NCIPC Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Funding

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) provides funding for states and communities to track and prevent ACEs.

ACEs Prevention Strategies

The six strategies above are featured in the ACEs Prevention Resource. This resource helps states and communities use the best available evidence to prevent ACEs from happening in the first place and to lessen harms when ACEs do occur.

On This Page

State Snapshots
Funding Over Time
Other Support for ACEs
Additional Resources

More about ACEs

Want to learn more about what ACEs are and how they affect the lifespan?

Learn more

State Snapshots

Select a funded state from the map or data table below to view a snapshot of the ACEs activities supported by NCIPC.

While NCIPC supports other programs that work to prevent and mitigate ACEs, the map below shows funding provided directly to state and local recipients from the ACEs FY21 appropriation. Each snapshot contains:

Overall ACEs 2021 funding, including program categories and recipient information
Key ACEs-related statistics
Examples of how states are working to prevent and mitigate ACEs

Hover over the map to quickly view information about the funding and ACEs-related statistics for each state. Use the filter to see which states are funded for each award: Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences: Data to Action (PACE:D2A) and the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). Please note that YRBS funding was appropriated in FY20 for the administration of the FY21 survey.

Please note that while each state has data about ACEs burden, not all states receive ACEs funding. Only states that receive this funding are linked to a separate state snapshot web page.

ACEs Prevention and Mitigation in Tribal Communities

In FY20, NCIPC began funding tribal organizations through CDC’s umbrella cooperative agreement, Tribal Public Health Capacity Building and Quality Improvement Cooperative Agreement, to prevent and mitigate ACEs among American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN).

The recipients and their associated annual funding amounts are below:

Cherokee Nationexternal icon: $180,000
Wabanaki Health and Wellnessexternal icon: $150,000

The Cherokee Nation also received $3,000 in FY20 to collect ACEs data from tribal youth through their administration of CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). This funding was appropriated in FY20 for use in administrating the 2021 survey.

To read more about ACEs prevention and mitigation efforts in tribal communities, click on the dropdowns for each of the recipients below.

To learn more about other CDC injury prevention efforts in tribal communities, click here.

Data Identification: The Cherokee Nation is working to identify any available sources of data on ACEs and positive childhood experiences (PCEs) within their community, accessing this data, and summarizing it for use in planning prevention strategies.
Surveillance Activities: The Cherokee Nation is adding ACEs and PCEs questions to existing surveillance systems with youth (ages 14-18), such as the Youth Risk Behavior Survey and Oklahoma Prevention Needs Assessment. This tribal organization is also analyzing ACE and PCE surveillance data from additional data sources to identify at least one ACE primary prevention or PCE promotion strategy that could be implemented in the community. Cherokee Nation is directly engaging tribal youth in creating solutions to ACEs through the Up for Learning Program: students will analyze Cherokee Nation YRBS data and come up with their own solutions for the problems identified by the survey. The program introduces youth to public health and creates community-derived solutions to problems like ACEs.

Data Identification: Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness is working to identify any available sources of data on ACEs and positive childhood experiences (PCEs) within their community, accessing this data, and summarizing it for use in planning prevention strategies.
Surveillance Activities: Wabanaki Health and Wellness is adding ACEs and PCEs questions to existing surveillance systems with youth (ages 14-18) and adults (age 18+), including the Waponahki Youth Assessment and Waponahki Health Assessment. This tribal organization is also analyzing ACE and PCE surveillance data and additional data sources to identify at least one ACE primary prevention or PCE promotion strategy that could be implemented in the community.

Top of Page

Funding Over Time

CDC’s Injury Center was first appropriated a budget line for ACEs activities in 2020. Since then, the Injury Center has increased and expanded its funding to a variety of state, tribal, and non-governmental organizations. The visuals below are not comprehensive of all funding related to ACEs, but of major ACEs awards.

Historical Total ACEs Funding

In FY 2020 NCIPC was appropriated a new budget line for ACEs. Initially funded at $4 million, the FY 2021 appropriation is $5 million.

Additional ACEs Funding Information

ACEs Appropriation Breakdown by FY

Where We’ve Been

The Injury Center’s national leadership and increased support to states, tribes, and non-governmental organizations is working to prevent and mitigate ACEs across the United States. Learn more about the key milestones and programs since 2020.

NCIPC has been a leader in ACEs prevention and mitigation efforts even prior to the establishment of ACEs-specific funding at NCIPC. For example, NCIPC’s Essentials for Childhood program began funding state health departments in FY14 to pilot and evaluate strategies to prevent child maltreatment by promoting safe, stable, and nurturing relationships and environments for children. The Essentials for Childhood strategies come from the Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect Technical Package and are very similar to the six prevention strategies that guide the ACEs Prevention Resource.
Given the success of initiatives like Essentials for Childhood and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), in conjunction with the ever-increasing importance of preventing and mitigating ACEs, in FY20 Congress established an ACEs-specific budget line for NCIPC.

The Injury Center was appropriated a new budget line at $4 million for ACEs prevention and mitigation. With this funding, NCIPC supported programs to measure capacity to prevent and mitigate ACEs and conduct research and surveillance activities.
Measure Capacity to Prevent and Mitigate ACEs: The PACE:D2A program funded four states – Connecticut, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Michigan – to support ACEs monitoring and prevention. To ensure recipients’ success in this endeavor, CDC is supporting the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and the Violence Prevention Technical Assistance Contract (VPTAC) to provide different areas of technical assistance. Through the Tribal Umbrella Cooperative Agreement, CDC also funded two tribal organizations to build capacity among tribal recipients to assess, collect, and analyze ACEs and positive childhood experiences (PCEs) surveillance data within their communities and to use that data to identify and plan for ACEs prevention and PCEs promotion strategies.
Surveillance: CDC also funded states, local school districts, and a tribe to collect state-level and tribal ACEs data from youth through their local administration of CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), a survey conducted every two years to monitor health behaviors that contribute markedly to the leading causes of death, disability, and social problems among youth and adults in the United States.

Measure Capacity to Prevent and Mitigate ACEs: The FY21 appropriation was increased to $5 million, allowing the Injury Center to expand the PACE:D2A program to two additional states: Minnesota and New Jersey. The two tribal recipients initially awarded funding in FY20 continued to receive funding to build capacity to prevent and mitigate ACEs.
Surveillance: The Injury Center supported the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) to add ACEs questions to the National Survey of Family Growth, a nationally representative survey of adolescents (15-18) and adults (19-55) on reproductive health and other outcomes.
Research: In addition to these surveillance and programmatic activities, in FY21, CDC will conduct applied research to expand understanding of the type and nature of ACEs, resiliency, and PCEs to inform ACEs prevention and mitigate harmful effects.

Other Support for ACEs

Beyond the $5M ACEs appropriation, CDC supports several initiatives, research, and partnerships to build state and tribal surveillance infrastructure and enhance ACEs prevention and mitigation. Click on the cards below to learn more.

Core State Injury Prevention Program

The Core State Injury Prevention Program (Core SIPP) supports health department infrastructure, data, and partnerships to identify and respond to existing and emerging injury threats with data-driven public health actions. All 23 recipients focus their strategic efforts on preventing ACEs.

Essentials for Childhood

CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention funds seven state health departments to implement the four goals of the Essentials for Childhood Framework. All seven recipients are working to prevent ACEs.

Overdose Data to Action

Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) supports jurisdictions in collecting high quality, comprehensive, and timely data on nonfatal and fatal overdoses and are using those data to inform prevention and response efforts. 33 OD2A recipients focus efforts on preventing ACEs, as well as overdoses.

ACEs Funded Research

Three academic institutions received a research project grant (R01) for preventing violence and violence related injury. These universities and investigators investigate the interaction of ACEs with other factors and forms of violence.

Resilience Catalysts (RC) in Public Health Project

The Resilience Catalysts project funds implementation of the Building Community Resilience (BCR) process developed by Dr. Wendy Ellis and the George Washington University Center for Community Resilience. BCR is a systems-level process that supports each community in identifying the public health challenge most critical to them, and then engaging in the data gathering, partner engagement, strategic planning, and implementation to address it. All 8 RC communities are working to prevent ACEs.