Candice Valenzuela, whose 2022 podcast was among the most popular episodes last year, joins hosts Ingrid Cockhren, PACEs Connection CEO, and Mathew Portell, director of education and outreach, this Thursday at 1 p.m. PDT; 4 p.m. ET, to discuss the importance of healing intergenerational trauma.
“How can parents ensure that generational issues do not continue to impact future generations?” is one of the questions to be addressed in this live episode.
“This topic is especially important for parents who have a background of historical trauma, including slavery, and genocide,” said Cockhren.
Valenzuela’s last episode focused on self-care and minority mental health, and addressed how, according to Cockhren, “Self-care has become a buzzword when discussing solutions to the mental health crisis in BIPOC communities.”
Valenzuela, who describes herself as a “parent, a pet owner, a friend, a survivor, a geek, and a nature lover,” says, “I have learned that no professional titles will ever reflect all of who I am or my worth. I strive to be human before I strive to be a worker. I identify as Black, Indigenous, Queer and working-class allied.
“Professionally, I have been working at the crossroads of education, justice and community healing for 16 years. I have extensive experience in mindfulness, trauma informed care, anti-oppressive practices, cultural competency, liberatory education and youth empowerment,” she adds.
Valenzeula holds a bachelor’s degree in humanities, an master’s degree in East-West psychology, a masters’ degree in counseling psychology, and a 200-hour certificate in mindful yoga through the Niroga Institute.
How traumatizing is it when something that is supposed to be a support ends up evoking trauma?
Tune into this Thursday’s History. Culture. Trauma. podcast at 1 p.m. PT; 4 p.m., ET, when guest Janyne McConnaughey, PhD, will talk with hosts Ingrid Cockhren, CEO of PACEs Connection, and Mathew Portell about how shame and blame theology, and the stigmatization of mental health supports, can inflict trauma.
“A supportive community can serve as a primary catalyst for healing individual and collective trauma,” said Portell, PACEs Connection director of communities. He grew up as the son of a minister, and has talked with McConnaughey about their mutual experiences in the church.
McConnaughey will discuss her latest book, “Trauma in the Pews: The Impact on Faith and Spiritual Practices”, and her extensive work as a trauma-informed author and speaker. The book draws on her 33-year career training teachers and ministry workers at colleges and universities, as well as her life-long involvement in church ministry.
McConnaughey began her healing from the impact of her childhood trauma at the age of 61. Realizing that healing was possible for survivors, she’s written two other books describing the effects of childhood trauma and the paths to healing that changed her life.
McConnaughey holds a PhD in educational leadership and innovation from Colorado State University–Denver and currently serves as president of the board of directors for the Attachment & Trauma Network (ATN).
She is also a distinguished visiting professor at Tabor College. She and her husband live with their rescue dog, Weber, south of Seattle, where they enjoy exploring the Pacific Northwest and spending time with their children and grandchildren.
“How to Handle with Care”, a new book by author Wendy Samford, PhD, is step-by-step instruction manual to create — in your community — a best practice that can help end the racially-motivated school-to-prison pipeline one child at a time, and quickly!
How?
By addressing the trauma of each child individually, with a cross-sector approach to supporting hurting children that has law enforcement working with educators all across the United States. (www.handlewithcarewv.org)
Simply put, if law enforcement comes into contact with a child in the course of duty, the name of the child and the words “Handle With Care” will be sent to the child’s school.
This simple message lets trauma-informed school personnel know that something happened to that child and to treat them with kindness.
“If additional services are needed for the child, the family is then informed and bridges are built from law enforcement to schools, and schools to community service agencies,” said Samford.
If administrators, faculty, and staff in the school know a child has had a hard night, they can help protect the child from added stresses the next day. For example, instead of having a child who was up in the middle of the night take a test, give an oral book report, or run the risk of acting out emotionally and getting in trouble for it, the child can be led to a quiet corner to rest.
Samford’s fast-read guide will show communities starved for ways to stop systemic trauma in education and juvenile law exactly what to do. Best of all, it’s in a book you can read in an afternoon, and follow step-by-step.
Already across the country, there are at least five states that are actively using the program, and it is in development in many more states and counties, and there is active interest in the program in almost every state.
For the full report, find the book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or any major book retailer.
For more information about the book, please contact Wendy Samford at www.wsamford.com
For more information about the Handle With Care program, contact Andrea Darr at adarr@jbsinternational.com.
Former PACEs Connection employees Dana Brown (L) with Vincent Felitti, MD, co-author of the 1998 Adverse Childhood Experiences study, and Carey Sipp (R) in San Diego in January, 2024.
The last few months have been quite challenging, but we pushed, persevered, and didn’t give up hope.
The “we” is Carey Sipp and Dana Brown. We were long-time staff members of PACEs Connection determined to reinstate the website and the resources and information we provide to communities after the platform went dormant in April when our funding stream dried up.
We both vowed to do whatever we could to keep PACEsConnection.com from slipping away because imparting information about the lifelong effects of positive and adverse childhood experiences and ways to promote nurturing conditions for children, families, and communities is too important to leave to chance. So over the last six months, we’ve spent countless hours working to keep the site and the organization alive.
With encouragement and support from two key organizations—National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives (NPSC) and PACEs Connection’s former fiscal sponsor, Third Sector New England (TSNE)—as well as from many individual supporters—PACEs Connection’s doors are again open!
Our new mission-aligned home!
“We understood the importance of PACEs Connection to have a nonprofit organizational home with similar goals under which it could operate and bring in funding to continue its work,” Diana Fishbein tells us. Dr. Fishbein is founder and co-director of NPSC.
“NPSC and PACEs Connection had worked well together on several projects over the last couple of years, so having PACEs Connection become a division of NPSC made perfect sense,” Dr. Fishbein added.
(Graphic is an example of our work together on the 2022 webinar series on Building a National Movement to Prevent Trauma and Foster Resilience. To access invaluable resources from the series, click here!)
As its website shows, NPSC is “a professional organization dedicated to translating scientific knowledge from the field of prevention science into effective and sustainable practices, systems and policies.”
Among the 70+ organizations affiliated with NPSC is the Campaign on Trauma Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP), with which PACEs Connection has partnered for several years to advance the trauma-informed movement.
“We are thrilled that Jesse Kohler, who sits on the NPSC board and is executive director of CTIPP, will be the board liaison with PACEs Connection,” Dr. Fishbein adds.
We are happy and grateful to continue the work with CTIPP and Jesse Kohler, too!
We welcome back our 60,900 members engaged in the important work to prevent ACEs and promote health and wellbeing!
Amidst the celebration of being back, we must also share this reality: We’re not out of the woods yet.
Our previous fiscal sponsor (TSNE) is kind enough to keep the social networking platform that drives PACEsConnection.com running until November 11. By November 5 (allowing time to process funds), we’ll need nearly $15K for PACEs Connection to stay afloat until March 31, 2025.
We’ve already heard from prior donors that they are ready to support the cause but we need more. The donor button is accessible here!Know, too, that your donation is tax deductible, as NPSC is a federally-recognized 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization.
Also, several content contributors we’ve alerted are planning and preparing posts to gin up support for PACEs
Dr. Lori Dorfman, director of the Berkeley Media Studies Group, a project of the Public Health Institute, was delighted to hear news of PACEs Connection’s revitalization, and is eager to see the network continue to grow and thrive.
“BMSG has conducted research on media portrayals of ACEs science for many years. BMSG found that the number of (ACEs) stories increased dramatically after 2012 – the year science journalist Jane Stevens founded the social network comprising ACEs Too High and ACEs Connection – especially in local and regional news outlets, even though the number of stories was low compared to other topics, particularly considering how impactful ACEs are,” said Dr. Dorfman.
As we think about new blog posts and resources to add to our Resource Center, the research on media coverage and subsequent studies are on the list to help show how important news coverage is to expanding awareness of the science.
Every blog post our members share on social media helps build awareness of the need to prevent and heal trauma; to foster resilience.
Support, patience, and some of what’s ahead!
You can support PACEs Connection today by making an online donationhere, or mailing a check made out to the National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives – with “PACEs Connection” on the memo line – in care of Dana Brown, 4364 Bonita Road, PMB322, Bonita, CA 91902. To make a wire transfer or other type of gift, please email Carey Sipp at carey.pacescommunities@gmail.com to receive NPSC’s wire transfer or other electronic funds transfer information. No amount is too small!
We ask you to be patient with us as we update our social networking site. There are broken links and scores of communities with new leadership. We’ve also been working on a business and sustainable funding plan so we can overhaul the site, be paid for our efforts, and hire staff as needed.
We are determined to continue to raise awareness of the impacts of adverse and positive childhood experiences. The benefits of preventing trauma and increasing positive experiences must be considered in all of our decision making, especially by parents, educators, child-serving entities, and policymakers. All organizations, including those in healthcare, business, education, childcare, and all levels of government, need to be aware of the causes and effects of trauma and well-tested approaches to prevent it.
Dr. Fishbein agrees: “We are excited about the opportunity afforded us to play a role in keeping this vitally important social network—the primary source of news and connection in the trauma prevention community—online and leveraged to further the movement to prevent trauma and build resilience.”
For more information aboutthe origins ofPACEs Connection and the history of the relationship between Vincent Felitti, MD, co-author of the 1998 Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, and Jane Stevens, founder of PACEs Connection, please clickhereor visit ourHistory of PACEs Connection.
A movement to motivate the incoming administration to proclaim the next 10 years as the DECADE OF THE CHILD is being led and launched by the National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives, (NPSC) with support from PACEs Connection and a growing list of research, public, behavioral, and mental health-oriented organizations, as well as nonprofits supporting child advocacy, policy, and social justice.
“Our nation is failing its children. Despite our economic power, millions of children in the United States face grim realities. We need an unprecedented mobilization—a comprehensive, coordinated strategy to prioritize the health and well-being of every child in America, said Diana Fishbein, PhD, founder, president, and co-director of NPSC, in announcing news of the movement.
“We will seek congressional support for both policy change and dollars to be allocated to the National Institute for Health (NIH) for whole child health and wellbeing research, and are launching the movement to unite people, organizations, and agencies to mobilize an unprecedented national movement. We are working to end the deficiencies and disparities in child health and wellbeing, and envision future generations of happy, healthy, and productive children and adults” said Fishbein.
A general description of the initiative can be found on the NPSC website. NPSC intends to invoke the same process used to proclaim the Decade of the Brain in the 1990s.
“We would like to be able to document widespread support for creating this movement. Your organizational and individual endorsement could make a critical difference. Our list of supportive organizations, foundations, societies, and individuals is rapidly growing, which is a heartening sign. We would love to see as many of the almost 61,000 individual members of PACEs Connection sign on as possible,” said Fishbein.
“Our hope is that you will indicate your individual support and possibly also that of your organization for the Decade of the Child on our website. We are not asking for money; we just want to marshal the power of organizations, institutions, foundations, communities, and individuals to spread the word about the value of this initiative, so please repost this PACEs Connection story using the social media icons below the post” Fishbein said.
Organizations may also customize a request for individual members to endorse the movement by using materials on the NPSC site. They may also send out a more generic request if desired.
“It is past time for the ‘Decade of the Child’ as too many of our children are suffering. We need all people concerned about the health and wellbeing of our nation’s children to be involved in bringing others on board to help,” said Fishbein.
Organizational endorsements will be updated frequently on the NPSC website. They are, as of October 23, 2024
Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE)
Applied Prevention Science International
Integrated Care for Kids/InCK Marks Network
HEDCO Institute for Evidence-Based Educational Practice
Association for Positive Behavior Support (APBS)
itotheN | Intergenerational Impact
Positive Childhood Alliance North Carolina
Institute for Research and Development “Utrip”
Partnership to End Addiction
Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development
Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy & Practice
Center for Whole Health Learning in K-12
Association For Behavior Analysis International
Nova Institute for Health
Global Alliance for Behavioral Health & Social Justice
REGISTER now and plan to join us Friday, January 10, 2025 from 2:00-3:00pm CTResearch on investing in early childhood development shows it to be the most influential, productive, and cost-effective strategy for establishing children on a path to strong self-regulation, well-developed executive function, and lasting resilience that will improve, in countless ways, their lives across the lifespan.”The first three years of development, and especially the first two or three months, are incredibly important for secure attachment and neurodevelopment,” said Bill Barberg, co-creator and lead organizer of a series of webinars on creating a Neuro-Nurturing® Ecosystem in your community.Barberg’s Population Health Learning Collaborative, with initial partners Deborah McNelis of Brain Insights and Carey Sipp of PACEs Connection, is teaming up with a growing coalition to simplify, accelerate, and support the journey of creatingNeuro-Nurturing® Ecosystems to help communities establish lasting connection and ongoing supports for pregnant women and new mothers, caregivers, and families with newborns.The growing number of organizations supporting the webinar series currently includes:NPSC – The National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve LivesPACEs ConnectionCTIPP – The Campaign on Trauma-Informed Policy and PracticeCAHMI – The Child and Adolescent Health Measurement InitiativeDecade of the Child – a national research and policy agenda focused on whole child health and wellbeing.REGISTER now and plan to join us Friday, January 10, 2025 from 2:00-3:00pm CT*This briefing will be recorded and sent to all registrants.Register now to learn ways to co-create and implement powerful upstream strategies to improve the education, health, wealth, and health equity of your community. “We’re presenting a long-term strategy that can be done with many small steps by different organizations, with many of wins along the way,” said Barberg.”Our goal in this series of webinars is to share plans and resources so communities can build on the work of neurodevelopment experts, advocates, and leaders in practices and policies with regard to infants, child welfare, and families. We will help community leaders to take advantage of resources that you can add to this this high-impact approach to improve equity and positive early development outcomes,” Barberg explained.To support this effort to raise awareness of the importance of early relational health, and to learn ways to support early relational and optimal neurodevelopment in your community, please register now, and then please share information about the webinar with your colleagues.Plan to spend an hour on January 10th (or whenever you have time to watch the recording) to learn more about creating a Neuro-Nurturing® Ecosystem in your community.Building community and corporate support can improve the lives of new parents and caregivers, help their infants — your newest citizens — benefit from optimal early brain development, which pays health, mental and emotional health, and other dividends across the lifespan.Barberg says he expects most communities learning about the ecosystem will focus on building awareness and buy-in for the strategy during 2025 so they can be positioned for accelerating and expanding their positive impact with actual programs and events in 2026 and beyond.”The most critically important action we can take for pregnant and new parents and their precious newborns is to learn and share this information in hopes of reducing stress in the lives of new parents, increasing their ability to nurture and create the most brain-healthy start possible for their new baby. Starting this program, creating ways to track impact and scale it, will have terrific lasting impact for infants, parents, educators, and all who’re dedicated to supporting the best outcomes possible,” said Barberg.Here are three social media posts to help you spread the word:LinkedIn PostFacebook PostInstagram Post
This webinar is the first in a series of several webinars that will feature respected experts in early childhood development. Presenters (and collaborators) for the series will include:Christina Bethell, Ph.D., Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Founding Director of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative.Diana (“Denni”) Fishbein, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Franklin Porter Graham Child Development Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill, President & Co-Director of the National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives.George Halvorson, Chair and CEO of the Institute for InterGroup Understanding; former CEO of six different health care delivery and financing organizations in the U.S. including Kaiser Permenente, where he served as chairman and CEO for more than 10 years. Author and child advocate.Deborah McNelis, M.Ed, early brain development expert, creator of the Neuro-Nurturing® model, author of “The First 60 Days” and the Neuro-Nurturing® series of developmentally appropriate ringed activity books loved and in use worldwide.And many more.Register for this first webinar and you’ll be invited to the subsequent ones in the series.
Full disclosure: In case there are questions as to why I’m posting this personal post and then subsequent blog posts from an organization called CHC: Creating Healthier Communities (CHC) and its CEO and president, Jean Accius, PhD., please allow me to explain.
(Fellow volunteers Dana Brown, Rafael Maravilla, and me on a recent Zoom call about revitalizing PACEs Connection.)
In addition to my volunteer role with PACEs Connection alongside fellow volunteers Dana Brown and Rafael Maravilla, I recently accepted a full-time role with Creating Healthier Communities (CHCImpact.org) as the director of nonprofit partnerships.
CHC leadership knows of my volunteer role in revitalizing PACEs Connection. I work Monday – Thursday for CHC; Fridays and some weekends and evenings I’m often in meetings or working with Dana and Rafael on PACEs Connection.
CHC, a nearly 70-year-old organization, helps nonprofits achieve their missions by bringing communities, nonprofits, and businesses together, with the goal of improving the health and wellbeing of every person in every community through collaboration for scalable, sustainable solutions that drive real, lasting change.
(Sound familiar? It reminds me of our hopes for the PACEs Connection cross-sector communities when the organization was founded in 2012, and now, as Dana Brown, Rafael Maravilla, and I work to revitalize it. Just sayin’.)
More about CHC: Creating Healthier Communities
CHC helped found the workplace-giving campaign for federal employees — the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) — in 1961, and since then has helped raise more than $8.6 billion through the CFC.
We also manage workplace giving campaigns for scores of states across the U.S. and for several hundred corporations.
CHC distributes funds and resources to some 5,000 nonprofits each year, and officially partners with 1,400 state, local, and chapter nonprofit organizations to help them maximize the funds they receive from annual workplace giving campaigns. We leverage seasoned support to help many of the world’s leading nonprofits steward donors (when donors allow contact), maximize positive exposure, and take advantage of volunteering, speaking, and tabling opportunities when possible.
With a focus on health equity, CHC also secures and manages grants for various community-based campaigns such as our Black Birthing Initiative, and another focused on preventing cervical and breast cancer in minorities.
Why does this matter? What’s the connection?
I share this information because it was always a dream at PACEs Connection to help resilient communities secure funds, become sustainable, and grow. We did help some communities achieve those objectives, but we didn’t do it to scale as hoped. The work ground down after layoffs in 2023 and to a halt when PACEs Connection was sunset by its fiscal sponsor in April 2024. Since then, Dana Brown and I have secured a new fiscal sponsor (more on that here, with gratitude to our new fiscal sponsor, National Prevention Science Coalition), and we are committed to moving forward. Supporting PACEs Connection resilient communities is one of our objectives.
Today I am hoping some of you are with resiliency task forces that have grown, have become 501(c)(3) organizations, and would like to know more about how to become a nonprofit partner with CHC, as this could be a way to help some of our communities raise awareness, and raise funds.
If you’re part of a resiliency task force that is a 501(c)(3) organization, I encourage you to explore a partnership with CHC. This could be an easy and low-cost way (there are application fees after the first year; the first year is free) to raise awareness and funds for your community efforts.
Equally as important?
We hope to raise awareness among CHC’s member organizations about the importance of leveraging PACEs science to address overarching challenges, while at the same time creating science-based solutions. PACEs Connection stands ready to continue as a nexus for shared information and opportunities for healthier communities.That has always been a big part of our why.
Opportunities for nonprofit members of PACEs Connection
Here is a link to the CHC website to begin the application process. (Note: final application happens in the third quarter of each year, just prior to the launch of workplace giving campaigns.)
Organizational requirements for partnership include an IRS 990 designation and form; 501(c)(3) status; and a board-approved non-discrimination policy.
Many states and campaigns require an organization to also have a current audit. Please note: this is a “long-game” strategy, as to be included in the 2026 workplace-giving campaigns for funds likely distributed in 2027, organizations must apply in August and September 2025. So again, this is not a quick fix. But one thing is certain: organizations that don’t apply won’t receive funds. So it is worth the time and the free enrollment the first year to see if your organization and its mission resonate with workplace donors.
Too, when donors choose to share their contact information, nonprofits have the opportunity to grow relationships and steward new donors. Fees are based on the number of state campaigns an organization goes into and on the funds raised. My CHC colleague Shelby Speth and I will be happy to talk with you about this. Please email me at csipp@chcimpact.org to set up an appointment.
Introducing Jean Accius, PhD, President and CEO of CHC
It is with these thoughts in mind that I share information about the opportunity for working with CHC, and that I will begin sharing blog posts by CHC CEO and president Jean Accius, PhD.
We are all working toward the same objective: creating healthier communities.
Jean is a thought leader on social determinants of health, public health, health equity, aging, and more. He is a frequent speaker at leading health-related think tanks and on podcasts and webinars. I will post his blogs as well as fact-based information pieces from the CHC website. Among recent posts of interest to nonprofit organizations are:
Coming full circle with CHC — There is a bit of a history!
Again, our hope at PACEs Connection was always to help our cross-sector communities grow — in the number of communities started, the number of members each community engaged, and in the connections that could support the communities in various ways with funding, braided services to prevent and heal trauma, and to promote positive childhood and community experiences, by providing educational opportunities with speakers, webinars, and more.
Our hope endured even as PACEs Connection faced funding challenges and was sunset in 2024. We are here to keep the PACEs science movement alive, and to encourage the growth of our existing interest- and geographic-based communities (more than 450 and counting).
If you have any questions about this, please know my motives are purely to lift up the nonprofit organizations whose members belong to PACEs Connection, and to introduce them to an organization that could help them raise funds through workplace giving, as is the case with many of the nation’s leading nonprofits that work with CHC already, including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, The March of Dimes, The Children’s National Hospital Foundation, Doctors Without Borders, and the Alzheimer’s Association.
One quick historical aside: Ironically, several years ago PACEs leadership approached CHC about working together. Apparently, the timing wasn’t right then. My hope is that the stars are aligned now for a terrific partnership with CHC, and with other organizations that can become strategic allies with PACEs Connection. We believe CHC can be a terrific partner as we help PACEs Connection nonprofit members grow and thrive in our work to prevent and heal trauma, and to build healthier communities by emphasizing the preventive and protective value of positive childhood, community, and workplace experiences.
Again, to learn more about partnering with CHC to raise funds via workplace giving campaigns, please email me at csipp@chcimpact.org.
For PACEs Connection-related matters, Dana Brown and I are available at
Please join top researchers and leaders in the movement to create Neuro Nurturing Ecosystems in support of maternal, infant, family and community health TODAY, March 14th, for an information-packed webinar co-sponsored, in part, by PACEs Connection and its fiscal sponsor, the National Prevention Science Coalition.REGISTER now to attend this free webinar, the second in a series that has received scores of five-star reviews.National leaders in early relational health, health equity, and more will share on the importance of Neuro-Nurturing infants to support positive pathways to health and wellbeing and preventing and healing trauma. We will also hear the latest on the Black Birthing Initiative led by Creating Healthier Communities (CHCImpact.org)This webinar shares valuable information on practical strategies for community coalitions to be part of a national (and international) movement that can influence the health and wellbeing of a population of healthier babies across the lifespan.Click to below to learn more about the expert presenters and webinar details.
Compelling research indicates that improvements in infant neurodevelopment and Early Relational Health (ERH) could reduce the need for massive amounts of future spending on healthcare, mental health services, and programs related to poverty or crime.
“Everyone wins when infants are nurtured in the environments and with connections that help them develop self-regulation, executive function, and the precursors to literacy and more advanced learning,”said Bill Barberg, longtime international public health consultant and lead coordinator of the series.“This webinar will share insights from top researchers and strategists about practical actions we can take to help individuals, neighborhoods, and communities adopt a wide range of Neuro-Nurturing practices and supports. “Now is the time to put the science we’ve learned into practice at the scale we need to improve the wellbeing of today’s infants and the future’s adults,” said Barberg.”Communities supporting pregnant women and new parents and caregivers in these natural, loving practices can help create entire populations of babies whose brains are nurtured for optimal health and development across the lifespan,” Barberg added.
Friday, March 14th, 2025 | 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM Eastern TimeREGISTER*This briefing will be recorded and sent to all registrants.**While it is not necessary to view the first webinar in the series to get the value from this second webinar, we encourage you toview the recording from January 10th.
Good news for the moment: your PACEs Connection social networking site is safe for another three months, through June, 2025, thanks to the generosity of a foundation that recently gifted PACEs Connection – via our fiscal sponsor, the National Prevention Science Coalition (NPSC) – with $10,000.
This covers for one quarter our largest expense – the fee for the learning management system (LMS) on which the social network lives.
Some of you may have noticed that on on March 6, service for PACEs Connection was interrupted by a glitch with our domain name services (DNS) provider, GoDaddy. There was a mixup on login and due date information during the asset transfer from our previous fiscal sponsor, TSNE, to our current fiscal sponsor, NPSC.
Fortunately, our learning management system, Crowdstack, provided a workaround uniform resource locator (URL) or web address, which is https://www.pacesconnection.com
You may still reach the site via our regular web address of pacesconnection.com.
In the meantime, our business plan is complete and has been well received.
The site is safe again until July 1, 2025, when the next payment of $9,534 is due. Starting this week (March 24, 2025), we are circulating the plan and looking for donors and corporate sponsorship. If you have suggestions, connections, or recommendations, please let us know!
How you can help.
Each time there has been a funding deadline, with help from you, our members, we’ve been able to nurture PACEs Connection forward and protect its valuable assets. This includes raising about $15,000 last November for a Crowdstack payment, and another $2,500 to pay for the Resources Center and its separate platform, LibGuides.
If you’ve made a donation during this challenging time, we are grateful to you. If you’ve not yet decided to make a monthly gift, or to make a one-time gift, we welcome your support now.
You are the most valuable part of PACEs Connection. We’d love the benefit of your thoughts via our PACEs Connection Members’ Survey
We hope you’ll make a donation and share information. Finding out how to make PACEs Connection more valuable to you and for you will help us engage more of our members in investing in the work of catalyzing, convening, connecting, and keeping alive the happenings and history of you, our members, and our movement.
To that end, we want to know what you want. Please share with us what you believe would help keep this movement moving forward, what’s important to you, what you would like to see more of, what you’d like for us to add to, and what you’re willing to invest on a monthly basis to help keep the work of PACEs Connection going.
Please invest about five minutes now to complete this brief survey, which gives you an opportunity to share ideas about how we could generate income. Here’s the link again: PACEs Connection Members’ Survey.
By this time next year, we’re hoping to have achieved sustainability.
Your gifts of time and treasure will help ensure you can still rely on PACEs Connection for updates, ways to connect with others doing the work in more than 500 geographic and topical communities, and our vast Resource Center.
If you’ve not visited the resource center, please check it out. It’s filled with decades of research on positive and adverse childhood experiences, the impact of positive childhood experiences (PCEs) and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and ways of preventing and healing ACEs; ways of promoting and amplifying PCEs.
With tremendous gratitude, Carey Sipp and Dana Brown
Can a 10-minute-old-baby actually learn something?
Can such a new and tiny being figure out “I’m like you and you’re like me?”
Beatrice Beebe, PhD, Columbia University and New York State Psychological Institute psychologist, shares research showing that babies can imitate expressions at 10-minutes-old!
“Early infancy is a critical developmental period,” says Dr. Beebe.
We’ll be sharing more of her video and wisdom in our Neuro-Nuturing: Advancing Powerful Strategies for Lifelong Health and Black Birthing and Decade of the Child Initiatives webinar this Thursday!
Join us May 22 from Noon – 12:30 p.m. ET for this free CHC: Creating Healthier Communities CHC University webinar featuring internationally-recognized subject-matter experts in early relational health.
🌎 How important is this information to the health of your organization? Your community? Our nation? The world?
🧠 How can learning more about how a baby’s brain develops help you and your team create healthier communities?
💕 Join us and learn how and why early relational health is the foundation of emotional, mental, and physical health and wellbeing — for improved lifelong health and wellbeing — and how an infant’s experiences literally shape the architecture of his or her brain for future trust, curiosity, ability to connect and relate, or, conversely, be more likely to experience fear, mistrust, and isolation.
We’ll also explore strategies for your organization, faith community, health care system, child- and family-serving organization to create and leverage “Neuro-Nurturing Ecosystems”, and engage more fathers in the birthing journey and early relational health.
“This webinar emphasizes proactive Neuro-Nurturing as a vital intervention for infant neurodevelopment and early relational health,” said Deborah McNelis, M.Ed., author of “The First 60 Days: The Most Influential Days of Infant Brain Development”, who will highlight how early experiences shape lifelong health. Curated videos by Beatrice Beebe, PhD, Psychologist at Columbia University Department of Psychiatry and New York State Psychiatric Institute, will be shared — including one of a 10-minute old infant already mimicking his father — demonstrating the the importance of parent-infant attunement.
In a proven example of scaling successful strategies for maternal and child health, Demetrius Geiger, MPH, program manager for CHC: Creating Healthier Communities (CHC), will share about the impact of CHC’s Black Birthing Initiative.
Christina Bethell, Ph.D., MBA, MPH, the Director of the Child & Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI) and public health professor at Johns Hopkins University will share frameworks and tools such as the Well Visit Planner, that show how to integrate Neuro-Nurturing and Whole Child Health Policy into healthcare systems across a state.
Bill Barberg, population health and system change expert, will share valuable approaches to implementing pragmatic, collaborative strategies for achieving positive impact at a community scale, highlighting strategies for engaging fathers in Neuro-Nurturing. Barberg is also founder of the Population Health Learning Collaborative.
Joshua Liston Zawadi,founder of Dad Doula University, will share his approach for engaging fathers in the birthing journey and in supporting early childhood development.
The webinar will be moderated by Carey Sipp, webinar convener, director of nonprofit partnerships for CHC: Creating Healthier Communities, and volunteer director of strategic partnerships for PACEs Connection.
“This webinar promises to engage participants with expert insights and actionable strategies. We are thrilled to have assembled these nationally recognized leaders dedicated to early relational health, systems change, and child and parent advocacy for this event,” said Sipp.
Carey Sipp 10/17/233:27 PM
Valenzuela’s last episode focused on self-care and minority mental health, and addressed how, according to Cockhren, “Self-care has become a buzzword when discussing solutions to the mental health crisis in BIPOC communities.”
Already across the country, there are at least five states that are actively using the program, and it is in development in many more states and counties, and there is active interest in the program in almost every state.
CHC, a nearly 70-year-old organization, helps nonprofits achieve their missions by bringing communities, nonprofits, and businesses together, with the goal of improving the health and wellbeing of every person in every community through collaboration for scalable, sustainable solutions that drive real, lasting change.
