The Accordion Effect of Education – It’s Not Just a “Squeeze Box” Anymore!
Written by Tim Buckley, December 2024
You’ve learned about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) here in past articles. You’ve also read that there is a corresponding ACE (Adverse Community Environment) that relates to landscape. Where you live can adversely affect your family’s health and income. Dr. Wendy Ellis refers to this combo as the Pair of ACES.
According to a recent Surgeon General’s Report (California, 2020) “an individual with four or more ACEs has a 70% higher risk of kidney disease, more than double the risk of heart disease, and triple the risk of chronic lung disease as someone without ACEs. He or she is also 4.7 times as likely to experience depression and 10.2 times as likely to become dependent on substances; experiencing any ACEs increases the risk of homelessness by two to four times.”
“The good news is that ACEs are not destiny!” the report concluded. Toxic stress can be reduced and ultimately prevented. CBEL’s work in Salem and Keizer focuses on the priorities of those living in the neighborhoods with the highest ACEs. One of the priorities expressed by each of the five Neighborhood Family Councils is education - comprehensive education, high quality education, education that takes toxic stress into account. And to accomplish that, a multi-tiered effort is in place, involving the family, the neighborhood and the school system. As the Surgeon General pointed out, no one strategy is sufficient alone. Education is only one of the areas in which toxic stress must be reduced. “Toxic stress must be reduced in a systematic way,” she said, “and each strategy extends the reach of the others.”
On Thursday, Jan. 9, CBEL will convene the first Collaborative Gathering of 2025. The topic is education, but the lens through which we examine it will be novel, and fascinating. Please join us. There will be a three-person panel, each person representing part of the puzzle. One part is the family itself, and CBEL’s effort to reduce stress in our neighborhood homes. The second part is the educational model to reduce stress in our youngest students. And the third part is from the perspective of high school students who are studying Behavioral Health (applied psychology) and taking their training back into the community.
Whitney Contreres grew up in these Salem neighborhoods where stress is still high. A mother of three, Whitney also helps facilitate CBEL’s new stress reduction effort - The Infant and Toddler Play Group. Each gathering invites parents and their little ones to a monthly gathering to eat, socialize, and play with their kids in a safe, nurturing environment. It’s been a big success, and it’s expanding.
Kyla Fussel, a Career Tech Education Center student, will talk about the nature of their study of stress and how they are taking their Behavioral Health skills into the community - at the high school level as peer support specialists, and into the world at large, where they help employers, employees, and the general public to understand and begin to learn about applying some of the same skills to their lives.
Andrew Kronser, the principal of Cummings Elementary School in Keizer, has become a statewide focus because of the comprehensive way his team deals with the stress of students and teachers. In addition to a cozy Wellness Center for anyone needing a break from the rigors of school, Cummings champions the RULER approach to learning., which builds emotional intelligence skills into each level (Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing, and Regulating emotions).
After hearing from these three, each table of Collaborative participants (you) will relate personal experiences with stress and how we might apply what the panel shares into our daily practices.
Part of the novelty of CBEL’s Collaborative is the purposeful assembly of community leaders (both grassroots leaders as well as those we call “grass tops”, people in leadership roles in education, public safety, business and nonprofit organizations.)
The other part of the Collaborative magic is the way in which we create social cohesion at each event. Having a meal, socializing, learning and contributing ideas to the group, each gathering redefines community, and refines the ways in which social change occurs.
