News

State funding opportunity to address Adverse Childhood Experiences

From Leslie Meehan, TN Dept. of Children’s Services  –

The state is seeking innovative projects through Building Strong Brains Tennessee to prevent, mitigate or help persons recover from adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and promote the health and prosperity of Tennessee. Research shows that providing safe, stable and nurturing relationships early in life can buffer the damaging effects of childhood adversity. Tennessee can do a number of things to both prevent and reduce ACEs across the state and to build protective factors in and around children so they can grow up to be healthy, happy and productive adults. The State can implement strategies to reduce the community conditions that are or that contribute to ACEs. Services and projects to be procured with this funding are expected to address the unique features of a community and/or demonstrate that widespread adoption of best practices will contribute to the health and well-being of children and families, and population age and culture groups with similar characteristics. At the same time, the unique, individualized projects contribute to a larger body of knowledge about how to move the state forward through collective ingenuity in addressing ACEs. ACE activities may address any of four levels of concern or a combination of them:

  1. Philosophy and approach to preventing and mitigating ACEs utilizing latest brain science, development of brain architecture, serve and return and impact of toxic stress.
  2. Policies and funding and the extent to which they promote safe, stable and nurturing environments that contribute to healthy brain development and reduce environmental factors that are ACEs such as domestic and community violence.
  3. Programs and services that incorporate the Five Protective Factors—Parental resilience; Social connections; Concrete support in times of need; Knowledge of parenting and child development; Social and emotional competence of children—and that build on the strengths of communities to support children and families, skill-building for parents, trauma-informed schools, responsive business communities and philanthropies.
  4. Professional practices in which cross-fertilization among all professions that touch children and families embrace scientific constructs of developing brain architecture of young children, sensitive periods of development and skill building then and during adolescence and young adulthood, and responsiveness to shaping positive behaviors in parents and others who experienced ACES themselves, and use of communication science in sharing this information. ACEs activities may also address community conditions that are or contribute to ACES.

Approximately $2,185,000 will be available for 15 to 30 innovative projects to be funded under this AOF. No awards will be made greater than $200,000 per year. Favorable consideration will also be given to projects with budgets that are not large yet have great impact.