How to increase community-wide resilience and decrease inequalities due to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs): Strategies from Walla Walla, Washington.

How to increase community-wide resilience and decrease inequalities due to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs): Strategies from Walla Walla, Washington. J Prev Interv Community. 2019 Jul 09;:1-17 Authors: Longhi D, Brown M, Barila T, Reed SF, Porter L Abstract Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) negatively impact community-level social problems, education, work, mental, and physical health beyond the effects of economic and political inequality. This paper summarizes the evidence that community-wide resilience moderates such impacts and examines how resilience can be increased by strategic interventions focused on community capacity building; Trauma-Informed Practices (TIPs) by staff in community organizations; and cultural change. Findings from three formative research evaluations in Walla Walla, Washington, show how community capacity was increased, trauma-informed practices were implemented across local organizations, and a school's culture was transformed. Common elements of change were shifts in: mindsets, collaborative relationships, and organizational values/structures. These changes enabled the adoption of scaffolded, equity-based, innovative interventions that can potentially decrease economic and racial/ethnic disparities by preventing the progression of ACEs into adult adversities, poverty, and discrimination. PMID: 31288691 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Tags: J Prev Interv Community Source Type: research