Two-day NJ ACEs Lab Generates Solutions to Addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences

On January 8 and 9, the New Jersey Funders ACEs Collaborative brought together cross-sector groups from across the state for the NJ ACEs Lab. The Lab focused on insight-sharing, brainstorming, and planning toward the development of a statewide action plan that will help New Jersey better prevent, protect against, and heal from the effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Facilitated by the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) and Looking Glass Strategy, the Lab utilized Human Centered Design principles to help participants generate, refine, and prioritize actionable ideas.

Keynote speakers Renée Boynton-Jarrett, MD and Police Chief Christopher Leusner providing inspiring examples of creative approaches to communities addressing childhood trauma. 

Last year, the New Jersey Funders ACEs Collaborative–The Nicholson Foundation, The Burke Foundation, and the Turrell Fund–released a report titled Adverse Childhood Experiences: Opportunities to Prevent, Protect Against, and Heal from the Effects of ACEs in New Jersey. The report details the challenges New Jersey faces in addressing ACEs and outlines five Areas of Opportunity for a coordinated statewide response to mitigate their lasting effects.

Teams discuss ideas and recommendations to bring back to their respective sectors on how to approach ACEs in their everyday work.

The education sector's top ideas and recommendations during the NJ ACEs Lab.

From left to right: Evan Delgado, Turrell Fund; Colette Lamothe-Galette, The Nicholson Foundation; Hannah Dubin, The Group Forward; Kamala Allen, Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS); Meryl Schulman, CHCS; Ashley Pinakiewicz, Looking Glass Strategies; Pamela Tew, CHCS; and Aron Lesser, Burke Foundation.