Hey everyone! I just wanted to share a recent experience I had as a young professional working to spread awareness of ACEs, trauma and resiliency. Along with being a Community Manager for ACEsConnection.com, I also work for housing at San Francisco State University, where I am completing my Masters in Public Health. Last week, housing completed its Winter Training of student staff (which consists of Resident Assistants). The week long winter training had an entire day of conference style workshops led by housing staff on any topic the presenters chose. I decided to lead a workshop on ACEs and how we can be aware of trauma amongst our housing residents and how we can build resiliency so that they can thrive.

My workshops went well! This can be a heavy topic and can stir up a lot of emotions and triggering memories for many people. But I know that making people, institutions and policies aware of childhood trauma is important so that interventions and interactions are more effective and appropriate. Some workshop attendees pulled me aside afterwards and told me that they are glad to hear that they weren’t the only ones to have had a troubled childhood and they are determined to become more resilient and seek help for lingering issues. Even the Director of Housing was impressed with the workshop as he has heard about the expansion of trauma awareness from some of the trainings he has recently attended. I hope that I am able to work with him to expand trauma awareness and resiliency building in all policies at Housing and beyond in the rest of the university.

This is a short summary of my experience last week. I was nervous at first because of the topic and how people would respond to it. But the workshops went well and people were open to learning about ACEs and acknowledging trauma and that we should be aware of it in our day to day interactions with others. I’m thankful for this opportunity and I am hopeful that a lot more progress will come from this first workshop.

Does anyone else have some experiences from their professional roles in spreading awareness of ACEs and trauma?