On February 24, 2021, Dr. Warren Larkin of the UK and Becky Haas of the US launched the first meeting of the Global Resiliency Accelerator. Dr. Andi Clements, of the ETSU Ballad Health Strong Brain Institute chaired the session as well as served as moderator for the Q&A session. Over 60 people from 11 countries joined the event. Among these in attendance were professionals from Lithuania, Australia, Ukraine, Scotland, France, Canada, New Zealand, the US, Dublin and Wales. The Participants' enthusiasm and passion was so great, that several of them had to be up in the middle of the night to attend.
During this 90-minute event. Dr. Larkin gave his perspective on why systems change is essential in order to prevent and mitigate the impacts of childhood adversity and to transform the health and wellbeing of future generations. He also shared the TASC Model (Trauma Aware Systems Change) as a way of conceptualizing the key areas for cross-sector partnership and action. This was followed by Becky sharing her experience of seeing regional acceptance of ACEs as a social determinant to health within rural Appalachia in just four years and the steps taken that can be replicated by cities around the world. She gave examples of advocating for trauma informed care, educating professional sectors and collaborating with stakeholders as well as shared photos from various professional sectors of trauma informed programming being implemented regionally.
The Q&A session was extremely engaged covering public messaging, collaborations within communities and citizens as well as ensuring the voice of people who have lived experience of services and ACEs is heard and acknowledged. Participants also discussed how to work with schools and parents, which will be most critical in any country moving forward.
The event was designed to start a global conversation on the implementation of ACEs science, help accelerate best practices, encourage existing ACEs communities in their work and help to identify ACEs advocates in as many nations as possible. From the response of those attending, this session was a step in the right direction for achieving these aims. It was clear throughout the event that there are those globally who are committed to advancing trauma informed care and resilience science within their nations and a desire from around the world to come together again to share good practice.
Following the event, a survey was sent out to participants to determine the next steps for the group and to decide with what frequency to meet and how this group could best support the ACEs Community efforts in various nations. If you’d like to find out more about the future meetings, you can email either: Dr. Warren Larkin at: wlarkin@warrenlarkinassociates.co.uk or Becky Haas at Becky@Beckyhaas.com
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