Preventing Childhood Trauma
Reduce or prevent over 40 negative health outcomes by addressing childhood trauma.
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), an identified set of abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction factors for youth, have a direct relationship with over 40 negative health outcomes. If you have 4 or more, your risk for heart disease, drug use, suicide attempt, and school problems increase significantly. And 2/3rds of Americans have at least one ACE.1
CEO Bernard Tyson tapped the Garfield Center designers with an audacious challenge: eliminate ACEs altogether.
In order to understand the complexities of negative childhood experiences, primary research and immersion was done to see into the lived experience of trauma. The team interviewed both individuals with ACEs and organizations working in this space.
I wouldn’t have stood in line and said ‘I’ll take that childhood.’ But I don’t think I’d be who I am today if I hadn’t. The degree of pain that I’ve felt, I think is the degree of love and compassion you can feel. But nobody should do that to a kid.
Jane, ethnography participant, 7 ACEs
20 year lower life expectancy for those with 6+ ACEs as compare to those with no ACEs.1
The proposed system focuses on the developmental stages of children and families. It aims to create connections, scale, and measurable outcomes not possible with today’s landscape of disparate offerings. It has the potential to create a comprehensive village of supports and resources wrapped around a family from day one to disrupt the cycle of trauma and live more healthy years.
12.2x more likely to attempt suicide if 4+ ACEs vs someone with none.1
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- ACEs Study, Filetti, et al., 1998
- ACEs Study, Filetti, et al., 1998 and Burke NJ, Hellman JL, Scott BG, Weems CF, Carrion VG. The impact of adverse childhood experiences on an urban pediatric population. Child Abuse & Neglect. 2011;35(6):408–413