More than 170 child advocates and business leaders gathered for a hybrid luncheon to address the public health crisis of Florida's tiniest residents.
The Celebrate Babies event, a collaboration between the Center for Child Counseling and the Florida Association of Infant Mental Health, took place Oct. 22 at The Breakers.
The afternoon, presented both online and in-person, began with remarks from David Lawrence Jr., founder and board chair of The Children’s Movement of Florida, who underscored the essential role that each attendee plays in “ensuring that the workforce — the people — are equipped with the skills and support we need to help children and their families with so many with adverse childhood experiences.”
Lawrence said his understanding of mental health is based on “our first relationships — how our parents care for us, love us, talk to us, smile at us or don’t smile at us — shape how our brains and bodies develop.”He emphasized that every child deserves nurturing and caring adults and that all children deserve to be safe and loved: “You can’t build a movement based on 'those people,' or 'those children.' It’s about our children and everybody’s child.”
The afternoon's centerpiece was a video appearance by Nadine Burke Harris, the former attorney general of California and an internationally renowned pediatrician, public health advocate and author. She is best known for her pioneering work in the field of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and toxic stress.
Society is grappling with big, complex issues, Burke Harris said, citing a youth mental health crisis, crime and overflowing jails, uncontrollable addiction, and generational cycles of abuse and trauma left on repeat. These dilemmas are often the result of unbuffered, untreated trauma experienced early in life.
Still, she offered hope that “ACEs are not destiny … with early detection and evidenced-based intervention, we can transform health outcomes.”