/news-archive/tag/ace/ 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Fri, 30 Aug 2019 13:28:09 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 /news-archive/2019/08/30/community-conversation/ Fri, 30 Aug 2019 13:28:09 +0000 /news/?p=74932 ... Community leaders detail how adverse childhood experiences negatively impact African American girls]]> A panel of female community leaders and experts detailed how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have a negative impact on African American girls that can lead to physical and mental health issues in adulthood. The 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Anderson Institute on Race and Ethnicity and the Arkansas Minority Health Commission sponsored the Aug. 8 community conversation that was attended by about 200 people. The event was moderated by Tara Shephard, an author, education and mental health advocate, who hosts an annual girls empowerment conference at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock. The community conversation is based on the results of a report compiled from a survey of conference participants. 鈥淵ou all are here because of the girls. There are normally close to 300 girls who attend the At-Promise Girls Empowerment Conference and 60 volunteers who help me pull that event off. If we don鈥檛 ask the uncomfortable questions today, we won鈥檛 ever answer them鈥� The five panelists included Tjuana Byrd, a juvenile judge candidate; Sharhonda Love, director of the Arkansas Minority Health Commission; Dr. Johanna Thomas, assistant professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; Dr. Sara Jones, assistant professor in the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Nursing; and Keesa Smith, deputy director of the Arkansas Department of Human Services. Adverse Childhood Experiences are defined as 鈥渁ll types of abuse, neglect, and other potentially traumatic experiences鈥� that children experience prior to age 18, according to the Centers for Disease Control. ACEs can include emotional, physical, and sexual abuse; emotional or physical neglect; domestic violence; substance abuse or mental illness in the household; parental separation or divorce; an incarcerated family member, etc. These experiences have been linked to negative consequences in adulthood, including poor health conditions, shortened life expectancy, and an overall poor quality of health. People with high ACE scores are more likely to be violent, to have more marriages, more broken bones, more drug prescriptions, more depression, and more autoimmune diseases. People with an are twice as likely to be smokers and seven times more likely to be alcoholic. Having an ACE score of four increases the risk of emphysema or chronic bronchitis by nearly 400 percent and attempted suicide by 1200 percent.听 People with an ACE score of six or higher are at risk of their lifespan being shortened by 20 years. 鈥淵ou have to pay attention to the whole body, because just paying attention to physical health or mental health is not enough,鈥� Jones said. 鈥淚f we can start this conversation about the impact of ACEs and get more people to understand, we can make a bigger impact.鈥� Arkansas has the highest prevalence of children who have experienced an Adverse Childhood Experience in the U.S. About 45 percent of children in the U.S. have experience at least one ACE, while 56 percent of children in Arkansas have experienced at least one ACE. In Arkansas, one in seven children experience three or more ACEs compared to the national average of one and 10. This can lead to a negative impact on long-term public health issues in the state. 鈥淲hen AIDs became a big epidemic, we did something about it,鈥� Shephard said. 鈥淲e need to look at ACEs as a public health crisis, and this is how we get the conversation started.鈥� Smith said the state of Arkansas is realizing how detrimental ACEs can be to public health and is investigating how to address the issue. In January, the Arkansas Department of Human Services Division of Child Care and Early Childhood Education received a $3.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration on Children and Families that will be used to train staff, parents, and others working with children from birth to 5 years old who have experienced trauma. 鈥淒uring the last legislative session, there came a heightened interest in talking about ACEs,鈥� Smith said. 鈥淭here will now be an interim limited study that explores the impact of ACEs in the state. Adults often do not acknowledge that we had trauma when we were children, and we have a perpetuation. We have a generation that is dealing with the ramifications of their grandparents and parents who have not acknowledged childhood trauma.鈥� African American girls are often more negatively impacted by ACEs. They are the fastest-growing population in the juvenile justice system. In many cases, their crimes are the result of ACEs that have not been dealt with. Experts argue that submitting a child to the juvenile justice often causes more harm than good. 鈥淭he reality is when it comes to criminal or delinquent behavior, that first point of contact is with the police, and there is a great deal of discretion, and that discretion does not favor African Americans,鈥� Byrd said. 鈥淚t is difficult as an African American woman to know who is showing up in those halls in juvenile court. The sad reality is that it all connects to each other. These same numbers of girls who are ending up in the juvenile justice starts from a fight in school, because we have criminalized so much juvenile behavior. I hope we will see change.鈥� Shepard plans to continue the conversation through her annual conference and with all vested stakeholders in throughout the state and in the region. ]]> /news-archive/2018/12/05/ace-president-courtney-little-bowen/ Wed, 05 Dec 2018 14:05:51 +0000 /news/?p=72871 ... ACE President Courtney Little credits law school education with giving him confidence to face life鈥檚 problems]]> With his unique background in law, business, and construction, Courtney Little serves an invaluable role as owner, president, and general counsel of.听 With his experience in construction and real estate law, Little, a graduate of the 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law, said he has become a 鈥渟ource of information for construction people who need legal help.鈥� He enjoys serving his community and is the current president of the American Subcontractors Association, a former member of the 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Foundation Board, and a former member of the Dean鈥檚 Advisory Council at Bowen. 鈥淧eople need advice, and I have the unique skill set of being a contractor and a lawyer as well,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 often do 10 or 12 public engagements a year, and the reason they like me to speak is because I am a normal business guy who knows the law. It鈥檚 easier to follow my thought process.鈥� Little considers himself a bit of a nomad when it comes to schools, citing the 17 different schools he attended growing up, including four colleges and law school, as evidence of his travels. While earning his bachelor鈥檚 degree, Little attended four schools in four years, including more than a year as a student at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock. Little graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science in business management with a focus on finance. Even though his friends encouraged him to go to law school, Little said his head just wasn鈥檛 into law school at the time. He went on to have a successful career. He worked as the liaison between inside sales and architectural sales for U.S. Aluminum in Texas before returning to ACE in 1997. He then opened the Northwest Arkansas branch for ACE in 1998. Little made the decision to pursue law school after a near brush with tragedy in his family. 鈥淎fter 9/11, I said life is short,鈥� he said. 鈥淢y brother was supposed to have lunch in the area of the World Trade Center on that day, but everything happened that morning so instead, he was in a nearby building where he could see it all. We talked and asked ourselves, 鈥榃hat have you not done that you regret?鈥� I always wanted to attend law school, but my head wasn鈥檛 into it right after college. The more I thought about it and prayed about it, I knew it was time.鈥� He enrolled at Bowen in 2002, where he earned a Juris Doctor with Honors in 2004. 鈥淧art of my decision to attend Bowen was location,鈥� Little said. 鈥淲e had just moved back to Little Rock, and I was still running the northwest office for ACE. It was better for our family to stay in Little Rock, and I also liked the practical focus of Bowen.鈥� Attending law school in Little Rock also gave Little the opportunity to gain clerkships that would be valuable to his future law career. 鈥淚 would say something that I would definitely recommend to others is the local clerking opportunities,鈥� he said. 鈥�I got to clerk at four of the largest law firms in the state because I was in Little Rock. I had the criteria they wanted, and was local and available. That was a huge bonus for me. It still pays off today getting to know all the people I did during my clerkships.鈥� In addition to the relationships he made as a law clerk, Little also credits the teaching style of Bowen professors for allowing him to make good long-term relationships with his professors and fellow students in law school. 鈥淚 had great relationships with the professors,鈥� Little said. 鈥淭here is a unique camaraderie between the students and professors. It is more like a colleague educating you on the law. It felt more like job training and I really enjoy that kind of atmosphere. I still have a lot of really great friendships and business relationships from school. I considered everyone on campus a friend, from the librarians all the way up to the dean. It is a very relationship-driven school. It鈥檚 like going to school with friends and family.鈥� After graduating from Bowen, Little opened a private practice. A unique opportunity became available when a deal to buy his family鈥檚 company, ACE, fell through. 鈥淩ight before closing, there was a dispute over some key items, and they terminated the deal,鈥� Little said. 鈥淚 asked my dad, 鈥榃hat is plan B?鈥� When I was watching that transaction, I saw that it was a great business opportunity. I wanted to improve on the foundation my dad had already built.鈥� Little closed his private practice in 2008 when he purchased ACE and was named president and general counsel. His parents started the business in 1986. While originally just a construction company, ACE is now three companies with the addition of ACE Glass Manufacturing and ACE Glass Recycling. Under Little鈥檚 leadership, the company continues to improve and look for the latest technological innovations on the horizon. 鈥淲e are already the largest glass company in the state. Now, we are moving more into manufacturing and automated processes,鈥� Little said. 鈥淣ew team members are hard to find in the current job market. We are partnering with prison ministries for citizens who are trying to return to the workforce. We are also creating some new ways to recover glass, and our long-term goal is to make products out of that glass in the state. We will solve a problem and create new jobs and revenues at the same time. In the next few years, we will also be bringing some new technologies to the market. People bring us interesting glass technologies and problems that need solving, so we will get the opportunity to launch some new glass technologies in the next few years, and that is pretty cool.鈥� Little credits his law education with teaching him the skills necessary to handle any situation. 鈥淏eing a lawyer teaches you what questions to ask, what to learn, and how to figure things out,鈥� Little said. 鈥淭he law covers everything. It guides my personal and business decisions. The law explains life. When you walk into a meeting knowing what the rules are, it gives you a different level of confidence. You have the confidence to say, 鈥楾his is the issue, and this is what we need to do.鈥� I learned a lot of that in law school. Whatever you do as a business owner or employee, a law school education is very diverse and gives you a foundation to do whatever you want to do and works well with whatever skills you already have.鈥� Little and his wife Erika live in Little Rock with their son, Reagan, and daughter, Ella. In the upper right photo,聽Bowen Law School graduate Courtney Little, owner, president, and general counsel of ACE Glass in Little Rock, stands in a two-acre solar array that supplies power to the business. Photo by Ben Krain.]]>