By Melony Williams

Two years ago I attended The Prevent Child Abuse America Conference in Ohio and during the lunch hour, they screened the film, “Resilience.” I was amazed by how well the film presented the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and thought about how much I wanted to show this to parents and providers in my community.

I feel that knowledge is power and if we are able to help people understand how their past experiences affect them today, they can have more empathy for themselves and others and also make healthier choices about their own lives as well as their parenting.

I remember excitedly telling our Executive Director about “Resilience.” She researched how we could show it here and at this point we have done a number of screenings followed by discussions about how we can use the information we gained to inform our parenting, our work and our interactions in our communities.

I also started to dream about bringing Miss Kendra to the children in NH and wondered what the effect of a program that teaches kids about the norms of child safety, empathy, feeling identification and expression could be on our schools and the community as a whole.

I was recently trained with Stacey Hammerlind, Family and Community Coordinator/Family in Transition Coordinator for SAU No. 43, by the ALIVE (Animating Learning by Integrating and Validating Experiences) staff at The Posttraumatic Stress Center in New Haven, CT to facilitate the Miss Kendra’s List Program.

The Legend of Miss Kendra is a story about a woman who has experienced her own adversity, the death of a child, which inspires her to help other children and listen to their worries. In the story, Miss Kendra gives read beads to children who are brave enough to share their worries so they have a symbol of their own strength to overcome challenges. Miss Kendra’s list came out of all the worries the children shared, and is comprised of 7 rules about how children should be treated and 5 explanations of what can happen when children do not get what they need. These common sense ideas became her mantra, and were shared with teachers and other adults as a way to keep other children safe as well.

Working with the Kindergarten students in Newport, alongside their teachers and paraprofessional staff, will give these children the opportunity to learn about how children need to be kept safe, to understand their worries, to express them to caring adults and to hopefully be able to set them aside so that their minds and hearts are more open and ready to learn about academics as well as to form healthy social connections.

I am so happy that there is a “Red Bead Club” that will be offered at least twice throughout the school year. This club will enable parents to come to the school with their kindergarteners so they can also experience the positive benefits that the Miss Kendra curriculum has to offer and to help the parents to understand the program so that they are able to talk with their children about what they are learning and put the skills learned to use.

It is exciting to think about the positive effects that could happen through the partnership between TLC, the Richards Elementary Staff and the parents while we roll out the Miss Kendra's List curriculum in NH.

To learn more about this work, check out traumainformedschools.org/miss-kendras-list-and-child-safety-classroom-activities.

The 9th annual Born to Run 5K, which will be held on Saturday, September 22, would not be possible without the support of our many sponsors! We want to also thank our honorary chair, Mayor Charlene Lovett, for her support of our organization.
 
Crownpoint Cabinetry
Mascoma Bank
Wellsense
Baystate Financial
CCI Managed Care
Delta Dental
Valley Regional Healthcare
Amerihealth Caritas
Larry Reed
Lake Sunapee Region VNA and Hospice
CASA
Ameriprise
Bar Habor Bank and Trust
Newport Rotary Club
Reed Trucking
Claremont Savings Bank
Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center
Clark-Mortenson Insurance
King Arthur Flour
Sugar River Bank
The Richard’s Group
 
Thank you so much for supporting our event and our organization!
 
For more information about the race and to register, click here.