Healthy
Communities
Newsletter

November 2021
Community partners working together
to build health and resilience
Community Meetings

SAVE THESE DATES!

November 15 - Clark County Breastfeeding Coalition
  • Noon to 1:30 pm
  • Zoom meeting


November 18 - Trauma-Informed Schools
  • 1 to 3 pm
  • Zoom meeting


Clark County
Breastfeeding Coalition meeting

Clark County Breastfeeding Coalition strives to improve the health of our community by working collaboratively to protect, promote and support breastfeeding.

NEXT MEETING:
ACEs Action Alliance
Trauma-Informed Schools Workgroup

The TI Schools Workgroup is for people who work
in or with early childhood education and K-12 schools.

NEXT MEETING: We will hear from ESD 112 about the behavioral health supports they offer currently and how that will expand in future. Discussion on equity and trauma-informed classroom approaches.


  • Or copy and paste this URL into your calendar or browser:

  • Meeting ID: 824 1735 6726 

  • Or call in - meeting ID will be required*
  • +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
  • +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) 

______________________________________

For more information, follow us on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/ACEsActionAlliance.

Meetings of the ACEs Action Alliance will resume in 2022.
The ACEs Alliance website is currently offline for housekeeping.

Due to the strain of COVID on local schools and partners, Faith-Based Coffee has suspended meetings during the 2021/22 school year.

If you represent a faith community looking for a school partner, please contact:


If you have community announcements to share, please send them to Cyndie.Meyer@Clark.wa.gov. Announcements and fliers (pdf format, please) submitted before the end of the month will be posted in this newsletter on the first of the following month.
Safe Kids and Families
Product Recalls

Safe Kids Worldwide lists product recalls each month. Please note: Product recalls never expire. This is especially important for hand-me-down or pre-owned children’s products. Don't buy or borrow a used child car seat. For details, read here on Safe Kids Worldwide.
Child Car Seat Safety
class and clinic 

No classes in November
Tips for a Safe Thanksgiving

Safe Kids Worldwide provides tips for being safe during the holiday including keeping kids safe in the car when traveling, kitchen safety, keeping medicines safely stored and making sure your baby sleeps in a safe place. Keep candles out of the reach of small kids and don't leave them alone with lighted candles.
Food safety tips for your Thanksgiving spread covers safe handling of the turkey and how to take care of the leftovers. Refrigerate the leftovers within two hours to prevent food poisoning and leftovers eaten, frozen or thrown away within 3-4 days.
Community Announcements
Please send pdf of announcements and fliers to Cyndie Meyer before the last week of the month.
  • WHO (Winter Hospitality Overflow) Shelter opens November 1.  To access shelter at the Winter Hospitality Overflow when it opens November 1, please call the Council for the Homeless Housing Hotline (360) 695-9677.
  • Open Doors for Multicultural Families is working to develop an affordable housing project for people with disabilities and their families. You are invited to participate in a survey about your housing needs as a person with disabilities. Please fill out the short survey: https://www.tfaforms.com/4931839 and disseminate the survey to people of age 18 or older AND with disabilities.

  • Call & Response - A Pregnancy and Parenting Support Group for Black Families provides a healing space for parents to connect with each other and support one another as they walk the intersectional path of parenting while Black. Tuesdays 11 am to 12:30 pm. For more information, click here.

  • Fall/Winter Washington State Firearm Tragedy Prevention (FTPN) meeting is Nov. 18. The agenda includes innovative suicide prevention practices from North Central Washington, a presentation on physician counseling about firearm safety, and the Firearm Injury and Policy Research Program.
  • When: Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. PST (optional virtual networking 12:30 to 1 p.m.)
  • Where: Virtual (Zoom) – register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvd-ipqTsrGtKcw17NKiv8lM1L5eMY-sR7
  • Questions? Email: Gun.Safety@seattlechildrens.org
  • Expanded Child Care Subsidy. Thanks to the Fair Start for Kids Act, financial assistance for child care has been expanded to include more families across Washington State. The good news doesn’t stop there! Co-payments have been eliminated for some families and considerably lowered for others. Even if you haven’t qualified in the past, call the Child Care Subsidy Contact Center at 1-844-626-8687 to see if you might qualify now through expansion of our state’s child care assistance program. The easiest way to determine eligibility is by phone. Interpretation in multiple languages is available through the phone too!
Transitional Youth provides long-term housing for teens and young adults who are homeless or who are at-risk of being homeless. We have two homes in Washington (Vida’s and Ritz) and two homes in Oregon (Harmony House and Fortify Home). We also have Outreach services for agencies, communities or individuals who are in need of basic necessities. For more information, please email Rhona Mahl at Rhona@transitionalyouth.org or call 503-505-2919. You can also visit our website at www.transitionalyouth.org
Training Resources
  • Oprah Winfrey and Nadine Burke Harris talk ACEs. If you have 15 minutes to listen to a short video, link here to this video of Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris and Oprah Winfrey discussing Oprah's new book with Dr. Bruce Perry, "What Happened to You?" They explain the purpose and meaning of someone's "number story". Anyone interested in a group book reading?
  • The Trauma Informed Online Academy features trainings by Heather Forbes, MSW and the Beyond Consequences Institute. The Academy recently launch a new track, "Classroom 180", which delves into the how-to of trauma informed classroom approaches. You can explore the academy here: http://taumainformedonlineacademy.com/ and the catalog of offerings are available here: http;//www.educationalimpactdownloads.com/pdfs/TIOA-Catalog_w.pdf, For more information, contact Bruce Maki who can provide you with a temporary ID to explore the courses or give you a quick tour of the content.


  • GLR (Campaign for Grade Level Reading) recently held an online panel discussion titled "Co-Generational Solutions: Older and Younger Changemakers Innovating Together". The dynamic conversation highlighted AmeriCorps Seniors/Foster Grandparents, Encore, and AARP Foundation Experience Corps, which greatly enrich the lives of children and seniors while reducing the burden on teachers and schools. The webinar and accompanying materials are available on demand - along with many past programs - here. You will need to create a free membership before you can access the materials.

  • A recent article in USA Today, "Time in nature benefits child's mental health, cognitive development" by author Gabriela Miranda, explains how access to green spaces affected 3,568 students, ranging from ages nine to 15, at 31 schools in London over four years. Researchers found that the greater the exposure to green spaces such as woods and parks, the higher students scored for cognitive development. Participants who accessed more green spaces were also 17percent less likely to experience emotional and behavioral risks.

  • CDC’s firearm violence prevention online resource. CDC’s approach to preventing firearm injuries focuses on three elements: providing data to inform action, conducting research and applying science to identify effective solutions, promoting collaboration across multiple sectors to address the problem. Learn more here. 
This 11-page document from the National Traumatic Child Stress Network was first published in 2016 and contains valuable insight into the differences and similarities between ADHD and the effects of trauma. Free to download.

The NCTSN site is filled with amazing resources and information. Worth a visit.
If you don't think babies remember trauma, think again...
About our coalitions and community groups
The ACEs Action Alliance is:
A multi-sector collaborative of public and private organizations and individuals. We raise awareness about positive and adverse childhood experiences (PACEs) and their long-term impact. We promote trauma-informed approaches and policies to support resilience and healing for people of all ages. All are welcome at our meetings. The Alliance will resume meetings in 2022.

The four key functions served by the ACEs Alliance:

  1. Educate and build awareness of ACEs and toxic stress, resilience, the Trauma-Informed pathway and community efforts;
  2. Facilitate opportunities for community mobilization;
  3. Promote and facilitate cross-sector convening, connection and collaboration;
  4. Collect, evaluate and share community indicators of ACEs, identify and address root causes of adversity and efforts to increase resilience.

  • ACEs Action Alliance Learning Collaborative supports learning and awareness about childhood trauma and individual/community resilience.

  • The Community Action Network provides a forum for CHARG members and members of the PACEs Action Alliance to meet together to learn about community services and support inclusive and collaborative cross-sector connections.

The Trauma-Informed Schools Team is open to anyone who works in or with schools in Clark County. We meet monthly during the school year to explore tools, resources and applications of trauma-informed principles for schools.
Faith-Based Coffee is:
On "pause" for the 2021-22 school year. This group provides a non-denominational bridge that joins faith partners, communities and local schools to share learning, meet the needs of children, families and neighborhoods, and address emergent needs that arise in our community. All are welcome. Members maintain the separation of church and state at meetings and when fulfilling needs by serving from the heart without promoting personal religious beliefs or engaging in religious recruitment. If you represent a faith community or community partner looking for a school partner, please contact:


Clark County Breastfeeding Coalition is:
A coalition that works to improve the health of our community by promoting, protecting and supporting breastfeeding. CCBC is committed to identify and eliminate barriers to breastfeeding among families of all races and ethnicities in Clark County in order to foster a culture of inclusion.

The coalition works collaboratively to connect, educate and promote breastfeeding practices in all Clark County communities. CCBC also works to create an environment that supports breastfeeding as the cultural norm for infant feeding.

The Healthy Communities Newsletter is published the first week of each month.
To submit announcements or share information, please send complete information or attach a high resolution pdf file to cyndie.meyer@clark.wa.gov by the 20th of the month prior.
All submissions will be screened and may be edited prior to publication.

If you would like to receive the Healthy Communities Newsletter, please email Jan.Dolph@clark.wa.gov

For other formats, contact the Clark County ADA Office
Voice 564.397.2322 / Relay 711 or 800.833.6388 / Email ADA@clark.wa.gov