impact
The wellbeing SHANARRI results suggested that a proportion of young people felt less safe at home. It was therefore agreed that the case studies would sensitively explore childhood adversity. Science has shown that the more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) occur; the greater the risk of negative effects on adult health and wellbeing. The 'Centre for Youth Wellness' in the US devised statements that allow teenagers to self-report on ACEs. Within the case study organisations, young people were invited to identify how many causes of adversity applied to them.
All ethical guidelines were followed. Participation was voluntary with the ability to opt-out being reiterated at several points during the exercise. Two sets of ACEs statements were used. The original ten statements hail from the landmark 1998 study. Since then other statements evolved which recognise additional adversities that can have a similar 'toxic' effect but were omitted from the original ten. Therefore both sets of ten questions were included. To balance negatives with more positive attributes, additional questions on resilience factors were also asked.
Three of the five organisations agreed to participate in the ACEs and resilience evaluation exercise, with 21 responses gathered in total. Although the sample is too small to draw conclusions, the results reveal an interesting context to youth work's role in supporting young people affected by ACEs and ways it builds resilience.