Working Toward Well-Being: Community Approaches to Toxic Stress

In recent years, significant focus has been placed on the concept of toxic stress and the impact of adverse experiences in childhood on lifelong health and development. As scientific understanding continues to grow, community leaders are searching for ways to prevent and respond to toxic stress in the lives of young children and their families, in order to achieve healthy development and well-being for all children. Leaders from six communities worked together in 2015 with the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) through the Early Childhood-LINC Learning Lab on Community Approaches to Toxic Stress. The communities learned from each other’s experiences, discussed the challenges and opportunities they face, and generated ideas to improve the response to toxic stress in their own communities and in others. This issue brief presents their experiences and recommendations.