On today’s show, we’re talking about the work of Strengthening Systems for NC Children, or SYNC. It’s a state-funded program that brings together experts from education, social services, law enforcement, and other government and non-profit fields.
In the most general sense, SYNC is looking to find better ways to take care of children. That involves a lot of different agencies and organizations — many of which are often focused on one particular issue, or lack the funding to scale up from a specific program or region. For that reason, SYNC examines ways to help these organizations see some of the bigger picture, and the ways that many issues — say, a child’s behavior in the classroom and the availability of nutritious, affordable food in their neighborhood — might be deeply related, even if those two issues are treated as separate problems by separate nonprofits or agencies.
The program rolled out in three counties, including New Hanover, where about 20 members convened over about five to six months. My colleague Rachel Keith was invited to join them, based on her deep reporting on ACEs, or adverse childhood experiences.
And understanding ACES is really crucial to understanding SYNC’s work. We’ll have links on the show page to some of Rachel’s past reporting, but basically, ACEs are some of the traumatic experiences people have in childhood — ranging from various forms of abuse and neglect to environmental issues like crime or poverty in their neighborhood, as well as food and housing insecurity.
These aren’t just anecdotal connections, either. Back in 1998, the CDC published a seminal paper, showing that ACEs, if left unaddressed, can lead to seriously negative health outcomes, like cancers, depression, stroke, diabetes, and overall shortened life expectancy — conditions that cost billions to combat.
The crucial caveat there is “if left unaddressed.” Studies show that you can counteract ACEs with what some experts call protective and compensatory experiences, or PACES. If you’ve heard stories about people who pulled themselves through a traumatic childhood because of a loving parent, or a mentor, or a group — maybe a sports team, a band, or a club — those are all PACEs.
The most advanced level of work with ACEs is reducing and preventing them from taking a toll on children in the first place. That means taking a hard look at issues like violence, poverty, lack of economic opportunities, and other deeply entrenched issues. These are the toughest challenges facing our communities, and there’s not always agreement on how to tackle them. But helping to get a shared understanding of what these problems are — and who has which resources to help address them — is a good place to start.
Some of this is heady stuff, but as we’ll talk about today, SYNC is geared toward creating some practical, usable results. And, throughout the show, we'll be hearing from the group's four core team members:
- Rebecca Martin (contractor for Carousel Center, director of the North Carolina chapter of kNot Today)
- J’vaneté Skiba (NHC Resiliency Task Force Director)
- Shequana Pulliam (Open Gate Domestic Violence Shelter and Services prevention specialist)
- Keisha Robinson (Communities in Schools of the Cape Fear, community programs manager).
Reporting/Resources
- The Newsroom: ACEs and oxygen masks: A deep dive on Adverse Childhood Events and resiliency work
- ACEs, Part I: Addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences in the community
- ACEs, Part II: Addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences in the courtroom
- ACEs, Part III: Addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences in schools
- Take The ACE Quiz - And Learn What It Does and Doesn’t Mean, NPR
- PBS’s The Violence Paradox
- NC Center for Safer Schools says bullying is a top concern