Would you like to get more involved in your community? Come join a Community Engagement Team and help create a great future for Natives living in the Bismarck-Mandan area.

This month’s meeting will focus on Learning How Trauma Impacts You and People You Know. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are negative or traumatic events that some people experience early in their lives. ACEs have been linked to high rates of chronic disease, mental illness, and substance abuse – but having one or more ACEs in your past doesn’t mean you are doomed. This meeting will feature a presentation to explain what ACEs are, how they can change your biology, how they play into historical trauma, and how individuals and communities can work to move forward and heal from the scars in their past.

Presenter Cyndee McLeod has over a decade of home visiting experience, working with families through the Family and Child Education (FACE) program. Cyndee is currently the North Dakota Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program Training Coordinator with Prevent Child Abuse North Dakota (PCAND), as well as a member of the state’s first Adverse Childhood Experiences Master Trainer cohort. Through her work, as well as her personal experiences as a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, she brings a wealth of knowledge of family education, racial inequalities, historical trauma, and resilience.

Refreshments will be served, and there will be games and activities for the kids.

Sponsored by Sacred Pipe Resource Center and Prevent Child Abuse ND.

You don’t need any expertise, education, experience or background to serve on a Community Engagement Team—just a commitment to Native people and causes!