ACEs Connect
Help Me Grow Sacramento is proud to partner with ACEs Aware to launch a public awareness campaign to create awareness around ACEs and steps we can take to support healthier children, families and communities in Sacramento and beyond. The goal of the campaign is to drive awareness about ACEs, its negative impact on children’s health and health outcomes, and encourage ACEs screening to identify and support children who are impacted by ACEs so that they can get the help they need to thrive.
Help Me Grow Sacramento and ACEs Aware’s public awareness campaign aligns with California’s larger statewide effort to reduce ACEs and toxic stress in half in one generation. By inviting parents, communities and health professions to come together, raise awareness and take steps to reduce the impacts ACEs and toxic stress, we can create healthier children now and in the future.
How can I reduce the impact of ACEs as a parent?
1. Learn more about ACEs. Understanding ACEs and learning about how to reverse toxic stress can help you create a nurturing environment for your children so they can thrive.
2. Help your child build resiliency by creating positive experiences, also called protective experiences, to help buffer against ACEs and toxic stress. Help Me Grow Sacramento offers free resources and referrals to support parents and families, including workshops, positive parenting classes and screenings. Click here to explore resources or contact us for a personalized consultation.
3. Screen your child for ACEs. By screening for ACEs, your health care provider can better determine whether your child is at increased health risk due to a toxic stress response and respond with evidence-based, trauma-informed care to help improve your child’s health. Your health care provider offers free ACEs screenings. Have more questions? Contact a Help Me Grow Sacramento team member today.
How can I reduce the impact of ACEs as a community member?
1. Be aware and look for signs of ACEs in children and youth. If you suspect a child is experiencing ACEs or toxic stress, talk to them to learn more and connect them with caring adults who are able and willing to help.
2. Intervene if you suspect a child is experiencing ACEs or toxic stress to lessen immediate and long-term harms as well as providing them and their families with free resources.
3. Support parents and caregivers by working with them to develop the skills they need to understand how to support their children. This can include information and resources on healthy approaches to parenting and how to create healthy relationships. Help Me Grow Sacramento can also provide additional resources and referrals.
How can I reduce the impact of ACEs as a Health Care Provider?
1. Learn more about ACEs. Partner with Help Me Grow Sacramento and be part of the solution to supporting and building healthier children, families and communities in Sacramento County. As a Help Me Grow Sacramento partner, team members will be able to refer families to you and your organization for services and resources.
2. Get certified to screen children, adults and families for ACEs. Becoming certified to screen for ACEs is easy and can be completed in as little as two hours. Sign up, get trained and start screening today at https://training.acesaware.org.
3. Encourage your patients to screen for ACEs. ACEs are common and can have lasting impacts through adulthood. Screening for ACEs is the first step families can take to getting the help they need. Patients may have experienced ACEs in childhood, and those experiences matter, but helping them get the support they need today to reduce the impact ACEs is even more important.
As a health care provider, when bringing up the subject of ACEs screening, it is important to:
Convey empathy and understanding. Help parents and families understand they are not alone. ACEs are common and what happened to them when they were young is important, but how we can support them to continue to build resilience is even more important. It is not too late to build resilience and help reduce the impact of ACEs.
Acknowledge the desire to support their health and well-being. By screening for ACEs, you can better understand their needs and support them by providing the right resources to meet their needs.
Affirm and respect their strengths. Your patients are people first. Affirming understanding and respect for their strengths help to validate their experience and build shared understanding.
Video Resources
Help Your Child Reach Their Full Potential
Credit: Help Me Grow Sacramento
Every child can become a success story with the support of a caring adult. It only takes one person to make a difference. Learn how you can help your child build the resilience they need to reach their full potential and make a difference today.
ACEs Aware: Faces of ACEs
Credit: Merced Educational Television
Developed by the Merced County Office of Education’s Family Resource Center and the non-profit ACE Overcomers partnered as ACEs Aware Grantee, learn about the long-lasting effects of adverse childhood experiences.
What is a Number Story?
Credit: NumberStory.Org
The story of your number is the story of your ACE history. ACEs are Adverse Childhood Experiences. Our ACE history counts experiences of abuse, neglect, and household challenges that happened to us as children. But that number does not define us. It is simply an entry point to our own personal story. Where it leads is up to you.
Additional Resources:
Help Me Grow Sacramento is proud to partner with ACEs Aware to launch a public awareness campaign to create awareness around ACEs and steps we can take to support healthier children, families and communities in Sacramento and beyond. The goal of the campaign is to drive awareness about ACEs, its negative impact on children’s health and health outcomes, and encourage ACEs screening to identify and support children who are impacted by ACEs so that they can get the help they need to thrive.