Stories of resilience
Over the past 18 months or so, some charities in Scotland working in partnership with churches across the country have been running a remarkable campaign to help make Scotland the first Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Aware nation in the world.
It's still early days but the level of interest generated has been impressive. Showings of the film 'Resilience' in churches and venues from the east to west and south to north have been packed along with the 'what to do about this' debates afterwards. Thousands of people from all walks of life have seen the film.
There has even been a reception in the Scottish Parliament for MSPs for the film.
On 26th September 2018, more than 1000 citizens of Scotland will be coming together at Scotland's largest exhibition centre to think about how they can achieve the vision of making Scotland the first ACE-aware nation in the world. They will be joined by friends from across the UK where the film has also been shown by interested churches and charities.
Could the vision be achieved? See a previous blog about what happened when a community in Washington State became an ACE-Aware community.
Here are some quotes from people involved in the movement in Scotland:
“I am currently running a nurture room in primary school. I notice these stress factors in a lot of my children, and I want other staff to understand it is real.”
“I work in the mental health sector and most, if not every one, of my patients has some form of trauma. Not enough people know about it.”
“I had no idea that the number of children with toxic stress was so great.”
“This should be taught in teacher training, particularly in the secondary sector, not just in primary.”
“This information ties a lot complex things together. Lots of aspects of life were included in the film, in an easy way to understand and explain this issue.”
“We all have a role to play in addressing ACEs.”
Why not attend the conference in Glasgow in September to find out more. What about showing the film to your community and asking what you and they can do to make the community ACE-Aware?
More details of the conference and movement are here. This isn't just for Scotland!
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Geoff Knott, 14/07/2018