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California’s ACEs Aware Initiative Awards $19.5 Million in Grant Funds to Increase Capacity to Screen and Respond to ACEs and Toxic Stress

On September 16, 2022, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) announced $19.5 million in ACEs Aware funding to 25 teams across California. The awarding of funds was done in partnership with the Office of the California Surgeon General (CA-OSG), UCLA-UCSF ACEs Aware Family Resilience Network (UCAAN), and Population Health Innovation Lab (PHIL), a program of the Public Health Institute (PHI).

Network of Care (Round 2) Planning Grant Report

The Network of Care Round 2 report is focused on the 26 Network of Care Planning grants designed to support communities whose Medi-Cal providers were in the early stages of screening for ACEs and contemplating approaches for coordinating across clinics, community-based organizations, and social services agencies. This report outlines areas where Network of Care Planning grantees achieved success and where challenges emerged.

The ACEs Aware Video Storytelling Series

The ACEs Aware Storytelling Series consists of videos capturing the broad impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) across California and the power of the work of the ACEs Aware initiative, which trains health care providers to screen, recognize, and respond to ACEs and toxic stress.

The ACEs Aware initiative is a first-in-the-nation effort to screen patients for ACEs to help improve and save lives. The initiative produced this video series to expand the reach and impact of ACEs Aware by connecting with Californians, encourage providers and care teams to…

Community Spotlight: Dr. Shannon Thyne

Dr. Shannon Thyne is a Co-Principal Investigator of the UCLA-UCSF ACEs Aware Family Resilience Network (UCAAN). She is a Vice-Chair in the Department of Pediatrics, Chief of Pediatrics at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, and Director of Pediatrics for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.

She is also a board-certified pediatrician with leadership experience in clinical operations, medical education, and clinical care for children and youth in the safety net. Her clinical and academic areas of focus include asthma, foster care, childhood adversity/resilience, and behavioral health.

Dr. Thyne earned…

Healing from Toxic Stress with Dr. Nadine Burke Harris

In this installment of the ACEs Aware Storytelling Series, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, California’s first Surgeon General, defines the toxic stress response and its potentially harmful impact on health, especially in children. She also discusses evidence-based practices that individuals can adopt to regulate the biological stress response and improve health outcomes. 

Learning with ACEs: An Educator’s Story

The latest installment in our ACEs Aware Storytelling Series illustrates the life-changing power of trauma-informed practices when implemented in schools. Laguna High School, an alternative high school that worked with the Sonoma County Office of Education to better understand ACEs and their potential impact on learning, has experienced significantly improved outcomes after adding daily trauma-informed practices for its students.

July 2022 Data Report: 793,000 Medi-Cal Beneficiaries Screened for ACEs

The ACEs Aware initiative has released a new quarterly data report detailing the number of Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) screenings conducted for children and adults in California between January 1, 2020, and September 30, 2021. The data show that Medi-Cal providers – primarily pediatric, family medicine, and behavioral health professionals – conducted approximately 987,500 ACE screenings for more than 793,000 unique Medi-Cal beneficiaries.  

The report also tracks the number of clinical team members that completed the “Becoming ACEs Aware in California online training between…

Healing from ACEs: A Parent’s Story

The second story in the ACEs Aware Storytelling Series features a conversation between parent and public health leader Linda Baggio and California’s first Surgeon General, Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris. Linda discusses her personal experiences with ACEs and her commitment as a parent to disrupting intergenerational transmission. 

ACEs Aware In Action – Highlights from the First-Ever Grantee Conference

On May 16-17, 2022, more than 200 people attended the first-ever ACEs Aware in Action: Innovations and Lessons Learned grantee conference in Long Beach, CA.   

Attendees had the opportunity to network in-person, choose from nearly two dozen sessions, and listen to inspiring presentations and panels from leaders in the ACEs and trauma-informed care movement. 

Opening Plenary
The conference began with a welcome and opening remarks from Jennifer Ryan, Executive Vice President of Aurrera Health Group, the organization that launched the…