Safe & Secure: Trauma-Informed Communities

The current snapshot of our children’s mental health is alarming.

• Before 2020, 1 in 5 children suffered a mental health concern. Today it’s 1 in 4, and 75% don’t get help. Youth anxiety, depression, and suicide rates are now over 150%.

• 20.7% of Palm Beach County high school youth seriously contemplated suicide in the past year. Over 40% are struggling with a mental health concern. And for those living in foster care, the statistics are even more alarming.

• 41.5% of high school students reported they felt sad or hopeless: the majority identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual.

• 25.2% of middle school students had serious thoughts about committing suicide. Of these 32.5% were Asian, 25.9% Hispanic/Latino, 24.5% Black, and 23.7% White.

SOURCE: Palm Beach County Youth Risk Behavioral Health Survey

Together, We Can Change the Trajectory of the Current Trauma Crisis. As anxiety levels and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) rise among our youth, we are confronting the crisis by creating trauma-aware adults within our homes, schools, and community who recognize and respond to trauma and abuse in children. When kids grow up in a trauma-informed community, they realize life-changing benefits: ample buffering and supportive relationships, an end to generational cycles of abuse, greater racial and cultural equity, and healthier emotions and behaviors.

KNOW your role and what to do.

Become trained to understand and respond to children and families around you when they experience crisis.

GROW awareness, education, and understanding.

Promoting ACEs awareness and action empowers us to recognize and buffer trauma through safe relationships and spaces.

Show

kindness, patience, and connection.

If you know a child who is struggling, reassure them they are valued through a safe, positive relationship. Buffering relationships are proven to aid in resilience and healing and can be the main difference between a child who continues to suffer or one who goes on to thrive.