ACEs
Understanding Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) is the first step toward creating healthier, more supportive environments for children and families. ACEs are more than just challenges—they shape how we learn, grow, and connect with others. At From The Root, we bring awareness to the lasting impact of childhood adversity while empowering educators, parents, and caregivers with tools to foster resilience, emotional well-being, and healing.
Explore how our trauma-informed approach can transform classrooms, homes, and communities—starting from the root.
What is ACEs
ACEs are trauma-causing experiences children either witnessed or personally experience including:
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physical abuse
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emotional abuse
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sexual abuse
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physical neglect
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emotional neglect
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caregiver mental sickness
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domestic violence
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substance abuse
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divorce
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close relative in jail
Children experiencing ACEs, without supportive and responsive adults can cause toxic stress, the excessive activation of the stress response system hindering healthy early brain development. This lack of healthy brain development causes:
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memory problems
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behavioral issues
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health concerns
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mental healthy sickness
Downloadable
Videos
Discover how one high school transformed lives by shifting from punishment to compassion.
Tigers follows six students and the staff who changed everything by applying trauma-informed practices proving that one caring adult can truly make all the difference.
Wrestling Ghosts: A Journey of Parenting and Healing
This powerful documentary invites us into the vulnerable and courageous story of Kim, a young mother confronting childhood trauma to break the cycle and build a better future for her family.
Cracked Up: A Story of Trauma, Comedy, and Healing
This eye-opening documentary follows SNL veteran Darrell Hammond as he uncovers the hidden impact of his childhood trauma. Cracked Up powerfully blends humor and heartbreak to reveal how Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) can shape a lifetime and how understanding and the right support can lead to transformation and hope.
Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope
This groundbreaking documentary explores how toxic stress from childhood abuse and neglect can lead to lifelong health and social challenges. Resilience also highlights the pioneers in medicine, education, and social work who are using science-backed strategies to shield children and break the cycle of adversity offering a powerful message of action, healing, and hope.
Art over ACEs
Learn how the Arts can help children with high ACEs scores to overcome fact not fate.
Understanding ACEs with Dr. Nadine Burke Harris
In the fourth video of the ACEs Storytelling series, you will hear from California’s first Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris about the science behind Adverse Childhood Experiences and toxic stress and why there is hope for healing—at any age.
How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across a Lifetime – Dr. Nadine Burke Harris
In this powerful TED Talk, pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris breaks down how childhood trauma can have lifelong effects on brain development and physical health—including increased risk for chronic illnesses. Her passionate call to action urges the medical community to treat trauma as a critical public health issue, changing the way we care for children and families.
