Essentials for Childhood Community Corner Highlights Butte County Work

This community corner features the great work that is happening in Butte County to create baseline awareness about ACEs, in order to implement trauma-informed programs and policies. Butte County leaders became interested in addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) after learning about the high burden of ACEs in their community through the Center for Youth Wellness’ Hidden Crisis report. The Hidden Crisis document uses the same data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System that is now available on the Child Adversity and Resilience data topic.
The work in Butte began by identifying champions to rally around the issue of child adversity. These champions came together to form a collaborative that sought to educate county folks about ACEs by leveraging existing relationships. The ACEs data provided the frame to talk about trauma not only as a family issue but also as a social determinant, cross-sector, and county-level issue. Furthermore, the ACEs data made it easier to talk to various community members about why adversity matters and how everyone shares in the responsibility for improving the lives of children and families. When talking with various individuals, Butte leaders and champions presented their message about the burden of ACEs and then used it as a platform upon which to strengthen the argument and to ensure community buy-in. The idea was to first create awareness about ACEs in the community, and then to use this basic understanding of ACEs to identify and promote trauma-informed and resilience-based solutions.
The dedication of this collaborative has led to several ACEs and trauma-informed solutions:
• Several schools have adopted ACEs awareness resolutions;
• The First 5 Commission has also put ACEs into their strategic plan;
• Butte County Public Health Community Improvement Plan includes ACEs; and
• Butte County has created a trauma 101 training with a champion model.
Working to address child adversity is not an easy task, however the Butte County collaborative has been able to break down silos and begin the conversations needed to implement positive change in their community. For more information, please contact Anna Bauer, Program Manager at First 5 Butte County, at abauer@buttecounty.net.