How a data-driven and cross-sector ACEs prevention program was launched in Owensboro, KY.

Dominic Cappello has been working in the arena of childhood health and safety for decades, advocating for the safety of children through numerous organizations including CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocates). The challenges associated with ACEs have always been clear but until I read the book Anna, Age Eight, I was not sure how we would mobilize an entire county around prevention that produced results.  

The authors of Anna, Age Eight come from child welfare and public health, and are strong advocates for data-driven and cross-sector work. With ACEs, it was clear that in order to do work that was both measurable and meaningful, we would have to invest in a very new way of creating a countywide system of safety and care for our most vulnerable families.

Anna, Age Eight provides us with a blueprint for ensuring all our children are safe from adverse childhood experiences and family trauma. It provides a step-by-step process for developing a resilience leaders program that focuses on strengthening services shown to empower children and parents.

With guidance from the book’s co-author Dominic Cappello, founder of Resilience Leaders, leaders from various community sectors worked for six months to customize a strategy for launching our data-driven ACEs prevention initiative.

Today we have 20 agency leaders taking the course and moving from the assessment lesson to planning, action and evaluation. As part of the online course, they are developing innovations that focus on improving services for all children, youth and parents.

Our local Resilience Leaders group, named "SPARKodc" (Social Partners Advocating for a Resilient Kentucky - Owensboro-Daviess County) is forming 10 task forces, each one focused on the 10 sectors addressed in Anna, Age Eight: behavioral health care, medical/dental care, housing, food, transport, parent supports, youth mentors, early childhood education, job and training. Our task forces will be working to improve the quality of 10 vital family-friendly services shown to strengthen families and create trauma-free and safe childhoods.

SPARKodc also sponsored a series of community forums on data-driven ACEs prevention for educators, legislators and the private sector. When Cappello visited, he not only facilitated the course, but presented at the forums and met with family foundations and lawmakers to share the importance of using data to drive ACEs prevention. 

Our forums provided participants with the history of ACEs and how a collaborative and data-driven process can end a very costly epidemic of ACEs and trauma. We are lucky to have a city and county leadership that prioritizes families and have been exceptionally supportive of our work.

We have reached out to our city hall and county governments and school boards, local healthcare providers and business leaders to share the importance of collaborating and doing cross-sector ACEs prevention work which focuses on raising everyone up—so our city is family-friendly, resilient and user-friendly for people of all ages.

We're launching what is considered groundbreaking work in Kentucky and we will be sharing our story, successes and challenges as we create a robust network of ACEs prevention throughout our county. We know our kids and parents are counting on us and we won’t let them down.

For more information about the SPARKodc Resilience Leaders ACEs Prevention Project, contact our SPARKodc Manager Ashley Evans-Smith, MSW at SPARKodc.org