In early May, members of the Bounce Team headed to Washington D.C. to meet with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) grantee team and other challenge finalists from across the United States for the first-ever Children and Youth Resilience Summit. Under the Biden-Harris administration, federal dollars were allocated to 14 groups of finalists with innovative, creative, and well-thought-out projects aimed at building resilience among children in their communities.
In the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are common: one in five Kentucky children have experienced at least two ACEs. The Bounce Coalition’s project aims to address and reduce the number of ACEs that youth in Louisville experience. Specifically, the project involves supporting the YMCA of Greater Louisville by providing social-emotional learning programming and resilience-building training directly to youth and families in their School-Age Child Care (SACC) program. The YMCA of Greater Louisville serves a diverse set of youth and families across the city. We have been working with the YMCA Chancey Elementary site, piloting regular social-emotional learning programming through 16 sessions led by our lead trainer, Jo Cruz.
In Washington, we exchanged lessons learned from our projects with other innovative finalists and discussed how our projects were progressing. We also had the opportunity to meet with the HHS team, who shared their insights and lessons learned. We met with other groups from across the US working on projects such as healing through art and nature, youth-led groups addressing disparities, and a group that released a mental health app for foster youth. Additionally, we met with Admiral Rachel Levine, the Assistant Secretary for Health, and Jessica Marcella, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs, to learn about their work addressing inequities in the health sector.
This is the first time the administration has provided a challenge of this magnitude, and it was the first-ever summit held. Given its success, we hope to see future funding allocated to more grassroots services. The biggest takeaway from this summit was that remarkable work is being done across the United States, often by small agencies passionate about serving their communities.
We hope to continue making an impact in the Louisville community through our social-emotional learning training for youth. We have submitted our next step in this challenge: a report detailing our findings, the project’s impact on the community, lessons learned, and future plans for sustainability. Soon, we will learn who the top three challenge finalists are and the winners of the grand prize money. Best of luck to all the finalists and changemakers participating in the challenge. We are grateful for this opportunity and enjoyed connecting with others on this project!
