Divorce can be hard on anyone. For the children and families who experience it, there is the potential for stress, uncertainty and grief, among other challenges. That is universal.

But for families who have access to insurance for mental and physical care, who have financial resources, and who have the social supports to withstand the tumult of separation, a divorce might turn out differently than for those families who do not.

“A child that experiences an Adverse Childhood Experience in the context of privilege has a different outcome than a child who experiences ACEs in the context of adverse community environments,” says Victor Rodriguez of the Tacoma/Pierce County Health Department. “We see the impact of this through time. Privileged families have protective factors that mitigate the trauma.”

For this reason, Rodriguez is among the Pierce County partners center their work on what The Building Community Resilience Collaborative calls the “pair of ACEs”: Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adverse Community Environments.

The Adverse Childhood Experiences as identified in the original study are well-known; examples of Adverse Community Environments are:

• Poverty
• Discrimination
• Poor housing quality and affordability
• Lack of opportunity, economic mobility and social capital

 Rodriguez explains that Adverse Community Environments can (1) set up the space for trauma, (2) compound trauma, and (3) create community trauma.

“Whole communities are experiencing trauma,” Rodriguez says. “These environments produce symptoms that are visible at the individual level.”

In Pierce County, Rodriguez is not alone in this understanding and approach. The health department is among a network of partner organizations working alongside community members to address this complex, systemic issue on multiple fronts.

“We need a multi-layer strategy: one that protects and mitigates, and one that addresses the root causes,” Rodriguez says.

That means a systemic approach to policies and environments, as well as programs that implement the Strengthening Families Protective Factors. That takes partnership.

Susan Barbeau, executive director of First 5 FUNdamentals of Pierce County, is a driving force behind the partnership and networks that power this multi-layered approach. Her organization is the backbone of a county-wide movement called Project Child Success. For years, Barbeau and her partners have been working to make Pierce County a “child-centered community.”

The Strengthening Families Protective Factors serve as a guide and a tool for Project Child Success to bring together partners – including the Tacoma/Pierce County Health Department – in ways that address the pair of ACEs.

“We’re bringing together over 100 partners to create a common language,” Barbeau says. “Strengthening Families helps with this because it's broad enough that everyone feels welcome, but it’s also specific enough for people to see their part.”

Project Child Success is also living out its commitment to cultivate community action. That means doing business differently. Like setting up “Growing a Child-Centered Community” conversations. Project Child Success partner organizations ask parents to host conversations with their peers that start with a simple question, “If you are put in the most child-centered community in the universe, what do you see and what do you notice?”

Barbeau says the venues for these conversations have been diverse, from churches to shelters to family support centers, and the parents have different life experiences and economic means. Participants learn from each other and have even been spurred into action for hyper-local issues that matter to them. Of course, Project Child Success is taking detailed notes and plans to use the information to champion solutions that work for communities.

“This is truly community-driven actions and solutions,” Barbeau says. “It’s not a top-down approach.”

To learn more about the Tacoma/Pierce County Health Department’s resilience-building programs, email Victor Rodriguez, vrodriguez@tpchd.org.

To learn more about Project Child Success and to see ideas generated from the Child Centered Community conversations, visit projectchildsuccess.org/about.