You can find below our past Open Conversations, a webinar series on ACEs, racial trauma and collective solutions, and other events organised by the London ACEs Hub Racial Justice Workgroup.
Subscribe to News for Action to be notified of future events, and catch up with recordings when they are made available on YouTube.
Open Conversations & Events
The London ACEs Hub (LAH) is committed to raising awareness of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and their preventable traumatic impacts.
Historical and persistent racism is a highly stressful threat and experience, which causes both adversity and trauma.
The LAH Racial Justice Workgroup was developed to shed light on the links between racism, ACEs and trauma and on ways to tackle and prevent the harm they generate on individual and social levels.
There is more work to be done to explore the full significance and traumatic impact of racism.
In this section, you can learn about our actions and commitments to contribute towards greater understanding and racial justice.
Feel welcome to contact us if you endorse our Call to Action and would like to join in strength to end the traumas created by racism in London.
Call to Action
26th September Statement
The London ACEs Hub (LAH) recognises and acknowledges that racism is an adverse childhood experience (ACE) that causes deep-rooted traumas, denies the full humanity and limits the opportunities to thrive of individuals and communities, resulting in a loss for the society as a whole.
We believe that there is an urgent and growing evidence that the individual, interrelational and historical harm produced by racism constitutes a public health crisis in London.
This crisis can be addressed and prevented by proactive awareness-raising, empathy building and cultural, systemic and structural changes.
We call for support and appeal to the London government, statutory and non-statutory organisations, parents and heads of homes, children and young people, educators, multidisciplinary professionals, survivors and community advocates from all backgrounds to prevent and end the harmful consequences of racism.
We have the power, as individuals and a collective, to make this happen:
one committed step at a time to end the adverse childhood experience of racism in London.
Is racism a public health crisis in London?
Racial Justice
There are multiple warning signs indicating significant health disparity outcomes in the London population associated with racial discrimination.
Urgent questions must be asked about the links between racism, health and well-being.
Individual, familial and public health is impacted by a range of factors. Increasing evidence shows that excessive levels of toxic stress resulting from adverse experiences and trauma are directly linked to negative health outcomes (see The Science). Many issues such as deprivation, lack of access to appropriate care, poor education, inappropriate policing and harsher treatment in mental health and criminal justice also play a negative role in health promotion and in early death rates, as shown by several sources in our educational gallery below.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted some of these facts and the fatal impact of socio-economic disadvantages. Data from the ONS for England and Wales show undeniable evidence that black and minority ethnic groups are at higher risk of dying from COVID-19 than the rest of the population. It also demonstrates that females and males of Black ethnicity are the most vulnerable group, being over four times more likely to die than people of White ethnicity.
London is more than a microcosm of England and Wales. 4 in 10 Londoners are from a minority ethnic background and they suffer more severe health inequalities than elsewhere.
The LAH is committed to understanding how traumas related to racism affect health outcomes. We believe that the significant and often fatal health inequalities experienced by Black and minority communities in London represent a public health crisis that requires a proactive, collaborative and preventive approach. In this aim, we are building partnerships to collect data to identify and assess disparities in the following categories:
Physical health
Mental health
Education
Policing
Housing
Social factors
Substance misuse
Social care
Criminal justice
Employment/finances
Contextual factors
To learn more about this project, watch our Open Conversations and get in touch.
You find below a range of resources associated with the interconnections of racism, ACEs and trauma and how to address and overcome their challenges.
This educational gallery is updated regularly to be a dynamic information point. If you have any questions or are aware of other relevant and stimulating sources, contact us.