When it comes to funding for children and youth, the bulk of grantmaking dollars tend to go toward things like early learning programs and other education initiatives. But some would argue that many of these grants only offer Band-Aid solutions and don’t get to the root of the problem of children growing up in poverty. That’s why a funding effort targeting childhood trauma caught our attention in the five-county area surrounding Austin, Texas.
St. David’s Foundation, a big health conversion foundation operating in this region, seems always to be trying something new, and it has the resources to put serious muscle behind its priorities. One of the Texas funder’s latest endeavors is focused on preventing childhood trauma and building resilience, a strategic priority based on research about adversity early in life as a major predictor of who will develop serious health problems and encounter a wide range of social problems later in life.
Research on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) suggests that children who are exposed to stress, violence and upheaval in their families and neighborhoods are at risk for a range of negative outcomes later on, including risky and violent behavior, poor education performance, chronic health conditions, incarceration, and poverty. Researchers believe that one way to fight this phenomenon increase kids' resilience so that they can bounce back from adversity, even when circumstances are out of their control or beyond their comprehension.
[For more on this story by Alyssa Ochs, go to https://www.insidephilanthropy...rauma-and-resilience]
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