RURAL ACES SUMMIT

A Systems Approach to Addressing Trauma Through Healing and Resiliency in Edgecombe County

DESCRIPTION An opportunity to learn and share tools related to community impact analysis and co-occurring trauma at the individual, community, and systems levels. Participants will engage in interactive dialogue on how to identify, target and address the above mentioned factors at the individual, institutional and systems levels. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Understand context of place and how this contributes to trauma and resilience within communities

Creating an ACEs Prevention Strategic Framework-Focusing Collaborative Efforts for System Change

DESCRIPTION Addressing ACEs requires extensive community collaboration with diverse partners, including elected officials, organizational leaders, and community members. Creating prevention and mitigation strategies across all ten ACEs can be overwhelming, disjointed and often ineffective. In this workshop, based on the Self-Healing Communities model developed by Dr. Robert Anda and Laura Porter, you will learn about an ACEs Prevention Strategic Framework process that synergized collaborative efforts for the multi-county regional Northern ACEs Collaborative. In review of the framework, we will highlight strategies in four Focus Areas: Leadership Expansion, Common Messaging, Capacity Building, and Measuring Results and Outcomes. Strategic Frameworks help collaboratives achieve sustainable, system approaches for success in the prevention and mitigation of Adverse Childhood Experiences. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• The importance of creating a Strategic Framework for ACEs Prevention Collaboratives

End the Silence, Youth Mental Health and Suicide - A Collaborative Case Study

DESCRIPTION We will present a case study of the collaborative and innovative response to the identified youth mental health crisis in our community through the lens of the Self-Healing Communities Model. This will include the following phases: Phase 1 – coming together – the organic crisis response Phase 2 – what is actually happening? Youth Focus Groups Phase 3 – summit planning pivot – planning based on youth focus groups outcome Phase 4 – End the Silence, Youth Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Summit Phase 5 – Summit outcomes, new projects and initiatives and evaluation strategy In this session, participants will have the opportunity to hear about the youth driven approach used to better understand the impact of stress, anxiety and depression on young people. This collaborative process includes youth led focus groups, educational suicide prevention campaigns, video diaries, the End of Silence Youth Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Summit, initiative branding, and the creation of the CARE Team – activated to respond to three levels of suicide concern LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Participants will increase their understanding on how to infuse youth development principles into the initiatives that are aimed to serve young people

Engaging Attendance

DESCRIPTION Chronic school absenteeism affects thousands of children every year and has a negative impact on learning and future social, emotional, and health outcomes. Issues surrounding chronic absenteeism does not start in the public school system but in the early learning and care systems. Engaging Attendance looks at how an early learning and care agency uses ACEs as a predictor for chronic absenteeism in a preschool setting and how they have built a systemic wide strategy to reduce chronic absenteeism through intervention and prevention services. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Thinking of attendance as a paradigm shift

Engaging the Community to Prioritize the Wellbeing of Children and Families

DESCRIPTION Through a local tax measure passed in 2016, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors approved ongoing funding for an ACEs Collaborative Partnership between First 5 Humboldt and the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services. This workshop will explore the process of engaging local policymakers, community organizations, and those who reside in Humboldt County to prioritize the mental, physical, and emotional health of children by allocating funds to support First 5 Humboldt’s ACEs prevention/resilience promotion work, and awarding annual mini-grants to community programs and activities aiming to prevent ACEs and promote resilience. The workshop will highlight a panel of representative who have developed or participated in programs through this funding, sharing their strategies, successes, challenges, and impact. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Correlations between Adverse Childhood Experiences and public health outcomes

Historical Trauma Through an Indigenous Lens

DESCRIPTION Journey with us through history to learn about Manifest Destiny and the impact it had on our nation and on the neurobiology of our indigenous people. Explore methods of mitigating and healing this generational trauma. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• The historical trauma that took place in our nation, the impact it had on our indigenous peoples and acquire actionable tools to help mitigate and heal.

How to Create and Maintain a Trauma-Informed Community School - the R.I.S.E. Academy Story

DESCRIPTION This workshop will consider The Restoring Individual Success in Education (R.I.S.E.) story! Our name is our mission! During this pandemic, we have concerning escalations in anxiety, depression, thoughts of suicide and overdose and we simply don’t have all the mental and behavioral health professionals we need to meet his crisis. How do schools move forward with this reality? We will review the essential elements of what a trauma-informed program looks/feels/sounds like for youth. Finally, we will have an honest conversation around personnel, culture, and school climate because there is no “magic bullet” that will solve a youth’s challenges without first dealing with systemic barriers. Youth mental health challenges and behavioral issues are on the RISE. What is your plan? LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• How trauma is linked to mental health, substance use and crises such as overdose and suicide

Making Prevention the Norm

DESCRIPTION Learn how Early Childhood Education can be a tool to prevention of ACES and child abuse and neglect. We will review how early childhood education can be an essential part of helping provide families with the tools they need to raise healthy, vibrant children as well as share how California County Prevention planning teams are leveraging early education initiatives in child abuse prevention. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Learn how ACES affect early development

Moving Toward Trauma Informed Services and Care in Trinity County: A Three-Pronged Approach

DESCRIPTION Becoming ACEs Aware – The Role of Provider Engagement in Building and ACEs Aware Community Domestic Violence Intervention and ACEs Communities of Practice in Rural Communities A 15-minute presentation on the utilization of the ACEs Aware Provider Engagement Grant by Trinity County Public Health Branch (TCPHB). This presentation will outline the approach taken to engage the medical community in Trinity County around Adverse Childhood Experiences, as well as discuss the barriers that were encountered in the process and the solutions utilized to build an ACEs Aware provider community. Interventions with domestic violence victims can be extremely difficult in a frontier county. It is important to realize how ACEs contributes to their victimizations. If you sometimes find it frustrating and challenging working with victims, this section will explain how an agency in a frontier county has provided services for 41 years and are incorporating ACEs into their services. Communities of Practice are becoming a more commonly used structure to facilitate learning, because they leverage existing expertise, build leadership, and offer a more systemic and sustainable way of building and spreading knowledge and skills.  This session will share the strengths-based work of a collaborative group in Trinity County who focused on spreading the knowledge of ACEs to improve outcomes for their community. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Rural County approaches to building an ACEs Aware provider community

Shasta ACEs Resilience and Hope Fund-Supporting Community Efforts

DESCRIPTION Funding for addressing and mitigating ACEs in a rural community can be challenging. In 2019 Shasta County, Public Health, First 5 Shasta and the Community Foundation of the North State partnered to create an ACEs Resilience and Hope Fund. This fund supports local organizations and advocates in implementing innovative approaches to addressing ACEs, promoting resiliency and fostering hope across the county. Learn from the Foundation’s Chief Executive Officer, Kerry Caranci, who from the beginning embraced the concept of this fund and gained board support for this initiative. Megan Conn, Foundation’s Program Officer, will explain the Foundation’s processes to solicit, review and award the annual grant funds, in alignment with the ACEs Aware Roadmap. First 5 Shasta Executive Director Wendy Dickens will explain how she incorporated ACEs into her agency’s strategic plan, and garnered financial support from her board for this effort. And Charlene Ramont from Public Health will share how this community ACEs funding helps address the primary prevention of ACEs to break generational cycles. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• How to align grantmaking opportunities with CA Surgeon General’s Roadmap for Resilience

Supporting Indigenous Families that are Impacted by Substance Use Disorder

DESCRIPTION First 5 Humboldt was awarded the Road to Resilience grant by the Office of Child Abuse Prevention in 2019, that aimed to connect local Tribal families impacted by Substance Use Disorder, with Perinatal Health Navigation Services. This presentation will examine how the grant has been executed, the services that are being provided to families, as well as touch on experiences Navigators have encountered in working with families and what sorts of barriers families are most often impacted by. There will also be a discussion around the specific challenges our local Tribal families face, how these challenges are impacted by Humboldt County’s history and rural setting, and how the Road to Resilience Program has strategized in order to support families in meeting those challenges. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Barriers and ACEs related information specific to the local Tribal Community in Humboldt County

The Cradle to Career Collective Impact Model - ACEs Connection

DESCRIPTION ACEs are a complex problem with multiple stakeholders and high stakes. To truly address ACEs we will have to create communities where ACEs are less likely to happen, and - when they do - there are systems in place to support positive outcomes. Solutions will require thoughtful input from all sectors and all voices, as well as a coordinated, documented, human-centered approach. Shasta College, a community college in far northern rural California, acts as the backbone organization for cradle to career regional collective impact partnership, North State Together, in order to reduce and prevent problems, such as ACEs, before they occur. This presentation will describe the collective impact model and importance of community colleges in reducing ACEs by mobilizing local efforts to create data-driven multi-sector collaborations. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Participants will hear about local examples, explore the existing North State Together model, and imagine the possibilities

The Necessity of Referral Technology Choice

DESCRIPTION The link between adverse childhood experiences and general health is clear. Non-profit, local, and faith-based organizations play a critical role in addressing factors that lead to ACEs as well as building hope and resilience, especially in rural communities. While these providers have long felt the burden of navigating a chaotic system to connect families to services, efforts to streamline referrals from healthcare providers to community organizations are relatively new. Policies, including reimbursement to healthcare providers who refer to organizations that support various concrete and social needs, have led to a significant number of technology vendors ready to “solve” the problem. Particularly in rural areas where services may be spread out by many miles, it only makes sense to leverage technology to connect providers and ultimately ensure that families are connected to services. However, local service providers are often left with an expectation to engage in a particular referral platform simply because it is the platform of choice for a nearby health system or because it is fully funded and provided at ‘no cost.’ By and large, these platforms are focused on the ‘reimbursement use case’ and the workflow of the healthcare provider or health system rather than the needs of community partners whose primary goals are ease of use, accessible meaningful data, and building strong collaborative relationships that support families. We propose a different path: shifting the conversation among developers, funders, and community partners from a must-have one-size fits all approach to referral technology to cultivating a “network of networks” that ensures agency of choice for all. This solution is human-centered, focusing on building partnerships, assessing individual and collective needs, and working to bridge gaps between networks using a variety of tools. During this presentation, we’ll explore the vision, strategies to move forward – including the potential for technology to support, and share real examples and lessons learned from rural communities tackling this challenge. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Participants will describe the advantages of addressing ACEs and Social Determinants of Health through technology-supported collaborations between community-based organizations and health care providers.
• Participants will list 3-5 benefits of a “network of networks” approach to leveraging referral technology.
• Participants will recognize 2-3 “network of network” strategies to apply in their own community.

The Role Mental Health First Aid Certification Can Play During COVID: A Community Based Approach to Accessing Care

DESCRIPTION Mental Health First Aid is quickly becoming a first-practice model for destigmatizing accessing care for mental health challenges and substance use disorders. During the pandemic, we are seeing concerning escalations in anxiety, depression, thoughts of suicide and overdose and we simply don’t have all of the mental and behavioral health professionals we need to meet this crisis. This workshop will look at the link between trauma and mental health challenges from a public health perspective, present an overview of Mental Health First Aid certification, and offer some lessons learned while teaching MHFA courses virtually at the community level during COVID-19. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• How trauma is linked to mental health, substance use and crises such as overdose and suicide

Trauma Informed Policing

DESCRIPTION This presentation will include an overview of the three-hour POST Certified course, Trauma Informed Policing. The presentation will include introductions into what is trauma, why law enforcement professionals need to understand trauma and recognizing three types of trauma officers can help to reduce. Presentation will provide examples of current trauma informed policing programs as well as the need for leadership to prioritize officer self-care. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Participants will learn what trauma is, how to identify it and how to best recognize and respond to citizens on scene who are dysregulated

Trauma Informed Supports Via Text Message: First 5 Del Norte and Ready4K Team Up to Buffer Trauma One Text at a Time

DESCRIPTION Like many rural counties, Del Norte County residents have high exposure to individual, community, and historical trauma, including Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Long distances between communities, limited broadband access, and lack of access to reliable transportation mean that it can be difficult for families to access supportive services. Parent interviews in 2016 demonstrated that parents felt isolated, lacked time for self-care and struggles to support early learning to prepare their children for school. Sending support via text seemed to fit parents’ busy schedules and the rural setting. First 5 Del Norte teamed up with the Ready4K texting program to add connections to local services, mental health supports, and parental self-care messaging to the existing Ready 4K platform. This work informed the development of Ready4K’s trauma0informed content stream. In this course, First 5 Del Norte and Ready4K staff will talk about how the Five Protective Factors for strong families are embedded in text messages and linked to on-the-ground services for families. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• How to use multiple measures to understand rural trauma exposure

Understanding Strengths and Barriers to Screening for ACEs in Tribal and Rural California Communities

DESCRIPTION Discuss results of a practice paper aimed at identifying barriers to implementing ACES in tribal, rural, and urban Indian communities in California. Discuss learned strengths and resiliency of these respective groups and how these impact ACES screening implementation efforts. Participate in a collaborative, facilitated discussion to learn from other agencies and jurisdictions in California on strengths and barriers to implementing the ACEs screening tool in rural, urban Indian, and tribal communities. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Identify strengths of implementing ACEs in tribal, urban Indian and rural settings

Utilizing Cross-Sector Collaboration to Elevate ACEs Prevention, Intervention, and Systems Change

DESCRIPTION Our presentation will feature shared language and data on ACEs and ACE prevalence, an overview of evidence-based practices for cross-sector efforts among six sectors highlighted through the ACEs Aware initiative, and a call to action for specific system change efforts, presented by Stacy Schwartz Olagundoye, Catalyst Center. We will then feature on-the-ground examples by Camille Schraeder featuring the cross-sector work Redwood Community Services conducts in Mendocino, Lake, and Humboldt Counties to address childhood adversity through formal and informal prevention, intervention, and systemic efforts. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Develop shared language to define ACEs and toxic stress and name ACE prevalence in CA

Working Together to Bring Hope

DESCRIPTION Michael and Wendy will talk about the power of collaboration and how First 5’s and Child Abuse Prevention Coordinating Councils work together to help families find pathways to hope and happiness. Both Michael and Wendy are trained Hope Navigators and will share the science of hope and how communities can set goals, have the willpower and way power to achieve those goals. Breaking the generational cycle of Adverse Childhood Experience (ACEs) starts before children are born. When a community comes together to support parents and children 0-5 the results change communities. In 2,000 studies of hope, it is the single best predictor of well-being over any other measure of trauma recovery. Michael and Wendy will share strategies to on partnership and increasing hope. LEARNING OBJECTIVES INSTRUCTORS Michael Burke Wendy Dickens