Three years ago, the New Hampshire Children’s Health Foundation launched an ambitious initiative built around a simple but powerful idea: preventing childhood trauma requires communities—not just individual organizations—to work together differently.
Through grants to four regions—Concord, Coös County, the Monadnock Region, and Nashua—the Foundation provided support for local partners to build “trauma responsive communities,” where families, service providers, educators, health care professionals, and community leaders collaborate to reduce adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and the conditions that create toxic stress.
An independent evaluation of the initiative by Health Resources in Action found that while each community pursued its own unique strategy, several important lessons emerged across all four sites. Together, they provide a roadmap for communities seeking to create lasting change for children and families.