The Burke Foundation’s Executive Director Atiya Weiss penned an op-ed on NJ.com about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), in collaboration with Curtland Fields, President and CEO of the Turrell Fund, and Dr. Arturo Brito, Executive Director of The Nicholson Foundation.
In 2018, the Burke Foundation formed the New Jersey ACEs Funders Collaborative with the Turrell Fund and the Nicholson Foundation to support programs in New Jersey for the benefit of vulnerable children and families. The jointly written op-ed discusses key findings from the Collaborative’s recent report, “Adverse Childhood Experiences: Opportunities to Prevent, Protect Against, and Heal from the Effects of ACEs in New Jersey.”
ACEs are stressful or traumatic events that occur in childhood, which can involve violence, abuse, and neglect, as well as exposure to substance misuse, mental illness, and parental incarceration. Research shows that chronic environmental stressors can deeply affect a child’s brain development, often resulting in long-term harm to physical, mental, and emotional health and higher rates of chronic disease and premature death, among other negative outcomes.
The op-ed highlights the striking statistic that 40% of New Jersey’s 2 million children have experienced at least one ACE, with more than 18% experiencing multiple ACEs. As such, the article emphasizes the urgency of this pervasive issue and outlines a multi-pronged strategy to prevent and mitigate the effects of ACEs, while calling for action from society at large.
Though ACEs can pose a grave risk to children’s health and well-being, Weiss and her co-authors are careful to note that they are preventable, and children who experience them can heal from their effects. Indeed, the authors stress the need for increased support to prevent ACEs, and help affected children recover from trauma and develop resilience in order to avoid negative consequences down the line. They reference various ongoing initiatives, in and beyond New Jersey, to raise public awareness and address the specific challenges that at-risk children face.
More broadly, the authors assert that policy decisions concerning ACEs will have long-lasting impacts – not only on the health of individuals, families and our communities, but also on the future economic health of the state: “When we prevent ACEs and provide effective support when ACEs can’t be prevented, we lay the groundwork for a healthy workforce and a stronger economy.” This point highlights the far-reaching effects of the collective decisions we make today. A rallying call to action from the grassroots up, the op-ed argues that we all have a role to play in protecting New Jersey’s children in order to ensure a more promising future for our economy and society as a whole.
To read the op-ed, click here.