Be the One is a community awareness campaign to discuss the impacts of Adverse Childhood Experience. We presented Be the One in December 2019 to our Partners, and a subcommittee was created to launch it fully in 2020 with a community showing of the documentary film, “Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope.” These plans were curtailed because of COVID 19.
However in April 2021, the subcommittee was able to put our planning efforts into action for Child Abuse Prevention month. We had weekly actions for members of the community to get involved to bring awareness to Child Abuse Prevention. The first three weeks of April we partnered with local businesses to support them during COVID. April 5th was Coffee for a Cause with Starbucks, April 12th was Chocolate for a Cause with Lazy Dog Chocolateria, and April 19th was Cookies for a Cause with Emily’s Catering and Nevada County Library. These three week’s were leading up to our showing of the documentary film Resilience.
The showing of the Resilience movie was a success! We had nearly 100 community members participate in watching the movie and attending a follow up meeting to answer questions and further discuss ACEs and Child Abuse Prevention in Nevada County. We are appreciative for each member who participated!
We hope to return to our discussions and planning for Be the One sometime in 2021.
If you are interested in learning more about the impact of adverse experience during childhood and the power of connection, please view the materials below or email the CSNNC coordinator.
If you or someone you know if looking for local community services or support, please visit our Partners page.
What are ACEs?
A recent Center for Disease Control briefing shows that Americans who had experienced adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, were at higher risk of dying from five of the top 10 leading causes of death. The original study, which connected ACEs to health effects, was conducted by the CDC and Kaiser, and consequent studies have been conclusive. According to 2014 studies, an estimated 61.5% of adults and 48% of children in the United States have been exposed to ACEs, with more than one-third of these having multiple exposures.
ACEs have been shown to damage the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems in such deep ways that they have altered the physical structures of DNA. This can affect things including learning, attention, decision-making, and emotional regulation, which affects children’s ability to succeed in school and relationships. These effects go on to damage their ability to succeed at all things in life, and can be passed on to their children.
Our community has the power to prevent ACEs as well as to build resilience to mitigate ACEs impacts. If as a nation, we could prevent childhood trauma, it could potentially prevent 1.9 million cases of coronary heart disease and 21 million cases of depression. ACEs prevention includes structural changes, such as providing economic support, quality childcare and early childhood education, and health care approaches.
One important way to build resilience for young people is to have a stable, caring person in their life. The Be the One campaign is a way to introduce ACEs to the community, and encourage them to find ways to Be the One to someone who needs it.
The Be the One campaign was created by Resilient Yolo.