By Oniska Blevins | The Selma Times-Journal

Counselors and educators from around the state joined the Alabama Department of Child and Neglect Prevention Thursday morning as the organization held a screening for the documentary “Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope” at the Walton Theater.

The award-winning documentary touches on how toxic stress can trigger hormones that have a negative affect on the brains and bodies of children, and increases their risk for disease and early death.

It also documents how pediatricians, therapists, educators and communities are using brain science to understand and fix the problem.

Sallye Longshore, director of the Alabama Department of Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention, said she first saw the movie at a conference and knew she had to do something with it.

“Once we saw it, we knew we had to bring it to Alabama,” she said.

The organization works tirelessly to ensure children’s safety.

“The mission is really to solely focus on the prevention of child maltreatment,” she said. “We do that through strengthening families and advocating for children.”

After the movie, there was a question and answer session led by Longshore. Each panelist was asked questions pertaining to the movie, and to share their perspective. The panelists included District Judge Robert Armstrong III, Knox Elementary guidance counselor Latasha Mckinley and Bloom House founder and director Kristen Jones.

Armstrong said after watching the film, it is obvious that hope and resilience lies within the children.

“I think hope results in resilience. When we see the children experience hope, they are resilient,” he said.

Adding insight from an educator’s perspective, Mckinley said the movie provided a lot of strategies to help combat child abuse.

“I think the teachers in the school system and everyone in the school system can benefit from this movie,” she said.

She said it would be a good idea to show the film to teachers during training to further fight the issue head on. McKinley believes school staff is more than just teachers (and/or) administrators. They can be the missing piece in a child’s life.

“In the movie, they said a stable adult in a child’s life builds resilience,” she said. “ It’s very important for a child to have that stable adult.”

Mckinley believes teachers and school administrators can serve as that stable adult for children that do not have a good example at home.

Working in the foster care system, Jones said she sees a lot of children that are at risk and it takes more than the resources. It takes a little love and more attention to make a difference.

“Aside from just resources, that’s good and all, but it goes into more like relationships,” she said.

“We provide art classes, cooking classes …we have people in play that are gonna to come in and change the trajectory of the way they go through the system and give them as normal a childhood as we can.”