Conversations

The amazing drive into Bremerton I arrived in Bremerton to meet with Kody Russell of Kitsap Strong, I felt a lot of connection to the Lowestoft and Waveney area in some ways - Kitsap County is a diverse area, there are plenty of affluent areas and 'second homers' enjoying the incredible waterfront views and access to Seattle. But there is also a huge part of Kitsap that encounters depravation, at one time it was the richest county in the United states due to the logging industry - but over time the industry changed and many jobs were lost. The loss was also that of identity, families who assumed they would have generations following a path into logging suddenly lost that opportunity. Kitsap had areas where they have extremely high ACEs scores accompanied by low resilience levels, the response to this was Kitsap Strong which is an organisation created to develop awareness of the issues associated with developmental traumas, but more importantly to create networks who respo

Well Hillsboro is a pretty special place, I cannot speak highly enough of the people who welcomed me to their schools and their offices - I think it's impossible to be around people who are trying to do this kind of work, especially with children and be dispassionate about it. The success of any system is of course based upon planning, structures, principles and so forth... but in reality it also needs the right people with the right attitude, in this respect Grant has hit gold with his team. I can think of few weeks in my professional life where I felt so impacted by the people that I met and the work that they do. Firstly they believe in and care about what they have to deliver - trauma informed work is HARD, you need to be aware of your own actions and regulation and you have to be prepared to be honest about what you find difficult. Secondly they need to care about what they are doing, about each other and about the children in the schools - you cannot be trauma informed

I intended to write a further blog at the end of this week but I've already been inspired by so many things that I felt that it was important to get my thoughts on paper today and then I can sum up at the end of the week too. What has been absolutely amazing here in Hillsboro County is to see the way in which schools have embraced the idea of trauma informed approaches - that's not to say that there haven't been challenges in doing this, they have been very open about the fact that for some people in education the idea that you focus on the emotional regulation of children - sometimes accepting that academic progress may be more slow for a time - is a huge shift for teachers with a focus on academic outcomes. So what is working here? Well what's working here is that firstly the system tries to model the approach, which means that there is an acceptance that change can be hard, that we don't get things right first time so we have to be able to cope with adapting

So I had two amazing full days in Washington DC, and as with Boston I also had the bonus of seeing some bonus community activities 'ad hoc'. If I'm overly gushing in this post it's likely because as much as I had a truly amazing time I am also a huge US politics junkie and have been since I was 11/12, so being in 'DC' having meetings 'on the hill' and being in the same building at the same time as a major senate hearing was happening was something else! Just like the first time I got to visit Westminster I was really thrilled. Having said that I'm not just here for personal kicks! Day one proved to be incredibly useful and interesting starting with a breakfast meeting with Wendy Ellis and Dan Press, both are involved in supporting the Building Resilient Communities Collaboration across the US and with working at a high level with policy people in Washington. Wendy has been fundamental to the introduction of Trauma Informed practice across the US an

Well... I arrived at my lodgings in Boston at around midnight and then around 7am I got myself on the MBTA train into Boston itself to have time to see some of the city before I headed to my meeting with the Center Clubhouse . I managed to find a really great community cafe just outside the station, Panera Cares  have great food and coffee, patrons pay what they can afford (there is a recommended price) and this supplements the aim of supporting people who are less fortunate. There are of course similar projects in the UK, but to find it right outside a major metro stop on my first morning felt quite precipitous! From there I managed to see some of the city, I was keen to see Faneuil Hall and the marketplace - I saw enough to be sure I wanted to visit Boston for longer one day. Now... I had arranged to meet my hosts from Center Club outside the station, I was confident they would find me as I had a green bag, blue shoes, and a bright blue shirt... my host was Anthony who won't