ACEs - Interview with Francine Ostrem

Three Questions with Lincoln Families

Tell us about some of the ways the ACEs Aware Grant has impacted Lincoln Families.

The ACEs Aware provider engagement grant lets us share a creative mind-body approach with school-based Medi-Cal providers and the youth they serve, all around the state, in a time of tremendous uncertainty, loss, and stress. Another wonderful aspect of receiving the grant is that we have become part of a dynamic and supportive grantee community. It generates so much hopefulness and momentum to interact with other organizations taking on this fight in different and similar ways.

What activities have you accomplished so far in your grant work?

We have held several sessions in the Psychotherapeutic Art Interventions for Navigating Trauma (PAINT) procedure, reaching 55 early childhood and school-based mental health providers. We are now moving into smaller discussion groups for case-based and shared learning.

Are there any new directions you want to go in because of this ACEs grantee experience?

Lincoln Families has a long history of disrupting poverty and the intergenerational transmission of trauma. So much of what we do is already aligned with the ACEs Aware movement. Through this grantee experience, we have been able to work more closely with the California Surgeon General and have had the opportunity to attend webinars with Dr. Nadine Burke Harris in which she translates the science of toxic stress for those of us who are critical to improving health outcomes but are not doctors. We are now, more than ever, equipped with the knowledge needed to create responsive programs and networks that target toxic stress and associated health conditions