Massachusetts Reframing ACEs Prevention to Address Health Inequities

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Improving the conditions in which people live, work, and grow often means confronting the past and its effect on our present. At the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the Essentials for Childhood and Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences: Data-to-Action programs are ensuring a racial justice lens is being applied when supporting culturally responsive, trauma-informed services and the root causes of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) inform policies to address health inequities.

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Image courtesy of the Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. (https://collections.si.edu/search/record/ark:/65665/fd5f1f72a49535c4b35b20dd0145c313162)

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Image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. (https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2014.30)

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In 2015, the Boston Federal Reserve found the median net worth for white families in Boston was $250,000. For Black families, it was $8. This wealth gap, largely driven by homeownership, reflects a long history of redlining and other discriminatory housing and zoning practices that have kept many communities of color from prospering while advantaging those in white communities.

In Massachusetts, manufacturing and disposal facilities have disproportionately been placed in communities of color. Public housing has historically been placed in low-income areas with large Black populations, too. And these conditions are more likely to expose residents of color to environmental toxins that white residents don't experience. 

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Image courtesy of "Mapping Inequality," American Panorama, ed. Robert K. Nelson and Edward L. Ayers. (https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/).

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health is working hard to address the pervasive impact of structural racism—the public policies, institutional practices, and social norms—perpetuating the racial and health inequities in ACEs, including economic mobility, housing quality, and affordability. Using Essentials for Childhood grant funds, the Department provided more than 30 people working in early childhood and family support services and systems with a two-day Racial Equity Institute training experience. 

During the workshop, participants explored how American history still influences racial inequity in the present day. Participants can continue to put their training into practice in Affinity Groups that offer people with similar racial backgrounds the opportunity to explore challenges together. It's all a part of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's commitment to reframing ACEs prevention as a community-wide responsibility through racial equity education and systemic change.

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