Striving to improve the emotional well-being of children living in adversity, the Naples Children & Education Foundation’s (NCEF) Children’s Mental Health Initiative co-presented a pair of workshops aimed at helping children struggling with toxic levels of stress by training the adults who care for them. NCEF and the Florida State University Center for Child Stress & Health held a training for NCEF beneficiaries, which included the latest information on traumatic stress in children and how to identify it, on Friday, August 3rd. The following Monday, August 6th, partnering with the Florida State University Center for Prevention & Early Intervention Policy, a “Think Tank” focusing on Expanding Trauma Informed Systems in Florida was held, which featured Dr. Vincent Felitti, one of the world’s foremost experts on childhood trauma & co-author of the “Adverse Childhood Experiences Study.”

As Dr. Elena Reyes, Regional Director of Southwest Florida State University College of Medicine and NCEF strategic initiative member stated, “many of our state’s most intractable multigenerational issues-addictions, child maltreatment, obesity, disease, domestic violence, school failure & suspensions, delinquency and court involvement-could be reduced by addressing early adversity.”