67% of adults in Richland County had at least one type of adverse childhood experience – or ACE – as a child. In S.C., 62% of adults had at least one ACE as a child, and nationwide, 64% had at least one, as well.

ACEs are traumatic experiences that occur in a child’s life before the age of 18, including physical, sexual or emotional abuse; neglect; having a parent who is treated violently; living in a household with someone who has a mental illness or substance abuse issues; and separation from via incarceration or divorce – just to name a few.

In Richland County, the estimated average lifetime cost per victim of nonfatal child maltreatment is $210,012 – which includes costs associated with healthcare, criminal justice, special education + productivity losses. The total cost to treat every child in Richland County is $173,679,924.

Dealing with such issues – especially beginning at a young age – can lead to disease, disability, and potentially early death. Youth exposed to ACEs are more at risk for behavioral problems, start drinking alcohol + smoking tobacco, using + abusing prescription drugs – all of which can turn into addiction and dependency as they become adults.

A big issue in local communities is lack of awareness of ACEs and how to deal with them. Often, teachers, caregivers, police officers + even family members don’t know how to handle children with ACE’s and aren’t equipped with the right tools to do so.

Enter: Resilient Richland by United Way of the Midlands – a new initiative to recognize, prevent and treat trauma among children + youth in Richland County. The program, which just launched Nov. 1, is funded by The Nord Family Foundation and is supported by Children’s Trust of South Carolina and coalition of public and private service organizations.

The overall goal: break the stigma of trauma, bring awareness to ACEs, and promote resiliency.

More about Resilient Richland

The Resilient Richland programming team has developed tools, practices + models that’ll help prevent ACEs from happening – and help to identify if an ACE is happening in a child’s home. Read more about each of those steps here.

The initiative has a community-wide awareness campaign that highlights the social and economic impacts trauma has on Richland County + educates the community on how they can help.

Here are few upcoming training sessions, which are free and open to the public:

📆 ACEs | January 8, 2019 | 2-5 p.m. | Children’s Trust of South Carolina

📆 Best Practices for Volunteers Working with Youth | February 7 | 2-4 p.m. | United Way & Boys and Girls Clubs of the Midlands

📆 safeTALK: Suicide Prevention | March 7 | 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. (includes lunch break) | SC Suicide Prevention Coalition

📆 See more events here.

Local stories

Click here to listen to two Richland County residents tell their story of dealing with and overcoming ACEs – from divorce to not having enough food at home.

Find out your score

Did you...

have a parent who was an alcoholic?

survive + recover from a severe accident?

have a family member in jail?

deal with the disappearance of a parent through a divorce?

Each of these traumas counts as one ACE.

Click here to find your ACE score and find out what it means. Your score is completely confidential.

Now that you have your ACE score, click here to test for your resiliency score.

One of the most important things to realize with ACEs is that these children aren’t broken – they just need adults to know when and how to help them.

If you’re interested in getting involved, click here to see all the opportunities available – like becoming a mentor to a child, teaching them how to garden or spending your Saturday morning playing games with them.

–Sam