By the Capacity Building Center for States, Children's Bureau Express, March 2022
"A healing-centered approach to addressing trauma requires a different question that moves beyond 'what happened to you' to 'what's right with you' and views those exposed to trauma as agents in the creation of their own well-being rather than victims of traumatic events."—Dr. Shawn Ginwright (2018)
The landmark Adverse Childhood Experiences Study helped us understand the effects of adverse experiences (ACEs) on health outcomes, but it did not discuss the buffering effect of positive childhood experiences (Bethell, 2019). Research on positive experiences shines a light on the importance of a system that actively supports and cultivates resilience more than identifying past traumas.
The Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences (HOPE) framework provides actionable approaches that focus on family strengths and foster both child and family resilience, in effect building up positive experiences to mitigate the impact of adverse experiences. The framework identifies four building blocks:
- Relationships (both within and outside the family)
- Safe, equitable, and stable environments for living for positive childhood experiences (HOPE, n.d.), playing, and learning
- Social and civic engagement
- Emotional growth through playing and interacting with peers
A collaborative, community approach to using the HOPE framework or a similar protective factor approach can help bridge and coordinate services across systems, such as health, family support, and child welfare, all of which could be facilitators of positive childhood experiences.
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