Visual Artist Brandan bmike Odums, Family Tree, 2020 Spray Paint on Canvas, Newcomb Museum
Welcome to the New Orleans ACE’s Connection community. This space is for community members who want to make New Orleans a more compassionate, equitable, and healing-centered city. We want to use our knowledge of ACEs and other evidence-based, positive youth development approaches to enhance our understanding of both individual and community experiences so we can be agents of positive change. Our children deserve to live in thriving environments that foster healing and hope.
New Orleans is a vibrant city rooted in a deep culture of art, music, dance, and inspiration. Unfortunately, the hidden roots of racism, firmly planted in our systems, are less observable and under acknowledged. As youth interact with these systems, these interactions shape their trajectories. When youth who have experienced trauma navigate environments that are ill-equipped to address their specific socioemotional needs, not only is success impeded, but toxic stress and continued traumatization can occur. Trauma, caused by racism, is often viewed as a lack of personal resilience rather than being attributed to the systems that are causing oppression and suffering.
Our children are not their trauma. Narratives portrayed in the modern-day collective focus on the individual without acknowledging systemic factors. These narratives have provided distorted and inaccurate portrayals of communities of color, specifically Black youth. We need to flip the script. In order to holistically engage and serve our youth, systemic factors must be addressed. Individuals do not live within a vacuum and when they present with trauma, the structural causes such as poverty, housing, food insecurity, and racism should be the lens through which we view solutions. Solutions like access to high quality healthcare, quality education, affordable housing, safe spaces to have fun, and culturally sensitive environments. With the voices of youth as our guide, we are working to change this narrative, raise awareness, and advocate for changes in practices and policies.
These efforts began with a city-wide resolution to make New Orleans a more compassionate and trauma-informed and have transformed into a community-wide mission of creating healing-centered systems where our youth can thrive. The voices and experiences of youth are the driving force behind this work. The youth of New Orleans are leaders, creators, outspoken advocates, and activists who know their needs, hopes, and dreams better than anyone. They are not damaged or broken but need systems that work for them rather than against them. Rather than putting the burden solely on youth to survive these toxic systems, those working with our young people must imagine the creation of new and thriving structures and advocate for systems-level change. .We are positioned to move forward with a comprehensive plan to respond to systemic trauma, leverage city-wide partnerships, and create healing environments for our youth to thrive. They say it takes a village and with your help, we can begin the process of making our village well.
This page will be updated regularly and under the resource tab you can find articles, videos, and podcasts. We want this to be an interactive and engaging space and we encourage you to leave comments and share your own knowledge and experiences. Our calendar will reflect events and activities geared towards both youth and adults. We’d love to hear what you think about this approach to disseminating and gathering information related to childhood trauma or your interest in participating in adding additional content. Please do not hesitate to reach out to CYPB at info@nolacypb.org if you have any questions about the platform, would like to participate as a blog author, or if you have any additional content you think should be added.
We look forward to building this community with you!
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