By Becky Haas, Trauma Informed Trainer and member of the Pathways to Resilience Advisory Committee

In this guest blog, Becky shares how learning about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) sparked her career in conducting trauma-informed training, and the role she sees for Pathways to Resilience to serve as a catalyst for states.

Over the course of my life, I’ve witnessed positive societal advancements made possible by science. One of those changes was national seat belt laws and child passenger safety reform. Growing up in a large family, we often traveled from our home in Tennessee to Florida during the summer to visit my grandparents. Riding in the front seat of our station wagon, when dad hit the brakes, his arm would fly across the front seat in an attempt to “restrain” my siblings and me in hopes that we wouldn’t hit the windshield. Many cars did not have any form of seatbelt until 1964 and it was not until twenty years later, in 1984, that New York was the first state to enact a seatbelt law. Thanks to research conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, seat belts, car seats, and booster seats have been progressively introduced into law and have saved millions of lives. By 1996, every state, with the exception of New Hampshire, had a mandatory seat belt use law covering drivers and front-seat occupants. These new laws led me to pursue a career in training – starting with police and first responders on the proper use of child safety seats.

Understanding ACEs and Trauma

In 2014, while working for the local police department to reduce drug-related violent crime and recidivism, I learned about the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Study. This landmark research strongly indicated that experiencing childhood adversity without having a healthy support system is a significant risk factor for poor physical and mental health outcomes, as well as for addiction and risky behaviors. To me, the science of ACEs provided communities the missing piece of the puzzle known as the “cradle to prison pipeline.” With this newfound knowledge, I set out to train my town on ACEs and trauma. In just four years, thousands of professionals became educated and our work in Northeast Tennessee was recognized by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration as a model for other cities to follow.

That experience led to my joining a three-state health care system in rural Appalachia as their first Trauma Informed Administrator, and later to travel the country talking with folks about the importance of understanding ACEs and trauma as determinants of poor health and arming them with trauma-informed strategies for responding.

To me this is no longer a job, but a mission. As I’ve watched an awareness of ACEs science grow across my own state and increasingly on a national level, I have come to believe that a unified and strategic approach to helping states and communities become more resilience-focused is urgently needed.

One of the goals of Pathways to Resilience is to normalize this conversation so that policies and programs can be tested and ultimately result in a nationwide understanding of trauma and ways to prevent and address it in the same way the nation has accepted the importance of child passenger safety.

Pathways to Resilience is an upstream approach that can serve as a catalyst for states – helping them identify best practices and providing tools to address some of the most pervasive challenges facing our communities – chronic disease, mental health, addiction, incarceration, and homelessness. I am pleased to be a partner in this work and look forward to the many great conversations to come.

About the Author

Becky Haas is an international advocate and trainer on using a trauma-informed approach and creating trauma-informed communities. Becky trains a wide range of professionals, including police, others in the justice system, and school educators. She is an East Tennessee State University Ballad Health Strong Brain Institute founding member and is an active member of the CTIPP National Trauma Campaign strategy team. In March 2022, Becky received the prestigious Friend of Children award from the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth, recognizing her as a state and national leader in the implementation and support of trauma-informed services and communities. For more information about Becky, visit her website at www.beckyhaas.com.