Emerging lessons and potential strategies from the Los Angeles County Trauma and Resiliency-Informed Systems Change Initiative.
There is a hidden danger lurking in communities across California. Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, affect people from all backgrounds, regardless of race, income, education, or geography. Occurring in childhood, exposure to chronic adversity during the most formative years of a person’s development has the potential to reap a lifetime of challenges, including poor health and even early death.
As compelling as the ACEs research is, however, it actually understates the impact of trauma on the health and wellbeing of individuals, families, and communities. The reason is straightforward: there are far more sources of trauma, for children and adults, than the original ten ACEs, including:
‣ Physical, psychological, and sexual abuse experienced after childhood;
‣ Community violence;
‣ Homelessness;
‣ Natural disasters;
‣ Refugee and war zone trauma;
‣ Terrorism;
‣ Oppression, including structural oppression; and
‣ Multi-generational or historical trauma.
