The Dryhootch Digital Forward Operating Base (DigitalFOB)

Early childhood presents a unique developmental window of opportunity to set a trajectory for a lifetime, and in one’s earliest years, more than one million neural connections are made every second. Experiences in early childhood, whether positive or negative, have significant impacts that last a lifetime. Supporting Families Together (SFTA) created a Parent Leadership cohort with parents who were part of SFTA’s Parent Café project, a project that was meant to create places where parents and caregivers can come together with others in similar situations to learn from and support one another. The parents volunteered to serve in a leadership capacity as part of their local Parent Café team. As part of this cohort, the Parent Leaders participated in a year-long learning process so they would be able to lead the design of community-based supports aimed to address the health inequities associated with ACEs. These inequities are grounded in income and racial disparities, causing those affected to be more likely to have two or more ACEs than their peers, which is correlated with more health risk factors and negative outcomes. They also worked towards building protective factors, which are characteristics at the biological, psychological, family, or community level that reduce the negative impact of a risk factor on problem outcomes, as a community-based support. Some examples of protective factors include social connectedness, concrete supports, and parental resilience. The outcomes exceeded what the grantees had originally intended to accomplish with this project. The Parent Leaders were actively engaged throughout the entire process and requested the cohort to continue beyond the scope of this project as they are still eager to learn more and stay connected.