Predominantly within the 32641 and 32609 zip codes of Alachua County, the elementary schools found in these zones are subject to greater disparities. For example, Stephen Foster Elementary school considers about half of it’s student body to be economically disadvantaged (Florida Department of Education, 2017). Based on the Philadelphia study on expanded ACEs, the importance of developing and implementing an intervention program to combat ACEs within these elementary schools that are subject to greater social and environmental disparities is urgent. For my intervention project, I created a mentor program within the Gainesville community that trains UF students on how to identify ACEs within elementary school children. The elementary school children reside primarily on the east side of Gainesville where "hot spots" of high criminal activity and poverty have been identified. Upon identification of ACEs within the children, the UF students will be given the knowledge and tools necessary to encourage and build resilience within the children they are working with. These UF students will be required to enroll and pass a trauma-informed course prior to beginning the mentor program that will teach them how to build resilience upon identification of trauma within the children they are mentoring. Some of the trauma-informed principles that my project utilizes are safety and empowerment. This after-school mentor program will provide a safe environment for the children and college students to interact. Moreover, this project hopes to instill a sense of empowerment within the children through counseling techniques taught to the college students. Some of the levels of the social ecological model that this project addresses are the individual and interpersonal levels. On an interpersonal level, the project hopes to give college students the tools necessary to build resilience within the elementary school children, thus changing negative thinking patterns and behaviors associated with any trauma within the children. On an individual level, the project hopes to teach the individual children resilience and healthy coping mechanisms as well as effective emotional processing techniques. Lastly, the project hopes to utilize the primary and secondary levels of the Public Health Framework. On the secondary level, the project hopes to identify at-risk school children and then implementing a trauma-informed approach to teach them healthy coping mechanisms early in childhood development. On the primary level, the project hopes to combat and prevent the development of chronic health conditions in adulthood through early intervention using the mentor program.
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