“Adverse Childhood Experiences” is the new focus of clinical mental health and psychology. At its essence, research has found a high correlation between childhood trauma and environmental instability that leads to numerous mental health, medical, social, academic, and career problems. In researching this for its clinical use, it was very evident that part of the solution needs to be with the Church, specifically youth ministry. In this article, I want to provide some specific ways churches, specifically youth pastors and their teams, can help prevention of trauma and promote healing for people who have high ACE scores.
For those that do not know the reasoning of the ACE study, or how trauma during childhood impacts us, you can see more statistics and videos about it in an article I wrote at ChurchAndMentalHealth.com.
The research conducted by Kaiser Permanente and the CDC continues to refine what comes of the ACE scores, but also looks at how to implement preventative measures. The CDC created a nice graphic that I'm going to use as the foundation of youth ministry ideas:
Ideas for Youth Ministries To Prevent ACEs
Below is a starting list of things churches can do easily and implement quickly, to prevent higher ACE scores and serve your congregation and community.
Empower and Equip Parents
The first part of youth ministry prevention starts not with the students, but the parents themselves. The parents are often struggling themselves with trauma and instability. What is your church doing to empower and equip parents? Do you have mentorship or a counseling agency you refer people to when they are having crisis at home? Do you have parenting classes? Even more fundamental, is your youth pastor, children's pastor, and youth ministry volunteers getting to know the names of parents and how teenagers are interacting with them in the home? It's hard to speak into people's lives or hold them accountable if you don't even know them. Open up your office and schedule to meet with them.Create A Culture Of Support
This starts in your youth room at church, but should not stop there. Your leadership team should not be promoting violence, lack of boundaries, or youth ministry games that are degrading and demeaning. But then move into the kids' environment: at school and at home. Have activities in the church that are for the whole family, to come and live healthy lives together. Include food and activities that require parents to talk with and listen to their kids. Be in the school as much as possible, but also go to the school board meetings and regularly talk with the principal and teachers about concerns with teens and how your ministry can help improve school life.Teach Resiliency Through Scripture
We cannot 100% prevent ACE events, so we must also help teach and model resiliency, using Scripture and Christian practices. Note Paul's time in jail, Nehemiah's time rebuilding Jerusalem, or Timothy as a young adult attempting to learn from those older than him. Teach scriptural resiliency, but also do these things. If you do not have discipleship programs or small groups, you need to start these programs now. And encourage volunteers, congregation members, and other community members to also intentionally invest in teens.
The community I am in has begun to do implement ACES prevention steps in the school, has connected with the community mental health agency, and local churches support it. Every high school student takes the ACE test, and the 60 students with the highest score talk with the guidance counselors with their parents. Counselors explore resources in the community, look for referrals if clinical counseling is needed, and find mentorships with community agencies and churches.
Every student in this group of 60 is partnered with a teacher and community member who will see the student every day. The adults are expected to intentionally reach out to their student every day, with some kind of positive comments or time spent supporting the teenager. It might be as simple as "Good morning Alex. You seem extra cheerful today," and go more specifically to sitting down with the student at lunch, offering extra support with homework or being a listening ear.
These steps are all great, but churches can take these efforts further. Imagine if churches did similar things that complimented these steps, also offering God's grace through prayer, discipleship, and ministry? We could change the world!
What is your church doing to reduce and prevent high ACE scores? What more do you want to implement?
Jeremy Smith is a clinical mental health counselor in Ohio and founder of www.churchandmentalhealth.com.
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