An exciting initiative—Building Community Resilience collaborative established by Nemours (part of Moving Health Care Upstream)— is underway in five communities across the country to help child health systems connect with community-based resources to address social determinants (e.g., housing and access to public transportation) in places where children live, learn and play. This post by ACEs Connection member Wendy Ellis includes a short video (less than 3 minutes) about the initiative and what is being done in the South Dallas community near downtown Dallas. Four other sites are part of the program: Washington, DC, Cincinnati, Wilmington, and Portland. Wendy and others will be posting about this project—sharing lessons learned as well as tools and resources developed for the project. More to come….

What builds child resiliency in the face of adversity? Is it a loving home with two parents who themselves feel safe and secure? Is it knowing that you don’t have to worry about your next meal because you have never gone to school or bed hungry? Or is it feeling safe on your block to run, to play; to simply be a child?

Across the country, five communities in the Building Community Resilience collaborative are testing a new approach to prevent adverse childhood and community experiences like these by creating community-integrated coalitions aimed at reducing toxic stressors. Child health systems working with neighbors, faith-based organizations, educational systems, neighborhood associations and cross-sector partners to build a collective agenda to make large scale change.

To read the rest of the article by Wendy Ellis, click here: http://movinghealthcareupstrea...ilience-south-dallas
Photo credit: Screen shot from video (Wendy Ellis (right) and Wendy Ogren,VP of The ChildCare Group in Dallas