Helping Prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences

You can't change your childhood,

but you can change your life.

Helping Prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences

You can't change your childhood,

but you can change your life.

Helping Prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences

You can't change your childhood,

but you can change your life.

The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Coalition of West Virginia is working to improve the health and well-being of all West Virginians through understanding, overcoming and preventing ACEs. We're also committed to raising awareness about Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) that can offset negative experiences and fuel resiliency.


We’re rooting for you! 

Together, we are stronger. 

Together. we can heal. 

Together, we can not only survive, but thrive!

The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Coalition of West Virginia is working to improve the health and well-being of all West Virginians through understanding, overcoming and preventing ACEs. We're also committed to raising awareness about Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) that can offset negative experiences and fuel resiliency.


We’re rooting for you! 

Together, we are stronger. 

Together. we can heal. 

Together, we can not only survive, but thrive!

Welcome to Everything You Need to Know about West Virginia’s Inaugural ACEs Conference

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Help the ACEs Coalition recognize and support mental health by purchasing one of our inspiring t-shirts! 

Click here and choose your favorite. All four designs come in grey and white, short sleeve t-shirt, long sleeve t-shirt, sweatshirt and hooded sweatshirt. 

Click here to browse the collection and choose your favorite style.

Show your support, wear your message proudly, and help make a difference today!

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What are ACEs?

The term “ACEs” is an acronym for Adverse Childhood Experiences. It originated in a groundbreaking study conducted in 1995 by the Centers for Disease Control and the Kaiser Permanente health care organization in California. In that study, “ACEs” referred to three specific kinds of adversity children faced in the home environment—various forms of physical and emotional abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction.


The key findings of dozens of studies using the original ACEs data found there is a powerful, persistent correlation between the more ACEs experienced and the greater the chance of poor outcomes later in life, including dramatically increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, depression, substance abuse, smoking, poor academic achievement, time out of work, and early death.

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Childhood trauma isn’t something you just get over as you grow up. Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain. This unfolds across a lifetime, to the point where those who’ve experienced high levels of trauma are at triple the risk for heart disease and lung cancer. An impassioned plea for pediatric medicine to confront the prevention and treatment of trauma, head-on.

Childhood trauma isn’t something you just get over as you grow up. Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain.


This unfolds across a lifetime, to the point where those who’ve experienced high levels of trauma are at triple the risk for heart disease and lung cancer. An impassioned plea for pediatric medicine to confront the prevention and treatment of trauma, head-on.

We Can Reduce the Effects of ACEs and Toxic Stress.

For those who have experienced ACEs, there are a range of possible responses that can help, including therapeutic sessions with mental health professionals, meditation, physical exercise, spending time in nature, and many others.


The ideal approach, however, is to preventthe need for these responses by reducing the sources of stress in people’s lives. This can happen by helping to meet their basic needs or providing other services.


Likewise, fostering strong, responsive relationships between children and their caregivers, and helping children and adults build core life skills, can help to buffer a child from the effects of toxic stress.


ACEs affect people at all income and social levels, and can have serious, costly impact across the lifespan. No one who’s experienced significant adversity (or many ACEs) is irreparably damaged, though we need to acknowledge trauma’s effects on their lives. By reducing families’ sources of stress, providing children and adults with responsive relationships, and strengthening the core life skills we all need to adapt and thrive, we can prevent and counteract lasting harm.


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Adverse Childhood Experiences

Coalition of West Virginia

ACE's Upcoming Events

Thank You To Our Funders

Welcome to Everything You Need to Know about West Virginia’s Inaugural ACEs Conference

LEARN MORE

Thank You To Our Funders

Help us reduce the impact of ACE & prevent their occurrence.

If you see someone falling behind, walk beside them. If you see someone being ignored, find a way include them. If someone has been knocked down, lift them up.

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