I really want to hear how ACEs Connection has affected your work and life!

Allen: Thanks for your kind words about ACEs Connection. You've been a real inspiration and support as we've grown. I think what you and the other members of the Sonoma County ACEs Connection group are doing can be a catalyst for many other communities, too.

Cheers, Jane 

Adrienne: Thanks for explaining how ACEs Connection has been useful to your efforts in Buncombe County. If you send me a link, we'll post the summit in the calendar. I hear that Elizabeth will be working with you to start your group on the network. That's terrific! 

Cheers, Jane

Speaking as a program analyst and evaluator, ACES Connection is a fantastic model, but it could easily have turned out quite differently. For example, many groups produce newsletters, in which content is selected, edited and shaped to meet a specific perspective. The communication is primarily from “provider” to “user.” Instead, ACES Connections strives to create a “community” in which opinions and content are unfiltered and most importantly, communication occurs between the “members.” This is especially important in a field that acknowledges the extent to which persons may feel alone, isolated and unheard.

Now you might say that building a web-based community is not a new idea, and I agree. But we have all seen instances of well-intentioned programs that failed due to poor execution. A critical part of the success of this site is the recognition that giving people a way to connect to others is sometimes even more important than giving them content. ACES Connection has helped me to connect personally to several persons I had known for years, but previously interacted with only on a professional basis. It has also introduced me to many other like-minded people. Additionally, the staff (especially Jane Stevens) make a real effort to come to meetings to provide information, encouragement and support. The Sonoma County ACES Connection Group formed because ACES Connections provided the impetus to help us move from “Yes, but I don’t have the time” to “Yes, we can!”

How you help people matters. Creating a distributed social network may seem obvious now, but I think it was the design element that turned a good idea into a great one.

As mentioned above, the ACEs Connection project has help the Asheville Buncombe County, "Innovative Approaches" grant Project, specifically our ACE Collaborative in exponential ways. This Collaboartive is made up of a diverse array of community stakeholder leaders, from various sectors of the community that come together to discuss, the affects of ACEs and how to build trauma-informed systems of care and build resiliecy within our community. As the coordinator of this group, being a part of ACEs Connection has allowed me to gather excellent, nation-wide reports, stories, resources and news quickly, and disperse it to leaders quickly. Our community would like to announce the 2015 Southeastern Regional ACEs Summit: Building Resilient, Interdisciplinary Workforces, Communites and Families, September 24th-26th, here in Asheville, North Carolina. We hope that being a part of ACEs Connection will help to make this Summit a success for all involved. Thank you for all of your dedication to being on top of the latest news and tools for this incredibly important topic.

Thank you, Melissa! We're excited to learn more about the activities in Asheville and Buncombe County!

The "Innovative Approaches" grant project coalition in Asheville/Buncombe County, NC, has been helped tremendously by this ACEsConnection.com website.  It enables the ACE Sub-Committee members to be more informed about up-to-date progress around the country.  Actually, the idea to create this website to help connect those of us who are early adopters/early champions for this work ... was brilliant!  It has been heartening to know others are trying to accomplish the same things we are here at the local / county level, as well as so helpful to keep up with more information - such as which cities are striving to become the first trauma-informed court system and research studies on ACE scores of the military during draft vs volunteer times.  Thanks to all who designed, created, and maintain this tremendous website/resource!

Thank you, Alison! This is very helpful. And Sonoma County is making such great progress!

It has been great having the support of ACEs Connection in our evolving group in Sonoma County. ACEs Connection has helped give us a direction to work towards in getting the important messages around ACEs out more thoroughly in our community. The tools, data, forwarded reports, feedback, advice, and encouragement have all been helpful. Thank you, ACEs Connection!