The 2022-2023 Adverse Childhood Experiences Work Group identified the following priorities for action planning. Work group members engaged in discussions and review of best practices and resources related to community-led solutions and data. The work group recognizes there is a strong correlation between poverty and ACEs. Strategies that reduce poverty, such as increasing employment opportunities with living wages and affordable housing reduce stress on families, which results in preventing many of the ACEs.

• Improve data available on trauma and ACEs at the local level
• Increase funding for and embed community-rooted, culturally affirming family and community support programs into existing initiatives

The Adverse Childhood Experiences Work Group began action planning during their work group meeting on June 15, 2023. Other considerations included who should be at the table and available resources. 

Priority: Improve data available on trauma and ACEs at the local level

• Action Step:
  • Get grant (Referring to Essentials for Childhood funding opportunity from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).)

Priority: Increase funding for and embed community-rooted, culturally affirming family and community support programs into existing initiatives

• Action Steps:
  • Explore groups who are doing this successfully to learn best practices (in NC and other states)
  • Any training done on trauma-informed communities for state leadership would include strategically formed discussions that include everyone – bring local voices to training
  • Informing foundations and other funding institutions about ACEs work happening at state level and local districts.
  • Institutions with power redirect funding or use existing funding to programs that meet this criteria
  • Identify where there are barriers to access to funding
  • Find opportunities for local organizations to build relationships with funding, Hold ourselves accountable to build relationships with local organizations
  • Identify organizations that have resources
  • Create checklist to help non-profits and other organizations to know what requirements are in order to access funds from institutions with power
  • Provide TA to organizations to get to point where they can access funding
  • Finding new ways to communicate with non-profits so they can know what funding might be available.
  • Prepare organizations without 501c3 about how to access funding
  • Identify local organizations which can help grassroots organizations (not state, county governments),
  • Create network/bank of organizations who could serve as a “fiscal sponsorship organizations” – manage HR, fiscal side of things
  • Provide TA, advocacy to funding agencies about how to fund grassroots organizations and help them understand the barriers. (What it might look like administratively.)
  • Changing federal statues – advocacy with policy makers.

June 15, 2023, 2:00 to 3:00 pm, Work Group Meeting

Co-Leaders: Wanda Boone, Mebane Boyd; Absent: Gerri Mattson

Attendees: Catherine Joyner, Elizabeth DeKonty, Ellen Carroll, Micha James, Molly McCambridge, Sharon Hirsch, Trina Stephens

Discussion:

• Reviewed prioritized policies:
  • Increase funding for and embed community-rooted, culturally affirming family and community support programs into existing initiatives
  • Improve data available on trauma and ACEs at the local level
• Received an update on the Essentials for Childhood funding opportunity from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Notification on if the grant is received or not will occur in August.
• Reviewed at the previous work group meeting the group discussed opportunities and barriers to community-led solutions. Similar ideas were combined to guide action planning.
• Began identifying potential action steps for “Increase funding for and embed community-rooted, culturally affirming family and community support programs into existing initiatives”:
  • Explore groups who are doing this successfully to learn best practices (in NC and other states)
  • Any training done on trauma-informed communities for state leadership would include strategically formed discussions that include everyone – bring local voices to training
  • Informing foundations and other funding institutions about ACEs work happening at state level and local districts.
  • Institutions with power redirect funding or use existing funding to programs that meet this criteria
  • Identify where there are barriers to access to funding
  • Find opportunities for local organizations to build relationships with funding, hold ourselves accountable to build relationships with local organizations
  • Identify organizations that have resources
  • Create checklist to help non-profits and other organizations to know what requirements are in order to access funds from institutions with power
  • Provide TA to organizations to get to point where they can access funding
  • Finding new ways to communicate with non-profits so they can know what funding might be available.
  • Prepare organizations without 501c3 about how to access funding
  • Identify local organizations which can help grassroots organizations (not state, county governments),
  • Create network/bank of organizations who could serve as a “fiscal sponsorship organizations” – manage HR, fiscal side of things
  • Provide TA, advocacy to funding agencies about how to fund grassroots organizations and help them understand the barriers. (What it might look like administratively.)
  • Changing federal statues – advocacy with policy makers.
• Identified next steps were to continue refining the action steps and determine specific steps including how, who is going to be at the table, what specifically is the plan, if action steps should be prioritized, and if subgroups are needed for different action steps.  Another next step would be creating a logic model to identify intermediate steps more closely. This work will be ongoing after July.  

May 18, 2023, 2:00 to 3:00 pm, Work Group Meeting

Co-Leads: Mebane Boyd and Gerri Mattson; Absent: Wanda Boone

Attendees: Catherine Joyner, Elizabeth DeKonty, Ellen Carroll, Ingrid Bou-Saada, Kella Hatcher, Micha James, Molly McCambridge, Morgan Forrester Ray, Stacie Kinlaw, Trina Stephens, Trishana Jones

Discussion:

• Reviewed prioritized policies:
  • Increase funding for and embed community-rooted, culturally affirming family and community support programs into existing initiatives
  • Improve data available on trauma and ACEs at the local level
• Received an update on the Essentials for Childhood funding opportunity from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The focus of the funding is to expand from child maltreatment prevention to all ACEs prevention with an emphasis on data to action. The data is intended to inform implementation strategies.
• Discussed what allows a community to implement community-led solutions and barriers to community-led solutions being implemented. 
• Discussed creative, no-boundary solutions and strategies to address the community-rooted priority. Themes included:
  • Provide built in planning time to fund opportunities to provide stability for communities to determine what their community needs.
  • Let the community share what they want and need and work with them instead of for them. Allow time for the community to develop their plan and be able to shift focus based on community needs over  funding years.
  • Pay communities for their ideas to lead the planning and solutions. Fund people to lead the solutions within their communities.
  • Consider assistance with payroll, reporting, infrastructure, etc.; such as a regional hub. A similar model is being used with doulas in the Medicaid model; successful networks have an entity providing infrastructure support.
  • Engage community peers to work with communities to translate what they need share in grant speak and have cross-working teams with mutual respect.  

April 20, 2023, 2:00 to 3:00 pm, Work Group Meeting

Co-Leads: Wanda Boone, Mebane Boyd, and Gerri Mattson

Attendees: Na'im K. Akbar, Jess Bousquette, Elizabeth DeKonty, Kella Hatcher, Sharon Hirsch, Micha James, Trishana Jones, Molly McCambridge, Morgan Forrester Ray

Discussion:

• Reviewed the policies prioritized at the previous work group meeting.
  • Increase funding for and embed community-rooted, culturally affirming family and community support programs into existing initiatives
  • Improve data available on trauma and ACEs at the local level
• Shared an update regarding a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) from the CDC for PACEs and ACEs data.
• Discussed the following questions related to, “Increase funding for and embed community-rooted, culturally affirming family and community support programs into existing initiatives.”
  • What organizations in North Carolina are working to embed community-led solutions?
  • What is being done from the statewide perspective to embed community-led solutions?
  • What allows grassroots organizations to lead community-led solutions?
  • What gets in the way of grassroot leadership?/ What are roadblocks?
  • How do we/they overcome those roadblocks?
• Identified next steps were to ask the questions discussed to more community-based organizations to better understand the actions needed to increase funding and embed community-rooted, culturally affirming family and community support programs into existing initiatives. 

March 16, 2023, 2:00 to 3:00 PM, Work Group Meeting

Co-Leads: Wanda Boone and Mebane Boyd; Absent: Gerri Mattson

Work Group Members Present: Na'im K. Akbar, Sharon Hirsch, Micha James, and Catherine Joyner

Discussion:

• Discussed clarifications on the strategies the work group would be voting on for their top four strategies. There were 13 strategies total across all four of the big buckets.
• Voted on the top four strategies. The results of the voting survey from the work group members present and the work group members that submitted their top four strategies prior to the meeting were:
  • 8 votes: Increase funding for and embed community-rooted, culturally affirming family and community support programs into existing initiatives
  • 6 votes: Improve data available on trauma and ACEs at the local level
  • 5 votes: Ensure businesses promote family friendly workplace policies, including flexible scheduling, etc.
  • 5 votes: Increase access to affordable quality childcare
  • 5 votes: Increase trauma informed procedures and treatment in schools
  • 4 votes: Develop communication and advocacy guides specifically developed for local ACEs/ resilience task forces
  • 3 votes: Develop public awareness campaign about the Four Realms of ACEs
  • 2 votes: Gather information on mental health delivery systems in early childhood care, primary care, schools, and specialty care across North Carolina
  • 1 vote: Develop a guide to educate on the Four Realms of ACEs
  • 1 vote: Increase trauma informed procedures and treatment in early childhood care
  • 0 votes: Increase intentional funding support for services for childhood exposure to domestic violence
  • 0 votes: Increase trauma informed procedures and treatment in primary care
  • 0 votes: Increase trauma informed procedures and treatment in specialty care
• Reviewed the top strategies and discussed questions, comments, and clarifications. Work group members present all agreed on the importance of including funding when embedding community-rooted, culturally affirming family and community support programs into existing initiatives. 
• The top two strategies identified for action planning were:
  • Increase funding for and embed community-rooted, culturally affirming family and community support programs into existing initiatives
  • Improve data available on trauma and ACEs at the local level

February 16, 2023, 2:00 to 3:00 pm, Work Group Meeting

Co-Leads: Wanda Boone, Mebane Boyd, and Gerri Mattson

Work Group Members Present: Catherine Joyner, Elizabeth DeKonty, Micha James, Na'im K. Akbar, Sharon Hirsch, Stacie Kinlaw, Trina Stephens, and Trishana Jones

Others Present: Kathy Dail and Liz Star

Discussion:

• Reviewed the goal for the NC SHIP Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Work Group was to reduce North Carolina Children with 2 or more ACEs from 23.6% to 18% by 2030.
• Wanda Boone provided an overview of SAMHSA’s (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) Strategic Prevention Framework and the Seven Strategies for Community Change from the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA).
• Discussed capacity for advancing policies and strategies for consideration related to the four big buckets.
  • Expand Community Prevention Programs
  • Increase Access to Economic Supports
  • Increase Access to Children’s Mental Health Services
  • Data
• Determined next steps were to:
  • Clean up the policy lists to identify strategies, resources, etc.
  • Add additional descriptions of what is meant to provide more context on the topics of the strategies
  • Share any annotations related to policies they were passionate about.
  • Vote on strategies at the next work group meeting under each of the policy buckets

January 9, 2023, 12:30 to 1:30 pm, Work Group Meeting

Co-Leads: Wanda Boone and Mebane Boyd; Absent: Gerri Mattson

Work Group Members Present: Catherine Joyner, Elizabeth DeKonty, Ingrid Bou-Saada, Jess Bousquette, Kella Hatcher, Micha James, Morgan Forrester Ray, Na'im K. Akbar, Sharon Hirsch, Stacie Kinlaw, Susanne Schmal, Trina Stephens

Discussion:

• Reviewed the prioritized policies from the work group meeting on December 12, 2022.
  • Expand community prevention programs
  • Increase access to children’s mental health services by expanding mental health services in primary care, schools, and specialty care
  • Increase access to economic supports
  • Data
• Discussed and added responses to asset mapping questions for each of the prioritized policies. Updated two of the prioritized policies as follows:
  • Increase access to children’s mental health services by expanding mental health services beginning at birth in primary care, schools, specialty care, and early childhood care
  • Identify data related to ACEs and resilience

December 12, 2022, 12:30 to 1:30 pm, Work Group Meeting

Co-Leads: Wanda Boone, Mebane Boyd, and Gerri Mattson

Work Group Members Present: Catherine Joyner, Crystal Taylor, Elizabeth DeKonty, Ellen Carroll, Jess Bousquette, Melissa Radcliff, Micha James, Sharon Hirsch, Stacie Kinlaw, Trina Stephens, and Trishana Jones

Discussion:

• Provided an overview of the North Carolina State Health Improvement Plan and shared that more priorities and policies can be discussed. The work group is not limited to the prioritized policies.
• Discussed what was missing from the prioritized policies and any related plans. Revised the prioritized policies as follows:​​​​​​
  • Expand community prevention programs
  • Increase access to children’s mental health services by expanding mental health services in primary care, schools, and specialty care
  • Increase access to economic supports
  • Data 
• Shared next steps were to add additions for asset mapping for each of the prioritized policies to the Jamboard or email responses before the next work group meeting on Monday, January 9, 2023, at 12:30 pm.

October 19, 2022, 9:00 to 11:00 am, Work Group Meeting (Short-Term Suspensions, Adverse Childhood Experiences, and Third Grade Reading Proficiency)

Co-Leads: Gerri Mattson, Jessica Lowery Clark, Laura Gerald, Letha Muhammad, Mary Mathew, Mebane Boyd (Absent), Wanda Boone

Work Group Members Present: Amber Pierce, Amber Robinson, Carlton Powell, Crystal Kelly, Crystal Taylor, Dawn Meskil, Devonya Govan-Hunt, Dr. Ronda Taylor Bullock, Elizabeth DeKonty, James E. Ford, Jess Bousquette, Karen Fairley, Kella Hatcher, Micha James, Morgan Forrester Ray, Na’im Akbar, Reverend Paul Robeson, Paula Wilkins, Peter Rawitsch, Rebecca Swofford, Stacie Kinlaw, Susanne Schmal, Trina Stephens, Trishana Jones, Vichi Jagannathan,

Discussion:

• Reviewed purpose of the work group, grounding/group norms, and overview Healthy North Carolina 2030 and North Carolina State Health Improvement Plan (NC SHIP).
• Divided into breakout sessions for Short-Term Suspensions, Adverse Childhood Experiences, and Third Grade Reading Proficiency to review, discuss, and prioritize policies. Prioritized policies by indicator breakout session are included below.
• Shared next steps were for the work group to complete asset mapping for each of the prioritized policies. The indicators will meet separately going forward and will discuss strategies and action planning at the December meetings. Work group members are welcome to join multiple indicator groups.

Indicator 5: Adverse Childhood Experiences Breakout Session

• Co-Leads Present: Wanda Boone
• Work Group Members Present: Crystal Taylor, Jess Bousquette, Kella Hatcher, Na’im Akbar, Rebecca Swofford, Stacie Kinlaw, Susanne Schmal, Trina Stephens, Amber Robinson, Elizabeth DeKonty, Micha James, Morgan Forrester Ray, Trishana Jones
• Prioritized Policies:
  • Expand community and domestic violence prevention programs
  • Increase access to children’s mental health services by expanding mental health services in primary care, schools, and specialty care
  • Increase minimum wage and employment opportunities

August 15, 2022, 2:00 to 4:00 pm, Co-Lead Planning Meeting (Short-Term Suspensions, Adverse Childhood Experiences, and Third Grade Reading Proficiency)

Co-Leads: Wanda Boone, Mebane Boyd, Laura Gerald, Jessica Lowery Clark, Mary Mathew, Gerri Mattson, and Letha Muhammad

Discussion:

• Set ground rules and norms for the co-leads and work group.
• Reviewed the proposed policy initiatives from the NC SHIP for Indicator 3: Short-Term Suspensions, Indicator 5: Adverse Childhood Experiences, and Indicator 6: Third Grade Reading Proficiency. Identified questions and discussed recommended revisions.
• Planned for work group meetings, including meeting structure and first meeting agenda topics.