Jenn O'Connor of Prevent Child Abuse New York and Senator George Borrello (R-NY57)

Before the official start of her day on March 16— a virtual call with staff members of Prevent Child Abuse New York (PCANY) — Jenn O’Connor, director of policy and advocacy for the organization, and I spoke about how her personal life (suddenly becoming a parent who homeschools) and her worklife changed overnight. O’Connor is managing an ambitious effort to create a trauma-informed legislature in New York. She had scheduled 31 meetings to educate legislative staff (often high level legislative directors or chiefs of staff) and some legislators about ACEs science, trauma, and protective factors. Her mind raced with options: Should these meetings be rescheduled or cancelled? Would staff members even be in their offices? Would asking legislative staff to keep the meeting be seen as tone deaf or even insensitive, knowing that the deadline for the state budget was approaching and early adjournment loomed as a possibility?

O’Connor developed an alternative plan that yielded results, both surprising and instructive. 

She decided to offer a phone briefing to staff in lieu of the in-person meetings. To her surprise, more than 20 offices of both parties agreed to talk on the phone. Others requested that face-to-face meetings be rescheduled in the future and accepted the offer to have materials sent. Here are some highlights from O’Connor about how the new strategy worked and the lessons she learned:

—We are still on track to meet with/talk to every legislative office [meetings have been completed with 146 of the total 213 NY legislative offices] by April 30, 2020, which is ACEs Awareness Day.  [It is expected that a resolution similar to one passed in 2019 (Assembly Resolution No. 317) will be introduced soon for this year. The resolution that passed in 2019 applies only to one year as required by New York’s legislative procedures.]

—The pandemic creates receptivity to talk about trauma as it occurs in real time. Children experience this uncertainty/isolation differently than adults. How do we support them? How do we support families who are struggling even more than usual?

—Legislative staff are overwhelmingly engaged. They get why this matters right now. They are looking for concrete ways to help families.

— While we are basically sticking to our standard script to educate legislators and their staffs, we are also being nimble and letting the conversations flow organically. We are finding that some staff just need to talk because they are stressed and isolated. [The script is described in the attached PCANY “New York State Trauma-Informed Legislature Initiative Toolkit,” developed for advocates and others.]

—We send materials ahead of time, as well as a link to the film Resilience. We encourage folks to watch now. This gives people foundational information to build upon in subsequent conversations.

The PCANY toolkit includes a useful meeting script that starts with asking the level of familiarity with ACEs and tips on how to use statistics, research, and stories to sharpen messages, and more.  Much of the content of 12-page document can be used in other states, including a brief framework for issues already familiar to legislators extracted from the National Conference of State Legislature (NCSL) “Strong Beginnings, Successful Lives: A Prenatal-to-Three Policy Guidebook for Legislators.” The toolkit includes a one-pager on the ACE Study, a description of Five Protective Factors, and Definitions of Terms.

O’Connor and her colleague, Maggie Dickson, who presents the clinical perspective in these meetings, believe there is a high level of interest in trauma among legislative offices and some expressed interest in supporting legislation. Several trauma-related bills have already passed in New York (click here for an ACEs Connection story), and recently Assembly and Senate versions of bills have been introduced to start a process to amend the state constitution to require the state to address the prevention and mitigation of ACEs as the legislature determines (A10017/S7884). O’Connor says prospects for this legislation may actually be better now than before the pandemic. 

These are not “backburner issues” now, she says, and are “completely timely and relevant.” Her experience is at least one example of policymakers being eager to hear how the current pandemic will affect children and their families and what strategies are available to mitigate the impact of childhood adversity in both the short and long-term.

We’d love to know if you are working with policymakers now and are having similar or different experiences. Add your comments to the end of this post or contact me directly at eprewitt@acesconnection.com.