About Us

Growing Stronger is designed to help people of all ages grow and recover from Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs.

 

On this page you will be able to develop an understanding of ACEs, what they are and how they might impact you, and the people around you. You will learn ways to help yourself, and places locally in Liverpool where you can get help and support.

 

There’s also options for training, and opportunities to learn more.

 

ACEs may be something that has happened to you – but you can decide what happens next

 

Adverse Childhood Experiences are very stressful (traumatic) experiences that can happen in a child’s life. They can be a series of things that happen over time that put us into a state of fear and toxic stress, or they can be a single event.

These experiences or events are not our fault, and as children, we had no control over them happening. Every individual and family and community responds to these events differently, but we know that early exposure to these adverse experiences can have an effect on how we live, grow and learn that can last across throughout our life.

We also know that exposure to ACEs does not mean that you will experience negative effects. There are ways we can recover and overcome any adversity that may have happened to us. Support is available to help you with this.

This information on this page is the first step.

What are ACEs?

The term Adverse Childhood Experiences was first used in an American study published in 1998. The study was designed to understand how childhood experiences affect adult health. This study identified a link between a person experiencing adversities in childhood and their physical and emotional health, life choices and behaviours into adulthood.

Adverse Childhood Experiences

Neglect

  • Physical

  • Emotional

Abuse

  • Physical

  • Emotional

  • Sexual

Care giver experiences

  • Divorce or Seperation

  • Addiction

    When a care giver abuses drugs, alcohol or gambling

  • Domestic Abuse

    Physical, verbal, financial, coercive control

  • Mental Illness

  • Prison

As many of us will have experienced, these are not the only adversities that can happen to us as children. There are other significant stressors that we can face growing up that can have the same impact as the original 10 ACEs. These adversities can be in the home where you grow up, or in the environment you grow up in.

Other common adversities are:

Additional Adverse Childhood Experiences in the household – as identified by our Liverpool community

  • Family Conflict and Violence

  • Bereavement

  • Young Person Has Caring Responsibilities

  • Poverty

  • Online Harm

  • Displacement

  • Criminal Activity

  • Long-term Unemployment

Additional Adversities in the Environment – as identified by our Liverpool community

  • Lack of Opportunity or Growth

    Limited leisure, education, employment, opportunities and social mobility

  • Discrimination

    Percieved status, locality, race, religion, gender, sexuality, disability, past history

  • Fear of Unsafe Neighbourhood

    ASB, knife and gun crime, gang culture, county lines, exploitation

  • Inequality of Resources

    Services, access to healthcare and schooling

  • Low School Attendance

    Limited support and value placed in education from care givers and community

  • Divisive Political and Media Commentary

  • Isolation

    Language barriers, relationships, activity

  • Online, school, workplace, community, family

    Online, school, workplace, community, family

  • Socio-political Events

    War, climate change, pandemic, natural disasters

  • Lack of Trust in Authority

    Collective lack of trust that the people in power can make things better

Why do they matter?

Stress is a word that we are all familiar with, and believe it or not, some stress is good for us. In the right circumstances, when it’s manageable and short lived, it can help motivate us, help us achieve our goals and challenge us to learn and grow.

Stress can also protect us from danger. If our bodies think we are in danger, from an external threat like some of the Adverse Childhood Experiences, our brains release hormones into our systems and kick into “fight, flight, freeze mode” This can be really useful to protect us in the short term.

However, if we face fear every single day, then our emergency “fight flight freeze” response is activated every day, which stops the rest of our brain from growing and functioning as it should. Our systems become overloaded. When the stressful situation becomes unmanageable, is unsupported, or doesn’t end, then our bodies go into toxic stress.

Children with toxic stress, spend their lives in constant fear, and their brains priority then, is managing and protecting them from threats or perceived threat.

This can have a number of affects on the way our brains and body functions.