On July 26th, 2017, Building Community Resilience (BCR), a Redstone Center initiative, co-hosted a briefing on childhood trauma -- The Need to Address Childhood Trauma: Implications for Child Welfare and Education -- at the U.S. House of Representatives. Featured speakers included Wendy Ellis, Milken Scholar, doctoral candidate, and BCR Project Director, and Olga Acosta Price, Director of the National Center for Health and Health Care in Schools. WATCH: A recording of the briefing can be viewed here.
Honorary co-host, Rep. Danny K. Davis (IL-7) opened with a personal story of family trauma: the murder of his son, which was witnessed by his granddaughter. He has introduced the Trauma-Informed Care for Children and Families Act, which has a companion bill in the Senate. Principal Monica Battle of Cincinnati’s College Hill Fundamental Academy and a partner in the Building Community Resilience work, spoke of implementing trauma-informed practices in the classroom; “If you can’t reach them, you can’t teach them.” And former foster youth, Whitney Gilliard, described some of her firsthand experiences with trauma, including being medicated inappropriately with psychotropic medications, as described in the Government Accountability Office report cited by briefing panelist, Kathryn Larin of the GAO.