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Wednesday, October 7, 2015. THIS came along in my email box this morning from the Prevent Child Abuse New York Blog. And this email may change the course of my life.
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People living in New York can get to this – not me, way over here in North Dakota.
Posted: 06 Oct 2015 07:50 AM PDT
“The impact of unloved and traumatized children on society is profound and widespread. 85% of inmates were traumatized as youth. 27% of hospital visits can be traced to causes linked to childhood trauma. Hurt kids grow up to hurt people. The generational cycles of trauma and abuse are as stubborn as they are tragic.
“There is hope. That’s the message of Paper Tigers, a documentary that takes an intimate look at a year in the life of the students of Lincoln High School, an alternative school that specializes in educating traumatized youth. Set in the rural town of Walla Walla, WA, the film examines the concept of Trauma Informed Communities—a movement that shows great promise in healing youth struggling with the dark legacy of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES).
“Prevent Child Abuse New York and the School of Social Welfare at the University at Albany will present a special screening of Paper Tigers. A panel discussion will follow the film. Event details are below.”
When: Wednesday, November 4, 2015, 4:30 PM
Where: University at Albany Downtown Campus, Milne Hall Room 200, 135 Western Ave., Albany, NY 12203
Register: Please register here to ensure your space at the event
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Click HERE to see if there is a screening of this film near you!
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I sent this information to my daughter who is employed in the Masters of Public Health department at a university here. Perhaps she can pass this information to someone who will work to get a screening of this film in Fargo.
Take a look:
“Paper Tigers captures the pain, the danger, the beauty, and the hopes of struggling teens—and the teachers armed with new science and fresh approaches that are changing their lives for the better.”
And from this film’s website –
“Paper Tigers is an intimate look into the lives of selected students at Lincoln High School, an alternative school that specializes in educating traumatized youth. Set amidst the rural community of Walla Walla, WA, the film intimately examines the inspiring promise of Trauma Informed Communities – a movement that is showing great promise in healing youth struggling with the dark legacy of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES).
“Exposure to chronic and adverse stress (and the altered brain function that results) leaves a child in a fruitless search for comfort and escape from a brain and body that is permanently stuck in flight or fight. That comfort comes in the form of drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, sex, food and more.
“Every year, millions of unloved and traumatized youth enter adulthood with damaged brains and hearts. They are highly predisposed to die from self-destructive behaviors, and highly likely to continue the cycle of abuse. Even those who do not engage in self destructive behaviors are highly predisposed to get cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, and immune disorders.
“The impact of unloved and traumatized children on society is profound and widespread. 85% of inmates were traumatized as youth. 27% of hospital visits can be traced to causes linked to childhood trauma. Hurt kids grow up to hurt people. The generational cycles of trauma and abuse are as stubborn as they are tragic.
“But there is hope.
“There are doctors, researchers, teachers, nurses, social workers and law enforcement officers that are turning the tide against the cycle of trauma and abuse. A movement is rising, one that sees aberrant behavior in children as a symptom rather than a moral failing. This movement asks not what is wrong with our youth, but rather what has happened to them. The paradigm is shifting from punishment and blame to a deeper commitment to understanding and healing the underlying causes of aberrant behavior. With this shifting paradigm comes the promise of great improvements in many of the society’s costly ills: less crime, less illness, less teen pregnancy, abuse, rape, divorce.
“Simply put, it is cheaper to heal than to punish. Paper Tigers takes a look at what is possible.”
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I can always feel a twist of the knife of disappointment when I read of work about early trauma that ends up mentioning – MONEY – in terms of “the cost to society.”
What about OUR suffering? The suffering of high ACE score survivors?
Well, I can read between the lines of the effort this website and this film represent to understand that bridges must be built between the HAVES (those who were raised with safe and secure attachment and low ACE scores) and the HAVE-NOTS who suffered the opposite. Without those bridges such survivors, along with little ones suffering in real time present moments, will continue to be ignored by those with the means to make the biggest positive difference. (It is also not true that violence always travels down traumatized generations – as some of the information at this website might seem to suggest.)
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I had thought I would end my tenure in Fargo, North Dakota right about now by heading south again. Didn’t happen because I could not move myself off of what felt like dead center. It did not feel right for me to leave now. A matter of timing and/or a matter of destination place?
I am beginning a serious search for information about Walla Walla, WA to find out of the excitement that I felt at this healing work being done in this place connects me remotely – or perhaps will connect me much more closely with that work. Perhaps by this time next year I will be relocated there.
Time will tell….
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Meanwhile, perhaps some of this blog’s readers can attend one of the many screenings of Paper Tigers – or perhaps organize a screening of this important documentary in their hometown – INFORMATION ON HOSTING A SCREENING HERE.
And, please get this information to anyone you can think of who CARES!
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Here is our first book out in ebook format. Click here to view or purchase –
Story Without Words: How Did Child Abuse Break My Mother?
It lists for $2.99 and can be read by Amazon Prime customers without charge.
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Tags: adult attachment disorders, adult reactive attachment disorder, anxiety disorders,borderline mother, borderline personality disorder, brain development, child abuse,depression,derealization, disorganized disoriented insecure attachment disorder,dissociation,dissociative identity disorder, empathy, infant abuse, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD),protective factors, PTSD, resiliency, resiliency factors, risk factors, shame
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