Essentials for Childhood: Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences through Data to Action

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Background

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched a funded program focused on preventing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and promoting positive childhood experiences (PCEs). These efforts will help reduce leading causes of death, mental health challenges, health risk behaviors such as substance use, and verified reports of child abuse and neglect.

Essentials for Childhood: Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences through Data to Action funding recipients will:

  • Build or improve ACEs and PCEs data collection infrastructure and capacity.
  • Implement and sustain ACEs prevention strategies, focusing on health equity.
  • Conduct ongoing data-to-action activities to inform changes to their existing prevention strategies or select additional strategies.

This program, launched in September 2023, builds on the accomplishments and outcomes of previous programs, Essentials for Childhood and Preventing ACEs: Data to Action.

Expected Program Outcomes

Essentials for Childhood: Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences through Data to Action recipients will use data to inform the implementation of evidence-based prevention strategies and approaches to ensure safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments for all children.

Expected outcomes of the program include:

  • Increased monitoring of ACEs and PCEs over time, with a specific focus on expanding the availability and use of data on ACEs and PCEs from adolescent populations.
  • Increased use of data on health inequities and the social determinants of health to describe risk factors for ACEs and to reduce inequities.
  • Increased sustainability of an ACEs and PCEs data collection system.
  • Increased uptake and implementation of comprehensive ACEs prevention strategies.
  • Increased reach of prevention strategies, with a focus on communities that have greater needs due to the social determinants of health.
  • Increased evidence for population-based approaches to prevent ACEs.
  • Increased use and translation of data to inform tailored prevention strategy implementation to reduce ACEs and improve health equity and the social determinants of health.
  • Increased partner response to the burden of ACEs in their state or tribal nation, and promotion of PCEs to increase public awareness of societal factors that lead to safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments.

Recipients

CDC supports 12 recipients as a part of the Essentials for Childhood: Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences through Data to Action program:

  • California Department of Public Health
  • Georgia Department of Public Health
  • Kansas Department of Health and Environment
  • Massachusetts Department of Public Health
  • Michigan Public Health Institute
  • Minnesota Department of Health
  • New Jersey Center for Health Care Strategies, Inc.
  • North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
  • The Chickasaw Nation
  • The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital
  • University of Nevada Reno – Board of Regents
  • Virginia Department of Health

Resources