Policy and Practice October 2011 : Page 32
locally speaking The state legislature has made reduc-tion of ACEs a priority with the recent passing of House Bill 1965 which states: “The legislature finds that adverse childhood experiences are a power-ful common determinant of a child’s ability to be successful at school and, as an adult, to be successful at work, to avoid behavioral and chronic physical health conditions, and to build healthy relationships. The purpose of this chapter is to identify the primary causes of adverse child-hood experiences in communities and to mobilize broad public and private support to prevent harm to young children and reduce the accu-mulated harm of adverse experi-ences throughout childhood.” And that ”the legislature recognizes that many community public health and safety networks across the state have knowledge and expertise regard-ing the reduction of adverse child-hood experiences and can provide leadership on this initiative in their communities.” As part of implementing the legis-lation, the Family Policy Council will transition from a government-run entity to a public-private partnership. Community Networks will be linked to this new partnership and will continue leveraging every available resource for the reduction of adverse childhood experiences through close, ongoing partnerships with hundreds of non-profit, government, philanthropic, faith, education, business, medical, child welfare, justice, public health, and neighborhood initiatives. Rob Anda, co-principal investigator of the ACE Study, is excited by the prac-tical application of his research. “Trust the people of the State of Washington to use this information,” Anda said. “What’s happening here with the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study is extraordinary; it exceeds all expectations.” This past year, the Walla Walla Network invited Anda to speak to community residents. One resident, Annett Ridenour, calculated that she had an ACE score of 10—she had experienced every adversity during her childhood. She shared this aware-ness, saying, “something happened.” Annett acknowledged that previously she had just been “going through the motions” and now “I’m in the middle of it, I’m involved. You know that say-ing, ‘It takes a village to raise a child’? It’s my favorite saying in the world. Because my village came together.” Today, Ridenour is the lead parent rep-resentative to the Children’s Resilience Initiative in Walla Walla. Ridenour is one of more than 47,000 professionals and lay leaders volunteering time in Network-supported roles to create new possibilities, shift our expectations and produce extraordinary results. Theresa Y. Barila is the coordinator of the Walla Walla Community Network. Laura Porter is the staff director at the Family Policy Council. Annett Ridenour is the parent repre-sentative at the Children’s Resilience Initiative. Sasha Silveanu is the policy advisor/ story tracker at the Family Policy Council. Health Care, from page 28 resources may be available to support such activity. Developing a network of health and human service providers is a way to launch a community needs assessment while creating an entity that will continue contributing in the future to the fabric of a community’s safety net. A key ingredient to building a suc-cessful network is engaging a knowl-edgeable and respected organization, which does not provide direct services, to facilitate. The Florida Public Health Institute continues to serve this func-tion in Palm Beach County. There are several good reasons for this approach including: The facilitating organization does not compete for funding among member organizations. Few public agencies have the staff and time to dedicate to such an effort. An independent organization is not constrained by political boundaries. The facilitating organization may identify opportunities to utilize the network to help address public health issues that transcend the immediate mission of any single member agency. By supporting the formation of, and active participation in a local human service collaborative like the Community Health NETwork, human service agency leaders may play a vital role in assisting their organization and their entire community in navigating the challenges and opportunities pre-sented by federal and state health care reform in the face of shrinking budgets and increased demand. Claude Earl Fox is the executive director of the Florida Public Health Institute. Debora Kerr is the chief financial officer of the Florida Public Health Institute. 32 Policy & Practice October 2011
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