More and more health care professionals are beginning to understand the importance of addressing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and their impact on an individual’s health and well-being. To promote community engagement and knowledge of ACEs and resilience, AFMC has hosted an ACEs & Resilience Summit every year for the last seven years. This year’s summit theme was the power of belonging. In case you were not able to attend this year’s Summit, here is a brief recap of the enlightening presentations, thought-provoking discussions, and practical strategies shared during this impactful event.
Dr. Christina Bethell, Positive Childhood Experiences
Dr. Christina Bethell was our keynote speaker at the Summit. A professor at Johns Hopkins University at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and Medicine, Dr. Bethell's research focuses on building and translating the science of healthy development to promote early and lifelong health of children, youth, families, and communities. Her presentation focused on new research and approaches to promote child flourishing and family resilience even amid adversity by using a positive approach to health that fosters belonging and positive childhood experiences.
Dr. Bethell presented a wide variety of peer-reviewed research showing that advances in the sciences of human development create unprecedented opportunities to proactively advance child well-being. Breakthrough findings across disciplines point to a new science of thriving that often illuminates untapped capacities for the promotion of healthy development and healing despite adversity. Given high rates of adversity, healing is prevention.
Here are some other key takeaways from Dr. Bethell's presentation:
- Like in quantum physics, when we peer deeply into the science of human flourishing, we find at its roots our fundamental interconnectedness.
- The resistance to the disturbance is the disturbance.
- The prevalence of emotional, mental, or behavioral conditions is 3.6 times lower among children who experience two or more ACEs when they are taught resilience.
- Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
- By learning resilience, every human has the ability to flourish, even amid adversity and illness.
Morning Panel, Building Positive Childhood Experiences: The Role We All Play
After Dr. Bethell's presentation, we heard from three panelists, Geania Dickey with dot2dot Consulting, LLC; Keesa Smith, JD, from Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families; and Reverend Haley Jones Wells from First United Methodist Church in Little Rock. The panelists came together to discuss their roles in building positive childhood experiences. Their panel shed light on the importance of using a strength-based approach in all interactions with children and their families. Individuals must focus on the whole child with an understanding among adults that it is imperative to consider all the domains of development, cognitive being one of many. Each panelist spoke about their unique backgrounds and how each of their organizations worked to promote positive connections in the community. Geania comes from an educational background, Keesa from a law and policy background, and Haley from a faith-based background.
Geania’s organization dot2dot Consulting works to facilitate trusting relationships and collective decision-making among partners and allies striving to build healthy professional and educational environments. Her work involves strengthening internal and statewide systems and identifying solutions that foster collaboration and operational insights. She develops curricula and trainings, builds certification systems, facilitates conversations, and guides outreach strategies for a variety of organizations.
Keesa is the executive director of the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (AACF), an organization that provides leadership, research, and advocacy to promote reforms that improve the lives of children. Keesa spoke about the work AACF is doing to improve children’s lives. Keesa mentioned that many of us speak out about wanting to speak with our local representative or congressman to express our concerns about various political topics, but the number of us who actually do it is slim. AACF has been a voice for Arkansans and has led efforts to balance our tax and budget systems, including victories of exempting most low-income families from the state income tax and closing day predatory payday lenders.
Haley discussed a faith-based approach to ensuring children and families live their best lives. First United Methodist Church, in addition to offering church services for the community, connects individuals to local community-based organizations to assist them with other needs. Haley mentioned that ensuring all of an individual’s non-health needs are met is the key to building positive relationships among children and families. Through making connections, individuals can learn to thrive and build resilience over negative experiences.
Abtin Mehdizadegan & Tamika Edwards, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
The day's third presentation focused on equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging (EDIB). Abtin Mehdizadegan and Tamika Edwards discussed the methods they use to implement EDIB in their workplace.
Here are the key takeaways from Tamika's presentation:
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion are the vehicles that lead to belonging. Belonging is the outcome.
- People are essential to ensuring the work moves forward.
- The four elements of belonging are when you are seen, when you are connected, when you are supported, and when you are proud.
- In the workplace, if an employee does not feel seen, supported, proud, or connected with the organization, they do not feel that they need to be there and will not provide prime or optimal productivity. If any of these elements is missing, problems arise.
- There is a root cause of issues in the workplace, which often boils down to negative experiences as a child.
- EDIB can be embedded at work through benefits, recruitment, employee engagement, learning and development, and a positive overall employee experience.
Here are the key takeaways from Abtin's presentation:
- Think about diversity and equality in your organization like a high school dance. Everyone is represented, but who is actually doing the dancing? What does it matter if you have a diverse group of people if nobody is doing the dancing?
- Diversity is not enough. If diversity is being invited to the party, inclusion is being invited to the dance.
- At an organization, your job is to find where people aren’t dancing and to use self-actualization strategies to invite them to the dance.
- Relationships and belonging at a younger age have a huge effect on belonging in the workplace.
Afternoon Panel, Fighting for the Right to Belong — Perspectives from Lived Experience & Advocacy
Our second panel of the day discussed lived experiences regarding belonging. The panelists, Drew Aston, Shalinda Woolbright, and Melody Riley.
Drew is a graduate of ACCESS Academy in Little Rock, a school that offers full-time education, therapy, training and activities for children and youth with learning disabilities. ACCESS Academy offers the most comprehensive special education program in Arkansas, serving students aged 5 to 21 with a curriculum focusing on essential academic subjects, including oral expression, comprehension, spelling, reading instruction, written expression, and math. Drew discussed his experience growing up with a learning disability and being made fun of by his peers. Drew excelled at ACCESS Academy and went on to represent Arkansas at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Through self-actualization and a strong sense of connection with his family and friends, Drew overcame the odds and continues to live his best life.
Shalinda is a person in recovery who works as a certified Peer Recovery Specialist in the community and runs Northeast Arkansas Divine Intervention, a non-profit organization offering peer support for those suffering from mental illness, substance abuse, and intellectual disabilities. Shalinda shared her struggles as an individual who is recovering from substance abuse. She discussed how she uses her experiences to help others who are going through the same thing. Though there are many stigmas associated with drug use, Shalinda said NEA Divine Intervention offers individuals a place to go where they feel they belong. She works to help individuals stay sober and turn their lives around.
Melody Riley is the executive director of the Grand Prairie Job Center, which focuses on meeting the needs of adults with developmental disabilities through various programs so they can live as independently as possible. At the center, adults work on job skills, such as being on time, being responsible, asking for help when needed, and working at a comfortable pace. During the panel, Melody discussed one of the most recent programs the center is working on teaching individuals at the center American Sign Language. Melody described the excitement she saw on individuals’ faces when they realized they were learning a second language. The Grand Prairie Job Center believes that individuals should be given as many opportunities as possible to live their best lives.
Dr. Rhonda Mattox, Burying Something to Prove at the Coerner of Lay My Burdens Down
The final session focused on self-care and learning to recognize the “black sheep” who does not belong. As a psychiatrist and head of the Arkansas Medical, Dental, and Pharmaceutical Association, Dr. Mattox discussed that, though she didn’t choose psychiatry, she was born into it. She explained that when her mother was pregnant with her, her mother experienced such severe depression that she almost committed suicide. Luckily, they both lived and now Dr. Mattox lives her life working to prevent the tragedy of suicide. She went on to explain that because she always felt that she had something to prove throughout her life, it wasn’t until she learned to lay her burdens down that she truly came out of her shell and began to truly appreciate her worth.
Here are the key takeaways from her session:
- Give mental health a fair shot. Throw your concerns out the window with regard to social stigmas you may experience for going to therapy and be concerned about your future.
- Your children, your community, and you deserve to be the happiest you possible, so lay down the burdens of other people’s expectations of you and get the help that you need from a licensed professional.
- When people reject you, you stand in your authentic truth. Be who you are, and you will be a magnet to others who respect you, and you won’t have to fake or put on for them.
- Start where you are, use what you have, and do what you can.
- You may not have an MD, JD, or PhD, but you have a voice, and that’s just as powerful to the world around you.
Overall, the 2023 ACEs & Resilience Summit provided a wonderful opportunity for the community to get together and learn about overcoming the odds, respecting others, and being true to who we are. If you missed the Summit, we hope to see you at next year’s summit.
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