This CCFW collaborative paper reports the effects of low income and ACEs on new mothers. It also highlights the protective effects of mindfulness. NEW Parents Connect is a mindfulness-based program being evaluated at CCFW to support the well-being of new parents.
βShort Moments, Many Times a Dayβ summarizes recent scientific evidence demonstrating the benefits of making use of brief practices throughout the day for a new way of living. Much of the day, we are on autopilot, mindlessly carrying out longstanding habits of behavior and thought patterns. New research shows benefits of recognizing our automatic habit loops, and meeting them with curious and kind attention as well as compassion (intention to ease suffering). This session will offer a summary of leading-edge research, and include some brief practices. If time allows, R.E.S.T. meditation practice will also be offered.
Despite its tragic arc, the so-called βdouble pandemicβ has served as an awakening to the realities of racial injustice across a number of systems. On one front, the pandemic of COVID-19 disproportionately impacted Black adults and youth, both physically and psychologically. Meanwhile, we have borne witness to another pandemic, dating back to 1619, which has been a reminder that racism is βalive and sickβ. Justice and healing in the face of the insidiousness of racism in its myriad forms require recognizing how it expresses across the lifespan. In this presentation, I will discuss racial literacy as a tool for recognizing racial trauma across a number of systems and life stages. Collectively, we will reflect on how racial seeing and racial noticing are important elements in our mission towards social justice.
Recent discoveries from developmental neurobiology, child development, and trauma science had shown that harsh and unresponsive caregiving during early childhood resulted in disrupted stress regulation systems in the developing brain. In addition, stressful family and community environments had been linked to specific pre-academic, social and health challenges in preschoolers. In response to these findings, new approaches to child abuse prevention started to focus on the need to mitigate young childrenβs adversities through parent education. The science of resilience has effectively provided the blueprints for a βbehavioral therapeutic vaccineβ that could buffer the negative impacts of early childhood adversity.