ACEs Aware Announces Grant Awards
ACEs Aware Awards Provider Engagement, Provider Training, and Communications Grants
On June 16, 2020, $14.3 million in ACEs Aware grants was awarded to 100 organizations across the State of California to augment our work on the ACEs Aware initiative. In light of the COVID-19 emergency, the grant funding will provide critical support to the community organizations serving Medi-Cal providers and beneficiaries.
The grants have three areas of focus — Provider Training, Provider Engagement, and Communications – and will fund a range of activities that will inform and educate Medi-Cal providers about the importance of screening for ACEs and responding with trauma-informed care. A total of 150 individual grants were awarded across the three categories:
Provider Training: 31 grants were awarded to help educate Medi-Cal providers about the importance of incorporating ACE screening into their clinical practice, as well as how to administer screenings, use clinical protocols to determine evidence-based treatment plans, and provide trauma-informed care.
- Five grants will support organizations in adapting existing or developing new trainings to meet DHCS/CA-OSG “core training” criteria to certify providers to receive Medi-Cal payment for ACE screening; and
- 26 organizations will receive provider training grants to support the development of “supplemental” trainings on key topics to support providers in this work.
Provider Engagement: 83 grants will supplement and promote ACEs Aware activities. These grants will help organizations offer additional opportunities for providers and other stakeholders to share lessons learned and best practices that are tailored to specific geographic areas, patient populations, providers, and practice settings
- 22 organizations received grants to conduct provider engagement to build networks of care;
- 15 organizations will develop peer-to-peer learning strategies;
- 24 organizations will focus on broad-based provider engagement; and
- 22 organizations are receiving funding to develop white papers highlighting best practices, lessons learned, and promising implementation strategies around ACEs screening and trauma-informed systems of care.
Communications: 36 grants will supplement ACEs Aware activities by reaching organization members and other key audiences with information about provider training and engagement opportunities, and to increase awareness about the overall initiative. Organizations will use a wide range of communication approaches to share ACEs Aware information, as well as their own content tailored to their audiences.
The full list of ACEs Aware grantees and total grant amounts is available on the ACEs Aware Grants Page. We believe this work is critical, now more than ever, given the stress so many Californians are experiencing as a result of COVID-19 and role of racial injustice as a risk factor for toxic stress.