A First-of-its-Kind Service to Help Former Foster Youth Address the Effects of Toxic Stress and Adverse Childhood Experiences
San Diego County CA— Just in Time for Foster Youth (JIT) recently launched a groundbreaking service, called Rise to Resilience (R2R), to help former foster youth address the effects of toxic stress and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Rise to Resilience will create a healing community that allows growth and encourages “confident vulnerability” through a one-day ACEs conference, resilience-focused community events and an annual cohort of 30-40 participants who will engage in a focused curriculum of targeted information and resources integrated with ongoing coaching and reinforcement.
“Rise to Resilience is an innovative approach to community healing, we believe by healing the community we will, as a result, heal the individual”, said Vanessa Davis, R2R Consultant and former Youth Services Director at JIT. “Addressing the mental health needs of transition age foster youth requires a multidimensional, culturally appropriate approach. Rise to Resilience equips participants with the tools, support, and community they need to transcend trauma and live healthy, fulfilling lives. Rise to Resilience is a mental health service that cultivates close bonds and interdependent relationships as well as a fun, collaborative community that promotes wellness and lasting success.”
The goal of the innovative Rise to Resilience service is to build a model that has a measurable positive impact for JIT participants, all former foster youth that exhibit ACEs scores of 8 and higher, which then can also be applied to other populations suffering from the consequences of toxic stress. An ACEs score is determined by how many of 10 ACEs a person has experienced; each trauma is equal to one point. The higher a person’s ACEs score, the greater their risk is for conditions such as obesity, heart disease, anxiety, depression, emphysema, cancer, unintended pregnancies, suicide and premature death.
Key partnerships for R2R include Stepping Stones Life Transitions (SSLT) and Leah’s Pantry. SSLT will provide skill-based experimental workshops to impart clear and applicable skills and information and Leah’s Pantry will provide “Around the Table,” a trauma-informed, resilience-building nutrition and cooking program to cohort participants.
Rise to Resilience has the powerful potential to impact more than 1,000 individuals within San Diego County and change the narrative for hundreds of transition age foster youth in our community.