Youth ALIVE! Featured in ACES Connection

Posted: May 7, 2019

ACES, Trauma, & Healing at Youth ALIVE!

Some of this year’s TNT youth leaders and staff at Castlemont High School

What we find with so many of the victims of violence we work with at Youth ALIVE! is that being shot or assaulted is only the latest traumatizing event in their lives. Many, though still very young, have already suffered poverty, neglect, abuse, or have lost a parent or sibling to incarceration. Today these are known as Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, and our understanding of how they shape personalities, physical health in adulthood, and individual fates, is growing every day. Fortunately, so is our ability to help people address the life-changing trauma ACEs cause. In a recent article in ACES Connection, Teens on Target youth leader Armon Hurst spoke about not only the adverse experiences of his young life, but about START, Youth ALIVE!’s in-house screening tool that helps our clients identify symptoms of trauma, get a better understanding of the role trauma plays in their lives, and even to devise a personal plan to get temporary relief when trauma symptoms arise. Read the ACES Connection story here. Read more about START (Screening and Tool for Awareness and Relief of Trauma) on our START web page.