In the last four years I have done informational interviews with hundreds of compassionate people involved in the prevention of childhood adversity, trauma and maltreatment. Those employed by child welfare work with data every day. They may not enjoy working with numbers but they understand their importance.
My conversations with many of those working to prevent adverse childhood experiences has been different. Time and time again my non-profit agency colleagues are asked, "Why do we need data to prevent trauma?"
It's a fair question. The answer is simple. Preventing childhood trauma for our most vulnerable family members means addressing the conditions children and parents are living, learning and working in.
We need to understand the social determinants of health and health disparities.
We must assess the quality and quantity of ten vital services that help families thrive: behavioral health care, medical care, safe housing, stable food, transport to key services, youth mentorship, early childhood learning programs, family-centered schools and job training.
We collect data to assess a community's capacity to support families. We use data to answer the question: are the strategies we're using having a meaningful impact on children at risk for trauma?
If we fear data, we won't be able to measure our efforts.
If we learn to use a data-driven and collaborative approach, which includes collecting numbers (quantitative data) and the stories of our residents (qualitative data), we can build a result-focused citywide strategy to end ACEs.
Our children deserve nothing less.
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