Every day, social service providers, youth workers, and community leaders support people whose lives may have been shaped by trauma. Understanding those experiences and identifying opportunities to create safety, connection, and belonging is critical in helping communities thrive.
Crim brought that work into focus through our recent in person and virtual workshop series, Beyond Childhood: The Lifelong Impact of Adverse and Positive Childhood Experiences. These workshops helped social service providers and professionals learn about trauma, and encouraged them to consider how their work can help reduce the impacts of adverse childhood and community experiences while increasing positive experiences.
The two-part program paired an introduction to Adverse (and Positive) Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, with a screening of Broken Places, a documentary exploring childhood adversity and resilience through the lens of 3 families. Led by Theresa Roach, Crim Special Projects Manager and a Michigan ACEs Initiative Community Champion, the series addressed the neuroscience and biology of toxic stress, the ACEs study, and Positive Childhood Experiences. The screening provided a starting point for discussion about collaboration, resource navigation, and policy and systems change.
“The impact of ACEs, trauma childhood experiences, can last well into adulthood and result in dangerous and unhealthy behaviors, physical illness, addiction and social challenges,” said Roach. “ Working with families and professionals who can help create safe, stable, and nurturing relationships and environments is an essential role in prevention.”
For Crim, this education is a starting point for action. The people who attended work in spaces where families seek assistance, young people build relationships, and residents connect with their communities. Reaching these professionals creates an opportunity for learning to extend beyond the workshop and inform how support is offered.
That can mean considering how a program builds trust, how a service helps people feel welcome or how an organization connects families with resources. These are practical opportunities for leaders to bring a trauma-informed perspective to their work and create more supportive experiences for the people they serve.
The series also emphasized the importance of positive childhood and community experiences. Alongside efforts to address adversity, Crim is encouraging leaders to consider how they can strengthen relationships, expand opportunities for connection, and help people experience a sense of belonging.
This work is part of Crim’s broader commitment to community well-being. By bringing education to those who work closely with individuals and families, Crim is helping lay the groundwork for more informed, compassionate responses to trauma.
