Join MRBN!

The Maine Resilience Building Network invites you to become a member. The MRBN Network is an integral part of work happening across sectors to educate people on building resilience, improving well-being and building systems that strengthen children, family and community connections. MRBN provides statewide network meetings, professional development and training programs, and contributes to state and local policy development. MRBN individual and group memberships available. Join today!

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Statement on the Confluence of Racial Justice and Resilience Building

MRBN Networking Meeting - July 30

Please join us via Zoom for our July Networking/Member meeting! This meeting will be held virtually from 9am - 11:30am on Thursday, July 30th and will feature Bobbi Johnson, Associate Director of Child Welfare Services at the Office of Child and Family Services (OCFS), Erin Whitham, Performance Management Coordinator at the Maine Children's Trust, and Christine Theriault, Family First Prevention Services Program Manager, OCFS. 

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                 Equity Workshop Series

MRBN is offering a new workshop opportunity to engage Maine community members to increase knowledge around systemic injustice. This series was created by Sultana Khan, a New England based consultant who has worked with Maine youth, educators and community members to increase their understanding and activism around social change.

Anti-racism education builds resilience for everyone. Evidence shows that systemic injustice has a negative effect not only on the marginalized community members who are directly impacted, but every community member, regardless of identity. Studies support the idea that when communities take action to address racism, outcomes for every group improve.

MRBN will offer a three-part series that focuses on three outcomes: education, acknowledgment, and action. Each 90 minutes session is unique and attendees can choose to take one or all three.

The series will be offered each month; August, September, and October. The dates for August are Wednesday, August 5th 11am - 12:30pm; Thursday, August 13th 6pm - 7:30 pm and Tuesday, August 18th 9am - 10:30am. The dates for September and October will be announced soon. 

The cost to attend each session is $30 for MRBN members and $40 for non-members. Additionally, MRBN will set aside $5 per attendee to donate to Maine-based organizations supporting people of color. Each session is limited to 30 attendees. Each session is an independent program and the three programs do not need to be taken in a specific order. 

Session 1: Bias & Brain Development - Wednesday, August 5th 11am - 12:30pm

This workshop will use Daniel Kahneman's theory of fast and slow thinking to explain how representation, societal structure, and brain development create a culture of biased thinking and behavior. Attendees will take the Harvard Implicit Bias test prior to the workshop and will receive follow up materials to practice unlearning their own biases. REGISTER NOW 

Session 2: Microaggressions - August 13th 6pm - 7:30pm 

This workshop will expose and explain the subtle nature of microaggressions, which are defined as "daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental communications, whether intentional or unintentional, that transmit hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to a target person because they belong to a stigmatized group." REGISTER NOW

Session 3: A Racial History of Maine - August 18th 9am - 10:30am 

This workshop will explore the history of racial prejudice in Maine, from the persecution of residents of Malaga Island to the KKK to the history of US relations with the Tribes that have lived in this area for thousands of years. This real history is a necessary component of anti-racism education for Mainers. REGISTER NOW 

Building Resilience With HOPE:
Healthy Outcomes of Positive Experience - September 15

The Maine Resilience Building Network invites you to join colleagues from Maine for a one-day virtual conference on HOPE (Healthy Outcomes of Positive Experiences); a framework co-authored by Dr. Robert Sege from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. The program begins at 9am and will conclude at 3:00pm.

We now know that positive childhood experiences have dramatic effects on brain growth and development and also on later adult health. HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences) outlines approaches that we can take to incorporate a more holistic understanding of human development. The keynote address will describe the science of HOPE, and lay out the four pillars of HOPE. These pillars describe the common elements of programs that have been successful in promoting child and adolescent development.

Following the keynote, we will have a series of interactive sessions, designed to bring this new scientific understanding into practice. These sessions will explore four areas of implementation of HOPE: (1) HOPE-based intake and assessment, (2) How HOPE supports empathy with individuals who may have had childhood trauma, (3) Programming that creates Positive Childhood Experiences, and (4) Monitoring and improving HOPE-informed implementation.

This daylong session will leave participants, from trainee to experienced practitioners, with new approaches and concrete skills to improve the effectiveness of their work with young children and their families. All professionals are invited to attend: social workers, healthcare providers, guidance counselors, educators, child and family advocates, public health and behavioral health professionals, therapists, policy makers and public safety officers. Continuing Medical Education is offered for this program.

Registration Fees: $75. member rate, $100. non-member rate, $30. full-time student rate.

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Cultivating Resilience: Promoting Hope, Healing and Flourishing in Maine  -  November 12 & 13​

Please join us for a two day virtual event featuring speaker Dr. Christina Bethell, PhD,MBA, MPH. Dr. Bethell is a Professor at Johns Hopkins University in the Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she advances a new integrated Science of Thriving to promote early and lifelong health of children, youth, families and communities. 

Each day, Dr. Bethell will offer a unique keynote presentation from 10:00am -11:30am.

The first keynote address, We Are the Medicine: Building an EcoSystem to Take Healing and Flourishing to Scale, will allow participants to learn about the science of flourishing amid adversity and approaches to prevent and mitigate the impact of ACEs to promote resilience. In this address, Dr. Bethell will present research evidence supporting bold policies and strategies to translate the science of flourishing into health, education and social services and policy.

The second keynote address, Prioritizing Possibilities: Leveraging the Power of Relationships and Family and Community Engagement to Catalyze and Sustain Flourishing, will take a deeper dive into the science and anatomy of a healing relationships and community engagement to address childhood adversity and promote well-being. She will discuss the neuroscience principles behind the mandate for effectively engaging families and the community to assess priorities, define success and partner to improve and tailor health, education and social services.

Dr. Bethell will facilitate community forums each day from 1:00pm-2:30pm. During these sessions, participants will have the opportunity to reflect on approaches to promote flourishing amid adversity in their current work, review existing strategies and services, evaluate how current work to promote flourishing and healing and assess the impact of adversity and trauma and assess the well-being of their workforce and leadership.

All professionals are invited to attend: social workers, healthcare providers, guidance counselors, educators, child and family advocates, public health and behavioral health professionals, therapists, and policy makers. We encourage community organizations and coalitions to attend. There will be a break from 11:30am - 1:00pm for lunch. You may stay on zoom or rejoin for the afternoon community forums.

Registration Fees: $75. member rate, $100. non-member rate, $30. full-time student rate.

REGISTER NOW

HOPE Webinar Summary: Frontline Stories of Inspiration, Concern, and Self-Care 

May 26, 2020 by Chloe Yang in HOPE Blog and ACE's Connection 

Last Monday, Dr. Robert Sege was invited by the Maine Resilience Building Network (MRBN) to speak about HOPE and Positive Childhood Experiences during an interactive webinar. Usually an in-person meeting, the gathering attracted nearly 300 virtual participants. Our Zoom screens were tiled with pages and pages of faces, front-line workers across Maine who continue to serve families during this time. Among the audience were teachers, social workers and mental health professionals, clinical and medical practice based staff, school nurses, and those who work for organizations serving children and families. At the heart of the meeting, Dr. Sege turned the spotlight on these important workers, giving them a platform to share stories of inspiration, concern, and self-care with each other. Below, Kini-Ana Tinkham, MRBN’s executive director, sheds light on MRBN and the virtual event. Read more...

Inside the ACE Score Strengths, Limitations and Misapplications with Dr. Robert Anda

Dr. Robert Anda, Co-Principal Investigator and designer of the ACE Study, explains strengths and limitations of the ACE Score. He explains why the growing popular movement to use the ACE Score for screening patients, assigning risk, and making clinical decisions for individual patients is a misapplication of the ACE Study findings.

Watch the video:  https://youtu.be/Kfx5vOHFfxs 

Other resources: 

https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0...   https://www.aceinterface.com/

MRBN Members & Friends:  Please seek help right away if you have trouble coping or feel overwhelmed or are worried about a friend or loved one. The Maine Statewide Crisis Hotline is available 24/7. For assistance, call  1-888-569-1112 or call 211, Maine's Resource Line. The Teen Peer Support Text Line 207-515-8398, for ages 14-20, staffed by people under 23 years old.

Please view MRBN's Wellness Resources