Adverse childhood experiences, or ACES, refers to specific kinds of traumatic experiences during childhood. Things like abuse or neglect or witnessing violence in the home. Grandkids being raised by grandparents are particularly vulnerable to trauma.
For grandfamilies, trauma is big.
"I think the term ACES is newer to some of the grandfamilies," explained Lisa McCormick who is with Duet, a nonprofit that supports grandfamilies. "But they know that these kids have obviously experienced a lot of trauma or toxic stress, or, you know, they're with their grandparents for a reason. So they see behaviors."
Imagine being a child who’s removed from their home.
"That's No. 1: trauma, especially with our grandfamilies. Their parents are not taking care of them, so that right there is number one trauma," McCormick said. "Incarceration of a parent is also an ACE. And so a lot of our grandfamilies do have biological parents that are incarcerated. That is our No. 2."
She has been hosting workshops to teach grandparents how to build resilience and support their grandkids who struggle.
"Some of them are going to hit walls. Some of them are going to hit other people," McCormick said. "Self injury is most definitely a concern."
In Arizona, 43% of kids have experienced one or more ACES, that’s slightly higher than the national rate.
Roughly 60,000 grandparents in Arizona are raising their grandchildren. Duet has been hosting several workshops around ACES and how grandfamilies support their grandkids and develop resiliency.
