Anti-Racist & Equity Statement
The ACCEs (Adverse Childhood and Community Experiences) to Assets Collaborative was founded to create evidence-informed policy solutions to promote public awareness campaigns to build a trauma-informed environment that prevents and addresses adverse childhood and community experiences. In honoring this commitment, our collaborative recognizes that all forms of injustice, oppression, and discrimination pose an active threat to the well-being of our children, youth, and community members, disproportionally targeting Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC). The recent events that resulted in the murder of George Floyd, and the long history of preventable deaths of Black Americans, blatantly disregard the dignity and worth of the black community and echo the centuries of trauma and systemic violence against BIPOC perpetuated by local, state, and federal entities in positions of power. These institutions and the individuals within them have demonstrated a lack of accountability and transparency resulting in countless preventable deaths. Our collaborative supports the work of the Black Lives Matter movement in bringing justice, healing, and freedom to the Black community.
We create evidence-informed policy solutions and promote public awareness campaigns to build a trauma-informed community that prevents and addresses adverse childhood and community experiences (ACCEs).
Our Beginning
The ACCEs to Assets Collaborative began in 2015 through a combined effort between researchers and practitioners to address adverse childhood and community experiences (ACEs). Shannon Guillot-Wright, PhD of the University of Texas Medical Branch and Julie Purser, PhD of the Family Service Center of Galveston County co-founded the collaborative to identify policies and programs that support healthier individuals and communities. Over 20 Texas-based agencies, academic departments, and organizations are now active participants in the collaborative, leading their own initiatives to create an environment that responds to and prevents trauma. Projects range from structural-based (livable wages or discrimination) to individual-based (skills classes or therapy).
“We not only focus on the outcomes of poverty, like incarceration and food insecurity, but also on the production of poverty, like systemic racism and precarious employment.”
— Dr. Shannon Guillot-WRight, Co-FOUNDER
The ACCEs to Assets Collaborative facilitates a core group of partners who are identifying opportunities and needs in Texas to address ACCEs and build a trauma-informed community. Partnerships include film screenings, social emotional learning (SEL) programs in schools, healthy relationship classes for youth, youth-led media projects that address racism and discrimination, and active participation in local, state, and federal policy development. For information on our five-year grant to study the social determinants of mental health, click here.
Our Vision
The vision of the ACCEs to Assets Collaborative is to reduce community violence and build community resiliency through research, policy, public awareness, prevention, and intervention programs so that Texas children and adults can develop and live healthy lives.
Get Connected
If you live in Texas, get involved in our regular meetings or ongoing projects. We are located in Galveston, but welcome participants from all over our Great State through a virtual meeting space. Connecting through these meetings opens up doors to future grants and partnerships, community service credits, job opportunities, and more.
Subscribe here to receive details on upcoming events,updates on policy, awareness, prevention, intervention, and research addressing adverse childhood and community experiences (ACCEs).