Monthly Archives: March 2016

Cherokee Point Elementary School youth leaders learn about Child Abuse Prevention month

March 27, 2016 By in Adverse childhood experiences, Child abuse, Child trauma, Community prevention programs, Education 2 Comments
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Jennifer Hossler and the youth leaders of Cherokee Point Elementary School in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego, CA.

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Some days at work are better than others. A recent visit to Cherokee Point Elementary School in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego, CA, was one of the best days I’ve had in awhile!  I had the chance to speak to a small group of youth leaders from the third, fourth and fifth grades. As a representative of the Chadwick Center for Children & Families, I came to talk with them about Child Abuse Prevention (CAP) month, which is coming up in April.  We are collaborating with Cherokee Point in an effort to bring awareness to the community about CAP month, resilience, and protective factors.

Admittedly, I was nervous!  Talking to kids about child abuse is hard, and to be honest, can be a little

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Johnna Janis makes documentary “Invisible Scars” to heal her and others’ childhood trauma

March 26, 2016 By in ACE Study, Adverse childhood experiences, Child abuse, Child trauma, Chronic disease, Solutions 8 Comments

Invisible Scars“It’s about so much more than childhood sexual abuse,” says Johnna Janis about her feature documentary, Invisible Scars, a remarkable film about her own sexual abuse and her journey of recovery.

Janis produced and directed the film with long-time friend, Sergio Myers, an award-winning filmmaker and owner of 7Ponies Productions. Together, they took on topics many would consider too triggering or taboo to address and did so without sensationalizing sexual abuse or trivializing trauma. The result is a personal, powerful and informative movie.

Invisible Scars, which has been a six-year labor of love, will have a red-carpet premiere March 29 at the Harmony Gold Theater in Los Angeles, CA. It received an Award of Merit at IndieFest 2015.

What started in 2010 as a “small little project” about one woman’s healing journey “expanded” when Janis learned about the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study).

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How a diversion program in South L.A. hopes to break the cradle-to-prison pipeline

March 14, 2016 By in Adverse childhood experiences, Child trauma, Community prevention programs, Solutions Leave a comment

By CYS opened the Everychild Restorative Justice Center in 2012.Jeremy Loudenback, ChronicleOfSocialChange.org

When Karina Cabrera first sat down with Angelica,* a 15-year-old enrolled in a juvenile diversion program at Centinela Youth Services (CYS), the case manager remembers the youth’s icy stare and clipped answers.

Just weeks before, Angelica had been hauled in by members of the Los Angeles Police Department after she was caught trying to steal a shirt at Target.

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What age, cognitive disability mean for Brendan Dassey of ‘Making a Murderer’

March 8, 2016 By in Adverse childhood experiences, Child trauma, Trauma Leave a comment

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By Courtney Knight, ChronicleOfSocialChange.org

If you have not seen Netflix’s breakout documentary series “Making a Murderer,” there is a good chance every other person you know has.

The series follows the intellectually challenged 16-year-old Brendan Dassey and his uncle as they are ushered through the Wisconsin criminal justice system. Brendan’s intellectual or cognitive disabilities have been mentioned numerous times, but how his age and disability mix with interrogation techniques and self-advocacy within the system have not been explored.

Public outrage occurred over the suggestive, and at times directive, methods police used to obtain Brendan’s confession later used in court.

Brendan, who did not even know the word “inconsistent” when police used it, is reported by the entertainment news site Vulture to have an IQ ranging from 69-73, which in many other states could make him mentally incompetent to stand trial.

This cognitive disability is not to be confused with mental illness, which may impact half of incarcerated adults and can be treated by medication or therapy. Brendan is also just one of almost 400,000 inmates with cognitive disabilities currently imprisoned in the United States.

A December 14, 2015 report from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics shows just how “consistent” the incarceration of cognitively disabled individuals is in the United States, identifying that roughly a quarter of detained Americans struggle with a cognitive disability.

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Metropolitan Family Services addresses ACEs across metropolitan Chicago

March 7, 2016 By in ACE Study, Adverse childhood experiences, Community prevention programs, Solutions 4 Comments
(l to r) Robert Augustin, Katharine Bensinger and Maria Andrino

(l to r) Robert Augustin, Katharine Bensinger and Maria Andrino

Katharine Bensinger founded a program called Parenting Fundamentals at an agency called Community Counseling Centers of Chicago nearly two decades ago. The program had been providing parenting education classes to low-income people for almost a decade when Bensinger attended a speech by Dr. Robert Anda, co-principle investigator of the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study.

“I flipped out,” she says. “It was putting a construct to what I already knew, which was that abuse affects children and young adults emotionally and physically. … When I heard about this research, it was a gift, a tool to help people. Because it was research-based, it had credibility.”

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Trauma-informed courts can help the vulnerable

March 1, 2016 By in Child trauma, Solutions, Trauma 3 Comments

AcourtroomWritten by: Alicia Summers, Ph.D., National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges

The parens patriae doctrine grants power to the state to intervene and protect children and other vulnerable individuals who are not able to protect themselves. In effect, the state serves as a “parent” to the person to ensure their needs are met.  With our ever-increasing understanding of adolescent brain development, neuroscience, psychology, and human development generally, there is a growing recognition that these needs are more complex than the basics of food, shelter, and safety. Children experiencing adversity often require assistance to meet developmental needs and tasks, with a focus on promoting resilience and well-being so that they have the same opportunities for positive outcomes as youth who have not been involved with the court system.

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