Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Funding

Funding by state

Select a funded state from the map or data table below to view a snapshot of the ACEs activities supported by the CDC Injury Center.

While the Injury Center supports other programs that work to prevent and mitigate ACEs, the map below shows funding provided directly to state and local recipients from the ACEs Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 appropriation.

Each snapshot contains:

• Overall ACEs 2022 funding, including program categories and recipient information
• Key ACEs-related statistics
• Examples of how states are working to prevent and mitigate ACEs

Hover over the map to view information about the funding and ACEs-related statistics for each state. Use the filter to see which states are funded for each award: Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences: Data to Action and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System. Please note that Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System funding was appropriated in FY22 for the administration of the 2023 survey.

ACEs prevention and mitigation in tribal communities

In FY20, the Injury Center began funding tribal organizations through CDC's umbrella cooperative agreement, Tribal Public Health Capacity Building and Quality Improvement Cooperative Agreement, to prevent and mitigate ACEs among American Indian and Alaska Native populations.

The recipients and their associated annual funding amounts are below:

• Cherokee Nation: $180,000
• Wabanaki Health and Wellness: $150,000

The Cherokee Nation also received $3,000 in FY22 to collect ACEs data from tribal youth through their administration of YRBS. This funding was appropriated in FY22 for use in administrating the 2023 survey.

Cherokee Nation

• Data Identification: The Cherokee Nation is working to identify any available sources of data on ACEs and positive childhood experiences (PCEs) within their community, accessing this data, and summarizing it for use in planning prevention strategies.
• Surveillance Activities: The Cherokee Nation is adding ACEs and PCEs questions to existing surveillance systems with youth (ages 14-18), such as the YRBS and Oklahoma Prevention Needs Assessment. This tribal organization is also analyzing ACE and PCE surveillance data from additional data sources to identify at least one ACE primary prevention or PCE promotion strategy that could be implemented in the community. The Cherokee Nation is directly engaging tribal youth in creating solutions to ACEs through the Up for Learning Program: students will analyze Cherokee Nation YRBS data and come up with their own solutions for the problems identified by the survey. The program introduces youth to public health and creates community-derived solutions to problems like ACEs.

Wabanaki Health and Wellness

• Data Identification: Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness is working to identify any available sources of data on ACEs and PCEs within their community, accessing this data, and summarizing it for use in planning prevention strategies.
• Surveillance Activities: Wabanaki Health and Wellness is adding ACEs and PCEs questions to existing surveillance systems with youth (ages 14-18) and adults (age 18+), including the Waponahki Youth Assessment and Waponahki Health Assessment. This tribal organization is also analyzing ACE and PCE surveillance data and additional data sources to identify at least one ACE primary prevention or PCE promotion strategy that could be implemented in the community.

Funding over time

The Injury Center was first appropriated a budget line for ACEs activities in 2020. Since then, the Center has increased and expanded its funding to a variety of state, tribal, and non-governmental organizations. The visuals below are not comprehensive of all funding related to ACEs, but of major ACEs awards.

Where we've been

The Injury Center’s national leadership and increased support to states, tribes, and non-governmental organizations are working to prevent and mitigate ACEs across the United States. Learn more about the key milestones and programs before and since 2020.

Pre-2020: Funding directed toward understanding and preventing child maltreatment

• The Injury Center has been a leader in ACEs prevention and mitigation efforts even before the establishment of ACEs-specific funding. For example, the Injury Center's Essentials for Childhood program began funding state health departments in FY14 to pilot and evaluate strategies to prevent child maltreatment by promoting safe, stable, and nurturing relationships and environments for children. The Essentials for Childhood strategies come from the Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect Technical Package and are very similar to the six prevention strategies that guide the ACEs Prevention Resource.
• Given the success of initiatives like Essentials for Childhood and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), in conjunction with the ever-increasing importance of preventing and mitigating ACEs, Congress established an ACEs-specific budget line for the Injury Center in FY20.

2020: Funding dedicated to ACEs

• The Injury Center was appropriated a new budget line of $4 million for ACEs prevention and mitigation. With this funding, the Injury Center supported programs to assess and collect ACEs data, prevent and mitigate ACEs, and fund other research and surveillance activities.
• Assess and Collect ACEs Data and Prevent and Mitigate ACEs: The PACE:D2A program funded four states – Connecticut, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Michigan – to support ACEs monitoring and prevention. To ensure recipients' success in this endeavor, CDC began supporting the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and the Violence Prevention Technical Assistance Contract (VPTAC) to provide different areas of technical assistance. Through the Tribal Umbrella Cooperative Agreement, CDC also funded two tribal organizations – the Cherokee Nation and Wabanaki Health and Wellness – to build their capacity to assess, collect, and analyze ACEs and positive childhood experiences (PCEs) surveillance data within their communities and to use that data to identify and plan for ACEs prevention and PCEs promotion strategies.
• Surveillance: CDC also funded states, local school districts, and a tribe to collect state-level and tribal ACEs data from youth through their local administration of CDC's YRBS, a survey conducted every two years to monitor health behaviors that contribute markedly to the leading causes of death, disability, and social problems among youth and adults in the United States.

2021: ACEs funding increased

• Assess and Collect ACEs data and Prevent and Mitigate ACEs: The FY21 appropriation was increased to $5 million, allowing the Injury Center to expand the PACE:D2A program to two additional states: Minnesota and New Jersey. The two tribal recipients initially awarded funding in FY20 continued to receive funding to build capacity to prevent and mitigate ACEs.
• Surveillance: The Injury Center supported the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) to add ACEs questions to the National Survey of Family Growth, a nationally representative survey of adolescents (15-18) and adults (19-55) on reproductive health and other outcomes.
• Research: In addition to these surveillance and programmatic activities, CDC conducted applied research to expand understanding of the type and nature of ACEs, resiliency, and PCEs to inform ACEs prevention and mitigate harmful effects.

2022: ACEs surveillance and research increased

• Assess and Collect ACEs Data and Prevent and Mitigate ACEs: In FY22, the ACEs budget line grew to $7 million, allowing the Injury Center to fund the final year of PACE:D2A for the 6 state recipients and to fund the 2 tribal recipients.
• Surveillance: The Injury Center incentivized local YRBS jurisdictions to add ACE and PCE questions to their surveys.
• Research: The Injury Center supported the examination of PCEs, ACEs, and various physical and mental health outcomes among 4 states – Wisconsin, Montana, South Carolina, and Kansas – that have added the ACEs and PCEs modules to their BRFSS.

Other projects

Beyond the $7M ACEs appropriation, CDC supports several initiatives, research, and partnerships to build state and tribal surveillance infrastructure and enhance ACEs prevention and mitigation.

ACEs Funded Research

Three academic institutions received a research project grant (R01) for preventing violence and violence-related injury. These universities and investigators investigate the interaction of ACEs with other factors and forms of violence.

Core State Injury Prevention Program

The Core State Injury Prevention Program (Core SIPP) supports health department infrastructure, data, and partnerships to identify and respond to existing and emerging injury threats with data-driven public health actions. All 23 recipients focus their strategic efforts on preventing ACEs.

Essentials for Childhood

The Injury Center's Division of Violence Prevention funds seven state health departments to implement the 4 goals of the Essentials for Childhood Framework. All 7 recipients are working to prevent ACEs.

Overdose Data to Action

Overdose Data to Action supports jurisdictions in collecting high-quality, comprehensive, and timely data on nonfatal and fatal overdoses. The data supports prevention and response efforts; 16 states are conducting activities related to preventing ACEs, as well as overdoses.

Resilience Catalysts in Public Health project

The Resilience Catalysts project funds implementation of the Building Community Resilience (BCR) process developed by Dr. Wendy Ellis and the George Washington University Center for Community Resilience. BCR is a systems-level process that supports each community in identifying the public health challenge most critical to them, and then engaging in the data gathering, partner engagement, strategic planning, and implementation to address it. All 8 Resilience Catalyst communities are working to prevent ACEs.

Additional resources

Related ACEs links

• Prevalence of ACEs MMWR - BRFSS
• ACEs Vital Signs MMWR
• ACEs Prevention Resource
• ACEs Prevention Strategy
• CDC Operating Plans
• POLARIS: ACEs (CDC's portal for navigating policy-relevant tools, trainings, and information)

How you can prevent ACEs

Take CDC's VetoViolence Preventing ACEs Trainings

There are introductory trainings for everyone, as well as provider-specific trainings for mental health and pediatric providers. Provider-specific trainings for faith-based groups and educators are also available.

To view specific ACEs training resources, visit Preventing ACEs Resources.