Written by Wendy R. Ellis DrPH (c), MPH; Co-Principal Investigator & Project Director, Building Community Resilience Collaborative; Sumner Redstone Global Center for Prevention & Wellness; George Washington University

Disclaimer: Moving Health Care Upstream is a collaborative effort co-led by Nemours Children’s Health System (Nemours) and the Center for Healthier Children, Families & Communities at the University of California- Los Angeles (UCLA). The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Nemours, UCLA or the Moving Health Care Upstream initiative.

First in a series: The Dallas Story of Resilience Building

When we first introduced Building Community Resilience (BCR) a few years ago, skeptics wondered if our reach was too large. Others found our language over-simplified for the complexity of adverse childhood experience (ACEs) and toxic stress. Nonetheless, we were convinced that the public health issues that contribute to ACEs could not be met by one sector alone. It was and remains our steadfast belief that many of the factors contributing to health disparities and the lack of resilience can be mapped back to the lack of supportive buffers that promote health and wellbeing. Supportive buffers, such as well-performing schools, reliable public transportation, diverse neighborhood retail (i.e. grocery stores, banking, pharmacies, etc.), access to economic mobility, affordable housing, and health care, help a community bounce back from adversity, and provide the foundation for individuals to ‘bounce forward’. [Read more…]