One of the most challenging and complex projects an agency can work on is the prevention of ACEs. Using a data-driven approach can yield very positive, measurable and meaningful results. One course project is to assess and build the capacity of one's agency to prevent childhood trauma. This course project focuses on understanding the many components of ACEs prevention and helps a team (and their agency) choose a priority area to focus on. This project also helps an agency identify potential funding and strategic partners to support prevention efforts.

Assess the capacity of local behavioral health providers to meet the mental health challenges of community members—especially those with limited incomes. Work to grow capacity.

Assess the incidence of Adverse Childhood Experiences among youth and adult populations, and work to provide evidence-based prevention and treatment.

Assess the capacity of vital family services to meet local needs—prioritizing communities with the lowest household incomes. These services/programs/sectors include:

1. Behavioral health care (school and community-based)
2. Housing/Shelters
3. Health care (Medical and Dental)
4. Transportation
5. Food pantries and programs
6. Early childhood programs
7. Youth mentorship program
8. High functioning schools
9. Parent supports including home visiting programs
10. Job training and placement programs

Assess who are most at risk for challenges related to substance misuse, incidence of substance abuse and related injuries and develop strategies to address those challenges

Assess the incidence of substance use challenges among students, the capacity of local schools to address student substance misuse and abuse, and develop strategies to strengthen school-based prevention and treatment services

Assess the incidence of DV and the capacity of local providers to meet the needs of adult survivors of DV and strengthen prevention and treatment services.

Assess the incidence of DV and assess the capacity of local providers to meet the needs of child witnesses of DV and strengthen prevention and treatment services.

Assess the incidence of DV and assess the capacity of the local community to address the behaviors of DV offenders and strengthen prevention, intervention and treatment services.

Assess the needs of parents who may be at risk for entering the Protective Services system, or are currently in the system, and develop strategies to meet those needs.

Assess the needs of youth who may age out of the Protective Services system and develop strategies to meet those needs.

Assess the local need for foster and adoptive parents and develop recruitment strategies.

Assess the needs of youth who may be at risk for entering the Juvenile Justice system, or are currently in the system and develop strategies to meet those needs.

Assess the needs of the parents of youth who are currently in the Juvenile Justice system and develop strategies to meet those needs.

Dominic Cappello is the co-founder of Safety+Success Communities, a non-profit strategic planning collective in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A specialist in continuous quality improvement, Dominic advocates for a collaborative and data-driven problem-solving process. He has a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies with an emphasis in Language and Communications from Regis University. He oversaw the development and implementation of the Casey Family Programs-sponsored Data Leaders for Child Welfare programs in New York City, New Mexico and Connecticut. Dominic worked for the NM Department of Health's Epidemiology and Division, developing the Resiliency Corps focused on improving health outcomes for youth, and the NM Children, Youth and Families Department’s Research, Assessment and Data Bureau. He also has extensive expertise in reaching families through his development of the CDC-funded and National Education Association sponsored “Can We Talk? /Conversamos?” parent education project. Dominic’s work reached a national audience when he appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss his Ten Talks book series on family communication and health. He is also the co-author (with Katherine Ortega Courtney, PhD) of Anna, Age Eight: The data-driven prevention of childhood trauma and maltreatment. Dominic is overseeing the development of Resilience Leaders in New Mexico and can be contacted at Dom@safetyandsuccess.org.

Shannon Morrison, Ph.D.is a sociologist with over 25 years of program planning, evaluation, and research experience in the areas of human services, homelessness, violence against women, organizational development, and criminal justice. She taught undergraduate courses in sociology and research methodology for four years at the University of New Mexico. She has been the Principal Investigator for several federal grants and has been a speaker at many National conferences. She has extensive experience in conducting strength-based program evaluation, quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis, writing grant proposals and research reports and working with culturally diverse populations. Since 1994, she has worked with several community and state-level programs in New Mexico, utilizing a participatory approach and providing meaningful, client-driven program planning and evaluation. She currently works with several community agencies across New Mexico conducting data collection, fidelity assessments, and interviews to determine current practices and assist in implementing best practices and conducting on-going program evaluation. She has developed and co-authored best practice manuals for the NM Behavioral Health Services Division, NM Children, Youth, and Family Department, and the Administrative Office of the Courts. Because of her participatory approach to program evaluation, she can engage stakeholders and clients in a way that allows for rich sharing and discussion which, in turn, provides meaningful evaluation results.

Richard Dunks is the founder of Datapolitan, an urban informatics consultancy that focuses on the data and information needs of the public sector, including government agencies and non-profits. A graduate of the urban data science program at NYU's Center for Urban Science and Progress, Richard works on applying new and innovative techniques to the processing, analysis, and visualization of public data to make meaningful and positive actions with measurable impact. With over 6 years of experience as a data analyst in the public sector, Richard brings a variety of skills to the task of making sense of data. Through past work with the Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University, he helped develop innovative methods of data analysis and visualization to medium-sized cities across the country. He currently teaches a series of informative and engaging classes in open data and geospatial analysis for the City of New York, and has taught courses in data mining, spatial analysis, information visualization, and informatics at Columbia University, Fordham University, and Pratt Institute. He is a facilitator of the Data Leaders for Child Welfare program in New York City.

Melissa Hardin is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in New Mexico with a MSW from New Mexico Highlands University. She practiced in child welfare, before entering into academia to begin a career in higher education at Eastern New Mexico University. Her focus of work has been on interventions for children and families. Ms. Hardin worked with the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department for 13 years, beginning her career in direct client service and ending in management before her transition into teaching. She has taught for the ENMU Social Work Program for 9 years and counting. Her passion is in work with children and families, interventions, and social change to meet the needs of this population. Ms. Hardin most recently accepted the position of ENMU Social Work Program Director, and is excited about the direction her work is taking her including developing university and community strategies for preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) including the design and piloting of “Data-Driven Social Work” courses and the data-driven and cross-sector ACEs prevention project Resilience Leaders. Ms. Hardin is the liaison between the Resilience Leaders program and our partner Eastern New Mexico University-Program of Social Work.

Gregory Sherrow is a technology architect for both educational and commercial enterprises. Gregory was the technology architect of the Data Leaders for Child Welfare program and course series. This website serves as a repository for lessons, tutorials and links to data and research. He provided Data Leaders technology solutions for the sites for the child welfare systems of New York City and Connecticut. Trained as an educator, Gregory has been involved in online technology development and management since 1997 and has developed and managed web technology solutions for companies large and small, most notably 6+ years as the head of Patagonia, Inc. Web Development Department and more than a dozen years as a technology and services executive for an online publishing solution. Gregory architected the prototypes for the Safety+Success learning management systems piloted in South Carolina and New Mexico that housed courses for parents on family health and safety. His learning management system clients include State Departments of Health, Education and Attorney Generals Office and he is currently developing a learning management system to house a course focused on the prevention and treatment of adverse childhood experiences, based on the book Anna, Age Eight: The data-driven prevention of childhood trauma and maltreatment.