This policy brief examines the impact of ACEs in the education system including promising practices and recommended actions for change. The brief was developed by members of the Illinois ACEs Response Collaborative—system leaders in Illinois who are working from an ACEs-informed lens to improve systems to prevent and mitigate trauma across generations. Rooted in social justice, the brief is a call to action to move upstream, build resiliency, and recognize how addressing inequity and trauma can improve systems while also building resiliency.

This summary policy briefs explores the impact of ACEs in the education system including promising practices and recommended actions for change.

In 2016, the Illinois ACEs Response Collaborative conducted an Environmental Scan of programs addressing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and trauma in multiple sectors. The Scan yielded information from 339 local, state, national and international programs. This paper identifies successful ACE-related policies, programs, and models utilized by these programs highlighting the essential elements and characteristics needed to foster effective interventions .

Augmenting the ACEs Collaborative's larger 2016 Environmental Scan, in 2018 we set out to offer a more in-depth snapshot of organizations working to address trauma. This report, based on an additional round of 27 interviews included five organizations that were part of the original scan and 22 that had not been previously interviewed. As with the 2016 scan, efforts were made to include organizations representing a wide variety of sectors; those that were at different points along the implementation journey; large and small organizations; those who provide direct service; and those that are facilitators of trauma training.

In June 2018, Health & Medicine Policy Research Group (Health & Medicine) and the Illinois ACEs Response Collaborative conducted an environmental scan of health departments across the country that are undertaking a systems change approach towards trauma-informed care. The scan identifies and analyzes common themes across these health departments. Findings will be used to better support health departments across the state of Illinois that are beginning or advancing their journey towards becoming trauma-informed.

How can you provide client-centered, trauma-informed services so that clients are treated with the dignity that all people deserve? Developed in partnership with Collaborative member Sarah Hess, Five How-Tos of Trauma-Informed Practice provides strategies you can use today to make your services more trauma-informed.

The Cook County Department of Public Health’s current community health improvement plan lists structural racism as a ‘fundamental cause of health inequity, associated with imbalances in political power throughout society. It functions to normalize and legitimize cultural, institutional, and personal hierarchies and inequity that routinely advantage whites while producing cumulative and chronic adverse health outcomes for people of color.’ Our testimony lays out that Cook County has longstanding health inequities. Further, racism is a fundamental cause of health inequities. Cook County’s Regional Gang Database (RGID) is both itself a manifestation of and cause of further racism against people of color—in particular against Black people and against immigrants in our county. Our elected officials have a responsibility to be accountable for and redress the harms of RGID.

This policy brief examines the impact of ACEs in the health system including promising practices and recommended actions for change. The brief was developed by members of the Illinois ACEs Response Collaborative—system leaders in Illinois who are working from an ACEs-informed lens to improve systems to prevent and mitigate trauma across generations. Rooted in social justice, the brief is a call to action to move upstream, build resiliency, and recognize how addressing inequity and trauma can improve systems while also building resiliency.

The Chicago AHEC Health Careers Handbook provides career profiles of more than 60 health professions including education, financial aid, job descriptions, and salary information. Careers in health care, personal care and social assistance are projected to experience the fastest industry growth between 2010 and 2020. See what health career path may be right for you!