavirus is killing black Americans at staggeringly higher rates than white Americans. Today, we explore why. Guest: Linda Villarosa, a writer for The New York Times Magazine covering racial health disparities, who spoke to Nicole Charles in New Orleans, La. about the death of her husband, Cornell Charles, known as Dickey. He was 51. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily
Background reading: How Mardi Gras accelerated the spread of the coronavirus among an already vulnerable population in New Orleans.The coronavirus has killed black and Latino people in New York City at twice the rate that it has killed white people. Black Britons are also twice as likely to die from coronavirus.Black Americans can face subconscious bias from medical professionals when they seek care. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have advised health professionals to be on the lookout for such bias, but some say the issue is far more systemic.
By Maria Godoy and Daniel Wood, National Public Radio, May 30, 2020
In April, New Orleans health officials realized their drive-through testing strategy for the coronavirus wasn’t working. The reason? Census tract data revealed hot spots for the virus were located in predominantly low-income African-American neighborhoods where many residents lacked cars.
In response, officials have changed their strategy, sending mobile testing vans to some of those areas, says Thomas LaVeist, dean of Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and co-chair of Louisiana’s COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.
“Data is the only way that we can see the virus,” LaVeist says. “We only have indicators. We can’t actually look at a person and tell who’s been infected. So what we have is data right now.”
Leaders in ACEs/trauma/resilience movements from 10 states in the Southeast U.S. met for a networking call on May 21, 2020, to learn about flexible funding opportunities for states under the CARES Act, ways to get involved in advocacy, and how to share their successes and challenges in building statewide coalitions.
The meeting of leaders was organized by ACEs Connection and the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP) in response to COVID-19 and the growing interest in organizing statewide coalitions. Just as governors and ACEs initiative leaders from throughout the country are meeting to coordinate efforts around COVID-19, the state coalitions in the Southeast jumped at the opportunity to share and learn from each other.
Members of the CTIPP National Trauma Campaign Core Team — Marlo Nash, Dan Press, and Joshua Ferguson — focused on federal legislation affecting states and described ways for advocates to have greater impact. Marlo Nash, National Director of Partnership and Policy at Saint Francis Ministries, presented on the flexible funding opportunities in CARES ACT and future legislation to support trauma-informed programs and policies — this presentation is summarized in a recent post on ACEs Connection. Dan Press, legal advisor to CTIPP and attorney with the firm Van Ness Feldman, provided tips on how individuals and organizations can have an impact on national policy. Press said that COVID-19 funding is the largest stimulus package since the New Deal funding programs of the 1930s, and that creates a unique opportunity.
“As a country, we need to ensure that federal resources are directed to trauma-informed programs and supports,” Press said, reminding participants that the information they need to contact their congressional representatives and senators is on the CTIPP website. (Check the ACEs Connection YouTube Channel to watch a webinar on Trauma-Informed Policy and Funding During COVID-19, which contains much of the information shared on the CTIPP portion of the call.)
Also on the call were ACEs Connection staff members Elizabeth Prewitt, policy analyst; Ingrid Cockhren, community facilitator for the Midwest Region and Tennessee; and Carey Sipp, community facilitator for the Southeast Region. They were joined by about 25 statewide leaders from Southeastern states.
Much of the call was devoted to reports by community leaders on their accomplishments in forming state coalitions and the areas where help is needed. Zoom chat comments reflected how valuable participants saw this exchange — “Inspiring to know so many good trauma initiatives are underway! Keep up all the good work!” and “I am SUPER grateful to know about the CARES Act and how we may be able to utilize that!”
Here are some quick summaries of what leaders from states reported. Some of these comments were added by representatives who could not be present for the call, but wanted other leaders in the region to know what their initiative is working on.
Florida — Mimi Graham, director of the FSU Center for Prevention & Early Intervention Policy, said Florida needs a legislative champion. “There is a lot going on, but it is a patchwork.” She mentioned several trauma-informed communities and that there is success in having groups across the state providing some services across the lifespan. Graham has been involved with “Safe Babies Courts” for many years. At least 1000 children have been served by a court system that is supportive to parents and results in most children not being separated from their parents. Research shows that one year after experiencing the services of Safe Babies Courts, 99 percent of children suffer no further abuse. She reported that there is also a resilience project underway to help prevent and respond to suicides, and that there is “such hunger in the community to know more” about the impact of adverse childhood experiences.
Georgia — Emily Anne Vall, executive director ofResilient Georgia, is working with the Trauma Resources Institute to train as many Georgians as possible in the Community Resiliency Model (CRM). Resilient Georgia is starting the training with healthcare workers. Vall also reported on the response to COVID-19 in Georgia, saying that in Albany, where there was a higher concentration of the virus than most other places in the state, the United Way has been very helpful. Resilient Georgia is a statewide initiative dedicated to healing adversity and promoting resiliency in children and families through the prevention and early intervention of ACEs.
Louisiana — Caitlin LaVine had to leave the call for another meeting, but left a report updating the group about the new statewide educators’ site for Louisiana ACEs Educators. LaVine said the group will be posting ACEs science presentations done throughout the state for the last several years, including some 600 presentations statewide.
Kentucky –Carli Mosby of Kentucky Youth Advocates reported that The Bounce Coalition is joining Kentucky Youth Advocates to further strengthen its efforts as a collaborative network of professionals and advocates working to increase understanding of the impact of childhood trauma, address the root causes of poor health and inequities, and improve outcomes of all Kentucky children. This partnership will allow Bounce to expand statewide, and deepen policy advocacy efforts in an attempt to serve as a catalyst and guide for all systems that intersect with Kentucky’s youth. The Bounce Coalition offers an array of trainings and resources in ACEs science, trauma-informed practices, self-care practices, and building resilient families and communities.
Mississippi — Jackie Chatmon, system of care project director at the Mississippi Department of Public Health, reported that many agencies are working in silos. She and other state leaders are wondering, “How do we organize and move forward? Who will coordinate it?” About 600-800 people attend a trauma-informed conference in Mississippi each summer. It is multi-sector, and there is strong interest. The concern is finding leadership to help the group set priorities and move forward together.
PEACEXPEACE initiatives in three states: GA, SC, NC —Vic Bolton, a strategic communications and public relations consultant reported in forDanette Glass, who works in several states to start community-based ACEs initiatives. Bolton reported that there is incredible reach and depth in the four states in which he, Danette, and scores of volunteers are doing their youth-oriented outreach geared toward health, equity, and justice.
North Carolina —Mebane Boyd, executive director of the New Hanover Resiliency Task Force, and Jenny Cooper, chief research and development officer at Benchmarks, reported that Community Resiliency Model trainings are effective. They also said that many communities are trying to keep kids in congregate care safe, and are trying to stay connected to families.They are working through the pandemic and preparing for hurricane season.
South Carolina — Alyssa Koziarsky, research and evaluation assistant at Children’s Trust of South Carolina reports that in SC, ACE Interface trainings are being scheduled for virtual delivery. She also reported that the SC Department of Education is working to secure free internet access for students and that the SC Department of Social Services (DSS) is working on public service announcements on how to report child abuse. DSS is also collaborating, through the CAREs Act, to provide childcare for essential workers. (??)
Tennessee — Jennifer Drake-Croft, director of child well-being at the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth, reported that many state-level decision makers and state legislators have a grasp, maybe not deep, but they do have an understanding of the importance of supporting ACEs science and addiction grants. They have put $1.25 millions into ACEs and addiction grants, with a few limitations to allow for coordination. “Two years ago, state leaders doubled funding (to $2.5 million) for trauma-informed schools.” Croft cited a challenge in that 60% of the legislature turns over every session, so there is a constant need to rebuild relationships and knowledge base. There is also a political divide with regard to Medicaid expansion, and COVID-19 exacerbated these inequities. The grass-roots movement brought together by the state’s private-public partnership helped to change the culture in Tennessee, and leaders know what and how to make changes at the community level in policies and philosophy based on ACEs science. There was also a report about a program to incubate resilient communities. Community leader Becky Haas reported that since 2014, there has been a lot of work done in Tennessee, including the Building Strong Brains program, and that she, in partnership with Johns Hopkins University, has completed a toolkit on how to take trauma-informed practices and principles into the community.
Texas — Carey Sipp reported on Texas, saying there is a lot of interest in Central Texas in getting communities established, but a singular leader or group of several leaders is not emerging for the statewide group. There was statewide group leadership following Hurricane Harvey. We are working to reactivate that group and introduce them to new contacts who are interested in training more people about ACEs science and making the Community Resiliency Model widely available.
West Virginia — Tricia Kingery, ACEs Coalition of West Virginia Coordinator and Executive Director of WV KIDS COUNT reported that the ACEs Coalition of West Virginia is 425 members strong, and that many of the child-serving professionals meet every other month to discuss active campaigns on building awareness for ACEs science and to plan ACEs 101 trainings. The group partners with Prevent Child Abuse Iowa to use Connections Matter Trainings. She also noted that former co-chair for the West Virginia initiative, Kathy Szfran, is now working to reform the foster care system in West Virginia and that there is work being done to establish a state-wide advisory board that would be a 501(c)3 that could find funding to help support the work.
Carey Sipp 11/11/197:03 PM
Carey Sipp 