Raising Resilient Oklahomans, Five Years Later

Five years ago, the Potts Family Foundation began a journey that continues to this day. Introduced to the documentary "Resilience: The Biology of Stress & the Science of Hope" in 2017, our immediate reaction was that all Oklahomans need to see this film. From the first screening at Rose State College, we have employed the same format following the film with a moderated panel discussion. Even the pandemic did not set us back, as we created virtual screening opportunities with Zoom discussions. At present, we have shown the film 342 times to 19,661 Oklahomans, including dozens of state and local elected officials and leaders and hundreds of state agency staff. 

The documentary chronicles a movement that began two decades ago following the landmark CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study) led by Dr. Vincent Felitti at Kaiser Permanente and Dr. Rob Anda at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the 1990s. From this study, we learned how multiple forms of childhood adversity can result in important public health problems ― like obesity and addiction ― and are directly connected to serious illnesses like cancer, heart and lung disease and diabetes. The reality is that children in our culture are commonly exposed to chaotic living conditions. In fact, when there was one ACE in the life of a child, 87% of the time at least one other of the nine ACEs also occurred. It also challenges us to learn what we can all do to decrease adversities in children’s lives.

In response to the screenings and requests for “next steps,” in 2019 the foundation sponsored a workshop with ACE Interface’s Laura Porter on how to build resilience in individuals and communities. The NEAR Science (Neurobiology, Epigenetics, Adverse Childhood Experiences and Resilience) walks participants through the latest brain science and how trauma and toxic stress impact the brain and body. It also explains the science of epigenetics and how adversity in one generation can be transmitted to the next generation through bio-markers affecting how our genes are read. The information learned from the original ACEs study and its impact on individuals and public health outcomes is explained in-depth. Finally, participants learned about the power of education around this research, along with capacity building and shared leadership to inform results-based decision-making to create transformational change at the community level. The workshop was attended by 21 cross-sector teams from across the state who continue to do this resilience-building work.