1. RESILIENCE? Yes, we can build it… Expanded Version
The Palmetto Peace Project
Rock Hill, South Carolina
April 20, 2018
Expanded Version
Janice M. Gruendel, Ph.D., M.Ed.
Senior Fellow, Institute for Child Success
Research Professor, UNC Charlotte

2. Why Resilience?
Why today?
Why in Rock Hill?

3. Healthy Safe Smart Strong
We envision an America where all children can grow up...
Healthy Safe Smart Strong
We are not there now…

4. We envision a nation where all children are reading at grade level, measured at the 3rd grade
We are not there yet…

5. We are not there either…
Ascend at the Aspen Institute
We are not there either…

6. We live and work in a country facing increasing individual trauma and societal stress.
This is not OK

7. Part I:
So much trauma…
A prescreening gallop through the neuroscience behind the documentary “Resilience”

8. From the Arc of (Neuro)Science ….
The early years really matter
Intertwined cognitive and social-emotional development Executive function Self–regulation Empathy
Trauma Toxic Stress Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES)
Poverty Racism & Implicit bias Educational and health inequity Politics…
Mindfulness
Kindness
Health
Hope
Happiness
Resilience
We can build it…
Gruendel,

9. Another way to think about stress…
Parental Health & Mental Health
Child Health, MH and Behavior
Family Basic Needs
Maternal depression Parent-child attachment
Domestic violence
Substance Abuse
ACES
Unstable/unsafe housing
Family and community violence
Not enough food to get through the month
Unstable child care
Weak social networks & social capital
Unstable work status
Needs of aging parents
School absences
School suspensions/ expulsions
School performance
Developmental delays
Health problems
Anxiety/fear/aggression
Adapted from the Administration for Children, Youth and Families

10. When Stress Becomes Toxic
NORMAL STRESS
Getting immunized; Meeting new people; First day at school. First day at work. Presenting big ideas at a public meeting; Kinetic Heights challenge session
TOLERABLE STRESS
Serious Illness; Death of a loved one; Frightening accident; Acrimonious divorce; Persistent discrimination
TOXIC STRESS
Tolerable stress that is not buffered by caring, actively-present adults (or peers). The body’s stress system activates and stays at high levels “like revving a car’s engine for hours every day.” This causes damage at the cellular level of our bodies, impacts our health and mental health, and can be passed from one generation to the next at the genomic level.

11. Two minutes on how Toxic Stress feels in our bodies
Click Here
Key Concepts: Toxic Stress. Harvard Center on the Developing Child, Retrieved July 2015
Two minutes on how Toxic Stress feels in our bodies

12. The long arm of early childhood adversity:
The ACE Study
(a free short primer)
CLICK HERE

13. An Amazing Ted Talk about ACES by Pediatrician Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris
Click here
An Amazing Ted Talk about ACES by Pediatrician Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris

14. Resilience, the documentary
Part II:
Resilience, the documentary
…50 intense minutes,
together

15. Click here for information on the film and screening opportunities

16. A conversation with the Panel
Part III:
A conversation with the Panel
…What can we do in Rock Hill that is BETTER than the best
we have done so far?

17. We can learn to listen with humility
Opioids
Child Abuse or Neglect
Violence. Death. Separation
Trauma.
Disability
We can learn to listen with humility
Click Later
…because everybody has a story…

18. We can find kids “in need” through universal developmental screening, early surveillance and real-time school-based Early Warning Systems (at the 3rd grade or earlier).

19. We can partner with families and the community
to (a) invest in mindfulness skills, (b) develop
children’s social emotional learning in our schools,
and (c) promote trauma-informed practice
in community agencies including with our local police force.
Click
ClIck

20. We can continue to build experiences that connect mind, body and feelings to support health, SEL and resilience

21. Because grownups experience stress, too
We can support adults who are the buffers against toxic levels of stress in children’s lives…
Parents, across generations
Teachers, Principals
Mentors, Coaches
Family Workers… Us
Because grownups experience stress, too

22. Strong & Healthy Families
Healthy Children… as early as possible
Strong, Healthy Schools & Communities
We can listen to the science. It says, to raise kids who are healthy, safe, smart and strong “we” need to invest in…
Resilience

23. RESILIENCE?
Yes, we can build it together…