“Our family is facing financial issues at home, discipline issues with our middle child at school, and an overwhelming schedule. It’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. What can I do?”*
SCAN’s Parent Education team hears a lot of questions from local parents in our classes, support groups and workshops. They send a great monthly email to parents to respond to those concerns, and now we’re sharing them here on the blog, too!
Every family goes through hard times; resilient families are able to bounce back after those hard times. Resilience is defined as “the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress.” It’s about how you handle negative feelings and move forward in a healthy, positive manner.
It is important to remember that resilience is something that is developed over time through thoughts, behaviors, and actions. Some steps families can take to become more resilient: create a strengths family tree, practice optimist, and rejuvenate regularly. For more concrete steps to take as a family to increase your resiliency, click here (English) or click here (Spanish).
(Learn more about SCAN’s Parent Education Program here.)
October 4, 2017–On November 7th, SCAN will host “Helping the Helpers,” the fourth summit in Loudoun as part of its Resilient Children, Resilient Loudoun initiative through support from the Northern Virginia Health Foundation. This event is for all community members, especially those who work with or interact with people who have suffered trauma, or want to know more about secondary traumatic stress.
Presenters will include Christina Cunningham, MS, from Fairfax TICN; Allyson Halverson, BS, CCLS, CTP, Certified Child Life Specialist from Inova Loudoun Hospital; John P Walker, Ph.D., LMFT withFamily Connections, Loudoun County Department of Family Services; and members of the FBI Victims Assistance Program.
Tickets are $20 per person (including lunch) and are available to purchase online at: http://bit.ly/2yiVrKQ
This Spring, SCAN hosted a series of free film screenings and panel discussions about the award-winning documentary Resilience: The Biology of Stress and The Science of Hope. Held with partners in Alexandria, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William, we engaged parents and professionals in discussions about what it means when a child is resilient, how trauma affects the brain and body, and what we can do as a community to use this research in our work with children and families.
Here are the top 5 things we learned by hosting these screenings:
Attendees are committed to creating a common language around trauma informed care in our communities.
Hundreds of viewers left with greater knowledge of childhood trauma and resilience.
We need to have a greater appreciation of the connection between the physical body and mental health.
Attendees appreciated the professional insight from the panelists and the value that the post-movie conversation added.
It takes one caring adult to make a difference in the life of a child.
We’d like to send a special thank you to our panelists:
Dr. Katherine Deye
Judith Martens
Diana Bermudez
Ana Bonilla-Galdamez
Maria Genova
Ramona Simmons
Kendra Kilbasa
Steve Liga
Karin Spencer
Laurie Warhol
Pat Victorsen
Carissa Shifflett
If you’d like to learn more about the movie and the possibility of future screenings, please contact SCAN’s Public Education Manager Tracy Leonard: tleonard(at)scanva.org
April 7, 2017 — With a diverse group of community partners, SCAN is hosting a series of movie screenings of the award-winning documentary“Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope”. SCAN hopes to spark discussion with parents, community members, teachers, human service providers, doctors, and more with communities across Northern Virginia!
Everyone is welcome. To attend, you simply need to be willing to help teach your child, a family you know, or the community in which you live, how to become resilient in the face of adversity. Watch a film preview here: https://vimeo.com/139998006
