History & Hope is making change in Alaska - Evaluating our Program
History & Hope is making change in Alaska. This revolutionary training teaches the audience about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and gives participants the tools to help conquer and move past them. ACEs come in a wide variety of forms, from physical or mental abuse to household issues, and often amount in toxic stress that can manifest later in life in a myriad of ways. Many of the most pertinent public health issues in our society today – addiction, disease, chronic pain, mental illness, and more – can be traced back to ACEs. We must confront this issue if we hope to create a healthy and thriving Alaska. The History & Hope training is revolutionary not only because it addresses ACEs, but because it does so in an Alaskan context. History & Hope brings together Alaska Native ancestral knowledge of trauma and resilience with western and non-western sciences. It was designed by dozens of experts and communities around the state specifically with Alaskans in mind. The training also provides trainees with concrete actions to help those who have experienced childhood trauma and as well as actions to create positive change in their workplaces. For the past four years, trainers from every region of Alaska, often individuals immersed in the community they were working with, taught History & Hope. Now, we have the data to see what sort of difference History & Hope is making in our great state.
Over 400 History & Hope participants from 4 years of training were evaluated to learn the impacts of History & Hope. This extensive evaluation found that participants showed increased knowledge of the impact of ACEs and stress on the health and well-being of children and adults. This is important because we cannot combat what we don’t know. Even more important is that participants showed an increased confidence in their ability to address the impact of ACEs and toxic stress on the health and well-being of children and adults. History & Hope teaches us that it is never too late to make a difference in a child or an adult’s life and that we can do something about ACEs. Participants in this training experienced everything from increased knowledge of how history affects children today to increased skills for self-soothing and an increased belief in their own abilities to make a difference. Dozens of statistical analyses and hundreds of quotes and feedback opportunities speak to one conclusion: History & Hope is likely to have long-term positive community and institutional impacts. Thank you to the visionaries, creators, and trainers who contributed to the development and implementation of History & Hope.
Read more about the History & Hope training here.
If you are interested in bringing the benefits of a free History & Hope training to your workplace or community, visit our website to learn more and get connected with a trainer.
