Over the past three years, Minnesota Communities Caring for Children (MCCC) has worked to raise awareness about brain development, ACEs, and resilience statewide using the national ACE Interface curriculum. To date the organization has trained more than 130 Minnesotans from diverse communities to present this curriculum and help foster community responses.

 

This summer, Maxine Freedman of Macalester College interviewed 29 members of MCCC's network to assess the impact of this work on presenters as well as the ripples of impact taking place in communities. In doing so she learned that audiences are receptive to the curriculum and that it validates what they already know about themselves and their communities. She also heard powerful stories from presenters about their experiences, which she documented in a comprehensive report.