In Racine County, with low unemployment and Foxconn-related hiring already here, it's a case of all hands needed on deck, including workers who’ve had a hard time in the past of landing and retaining jobs. In a bid to help those people cash in on new opportunities, officials at Racine County Workforce Solutions have been re-thinking tactics.
A new tool soon to be in the tool box is a test called ACE—an acronym for Adverse Childhood Experience Survey.
Jeff Neubauer of Higher Expectations, a Racine County non-profit, says the theory is that the long-term effects of a variety of bad childhood experiences can have a long-lasting impact on a person’s ability to function as an adult. Identifying and treating those issues, researchers believe, can make people more successful in life.
Racine County has been working with experts on the topic at UW-Milwaukee and hope they'll help the county develop test protocols and possible interventions.
Neubaurer says county officials would like to make the test a standard option. With test results in hand, county officials believe they’d be in a better position to identify the types of services that could help individuals. "Many, many, many people have had childhood adversity and have risen above it," Neubauer says. "We just want to make that happen for more people, faster."
Researchers believe that Racine County is home to a higher than average number of people with rough childhoods.
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