Resilient Communities
Find Our Latest News: 
The Building Community Resilience Collaborative
The Building Community Resilience (BCR) collaborative at the Redstone Center seeks to improve the health of children, families, and communities by fostering engagement between grassroots community services and public and private systems to develop a protective buffer against Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) occurring in Adverse Community Environments (ACEs) – the “Pair of ACEs." Connecting community organizations (through a church health ministry or trusted food pantry, for example) with larger systems (including those in health care, education, business, law enforcement) can begin to build a durable network to improve community wellbeing. The BCR test sites are in Cincinnati, OH, Dallas, TX, the State of Oregon, Washington, DC and the Alive and Well Communities in Missouri and Kansas.
BCR sees community resilience as an essential factor in improving public health outcomes. Community resilience originates from buffers in communities and families to protect individuals from the accumulation of stress due to adverse childhood experiences, such as exposure to emotional and sexual abuse, maternal depression, neglect or incarceration. When these exposures are experienced in adverse community environments (ACEs), characterized by violence, racism, or poverty, for example, the effects are compounded and often lead to multi-generational stress and poor health outcomes.
The work of BCR is to build networks that foster resilience against the stressors that can become toxic to a child’s development and long-term health: Adverse Childhood Experiences occurring in Adverse Community Environments – the “Pair of ACEs.”
As our work evolved over time, we learned more about the relationship between trauma, equity and resilience. We are developing resources for communities to communicate and engage in the equity aspect of community resilience work. Read more about trauma, equity and resilience.
The Building Community Resilience (BCR) Approach
Currently, no process exists to break the multi-generational chain and address the “Pair of ACEs.” The BCR design is informed by research on child health care systems and also on barriers to addressing the root causes of community and childhood adversity.
Barriers to fostering resilience include a clinician’s lack of training to screen for a patient’s social needs that impact health, such as food insecurity, housing needs and financial burdens. Barriers also include a clinician’s difficulty or inexperience connecting patients to community-based resources and agencies to address their social needs. Systemic barriers include the inability to share information across large systems – such as housing, health, education, juvenile justice and public safety – in efforts to collaborate and foster community resilience.
BCR employs a systematic approach based on four central components that are applied as a continuous improvement model: creating shared understanding of childhood and community adversity, assessing system readiness, developing cross-sector partnerships, and engaging families and residents in a collaborative response to prevent and address the Pair of ACEs.
BCR Test Sites
There are five sites across the nation currently testing the BCR approach. Each site begins with different priorities, community makeup, resources, and set of partners. As such, each site develops its own unique strategies. The five sites are:
- Cincinnati, OH
- Dallas, TX
- Alive and Well Communities (MO-Kan)
- State of Oregon
- Washington, DC
BCR Stories
Blog: Guns and Opioids in America: Time for a Resilience Revolution (4/16/18)
Blog: How Do You Build a Resilience Movement? Know when to lead, when to follow and when to partner (4/5/18)
Blog: Why Community Resilience (10/17/17)
Blog: When a Picture Tells the Story: The Pair of ACEs Tree (3/20/17)
Blog: An American Public Health Crisis – the ‘Pair of ACEs’ (2/21/17)
Blog: Building Community Resilience: Cincinnati, Ohio (3/14/17)
Blog: Obesity, Zip Code and Adversity: New Action Toward a Resilient Community Solution (4/25/16)
BCR Policy & Advocacy
- Introducing the BCR Policy & Advocacy Guide Webinar (Slides)
- Introducing the BCR Policy & Advocacy Guide Webinar (Recording)
BCR Policy Blogs:
- Blog: Senate Opioid Legislation and a Trauma Informed Shift to Support Children and Families (5/14/18)
- Blog: Sustaining Progress: The Building Community Resilience Policy and Advocacy Guide (3/26/18)
- Blog: Congress Did What? New Investment in Prevention, Child Welfare (2/23/18)
- Blog: DC's Strategic Planning: What Do Resilience and Public Health Have to Do With It? (2/15/18)
- Blog: Opioids, Foster Care, and 'Spitting in the Ocean' (7/21/17)
- Blog: On The Chopping Block: Innovation For Children’s Health And Positive Life Outcomes (6/21/17)
BCR Policy Recommendations for States
Trauma-Informed Care for Children and Families Act (S.774 & H.R.1757) Summary
Additional Policy Videos:
- Congressional Briefing video: The Need to Address Childhood Trauma
- Congressional Briefing video: Public Policies to Improve Coordination, Prevention, and Response to Childhood Trauma
- Congressional Briefing video: Implementing Trauma-Informed Programs and Practices Congressional Briefing
- Congressional Briefing video: The Science of Trauma
BCR Tools & Resources
We have a number of tools and resources to help communities develop their own BCR coalitions. They have been instrumental to the work of our BCR test sites in Cincinnati, Dallas, Oregon, Missouri-Kansas and Washington, DC. Click the links below to download.
BCR Pair of ACEs Infographic Templates
- BCR Pair of ACEs Data Infographic Template
- BCR Pair of ACEs Policy Infographic Template
- BCR Pair of ACEs Infographic Guide
- BCR Pair of ACEs Webinar Recording
- BCR Pair of ACEs Webinar Slides
Coalition Building & Communications
- BCR Coalition Building & Communications Guide
- Pair of ACEs Tree
- Pair of ACEs Tree with Description
- Pair of ACEs Tree Worksheet
- Smart Chart and Message Box
- Partner Build Grow Action Guide Tools Description
- BCR Glossary
- Communications and Advocacy Tools Webinar Recording
- Communications and Advocacy Tools Webinar Slides
From Our Partners:
- Folger AT, Eismann EA, Stephenson NB, et al. Parental Adverse Childhood Experiences and Offspring Development at 2 Years of Age. Pediatrics. 2018;141(4):e20172826
- Shah AN, Beck AF, Sucharew HJ, et al. Parental Adverse Childhood Experiences and Resilience on Coping After Discharge. Pediatrics. 2018;141(4):e20172127
- ACEs Data Sheets by The Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI)
- Trauma-Informed Philanthropy: Volume 2 (Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia, Thomas Scattergood Behavioral Health Foundation, and United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey)
Contact Us
Please email us at resilientcommunities@gwu.edu to receive updates about our communities, upcoming events, and new resources. You may also want to join the BCR Facebook community to exchange ideas with others passionate about community resilience.
This project is supported in part by Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Kresge Foundation. Implementation of the BCR process was piloted as part of the Moving Health Care Upstream initiative, which is a joint project of UCLA and the Nemours Foundation.