Positive Childhood Experiences: The Future of Child Well-being Programing
Abstract
Georgia Department of Public Health Injury Prevention Program (IPP) celebrates Public Health by leveraging resources, addressing systems change, and prioritizing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) monitoring and prevention. Recently, IPP added a focus on positive childhood experiences (PCEs) to all its ACEs projects. New research highlights the equal importance of preventing ACEs and supporting PCEs to create safe and nurturing environments for children. Studies show that PCEs can negate the effects of ACEs. Children with no ACEs and no PCEs have poorer health outcomes than children with no ACEs and some PCEs. PCEs are a relatively new concept when addressing child and family well-being. There is less research and fewer recognized PCEs than ACEs. The future of child and family wellbeing work, whether it be research or program implementation is shifting towards including PCEs. Learning how to incorporate PCEs in existing and future projects now, will help organizations and agencies maximize the impact of their work, bring in new partnerships, and stay competitive for funding opportunities. Within IPP there are existing resources and models for incorporating PCEs that organizations can learn from. The Essentials for Childhood: Preventing ACEs through Data to Action grant can provide data, data products, and recommendations for PCEs. The PREVAYL project demonstrates the use of mini-grants to support communities in increasing PCEs. The CORE SIPP project is an excellent example of using the shard risk and protective factor approach to address PCEs. The new Comprehensive Suicide Prevention grant shines in its ability to serve disproportionately affected populations by targeting PCEs. Through these examples public health practitioners can learn how to incorporate PCEs into their future work and identify how they may already be addressing PCEs in their existing projects.
Keywords
PCEs, programming implementation, ACEs, partnerships, community participation
Positive Childhood Experiences: The Future of Child Well-being Programing
Georgia Department of Public Health Injury Prevention Program (IPP) celebrates Public Health by leveraging resources, addressing systems change, and prioritizing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) monitoring and prevention. Recently, IPP added a focus on positive childhood experiences (PCEs) to all its ACEs projects. New research highlights the equal importance of preventing ACEs and supporting PCEs to create safe and nurturing environments for children. Studies show that PCEs can negate the effects of ACEs. Children with no ACEs and no PCEs have poorer health outcomes than children with no ACEs and some PCEs. PCEs are a relatively new concept when addressing child and family well-being. There is less research and fewer recognized PCEs than ACEs. The future of child and family wellbeing work, whether it be research or program implementation is shifting towards including PCEs. Learning how to incorporate PCEs in existing and future projects now, will help organizations and agencies maximize the impact of their work, bring in new partnerships, and stay competitive for funding opportunities. Within IPP there are existing resources and models for incorporating PCEs that organizations can learn from. The Essentials for Childhood: Preventing ACEs through Data to Action grant can provide data, data products, and recommendations for PCEs. The PREVAYL project demonstrates the use of mini-grants to support communities in increasing PCEs. The CORE SIPP project is an excellent example of using the shard risk and protective factor approach to address PCEs. The new Comprehensive Suicide Prevention grant shines in its ability to serve disproportionately affected populations by targeting PCEs. Through these examples public health practitioners can learn how to incorporate PCEs into their future work and identify how they may already be addressing PCEs in their existing projects.
