PYP’s Trauma-Sensitive Approach

Almost 70 public health studies conducted by the CDC since the 1990’s have shown time and time again the long-term health implications of enduring an extended state of intense stress that living in poverty causes. Higher incidents of heart disease, high blood pressure and depression, as well as disrupted neurodevelopment, have combined to raise awareness about the trauma of scarcity beyond what a paycheck can fix: that overcoming poverty requires a holistic approach that triumphs over economic hurdles AND reduces stress toxicity.  In short, the stress of poverty can change your brain.

At PYP, through our programs and workshop modules, we not only aim to coach and teach new skills, we aim to do it in a way that is sensitive to the traumatic experiences our participants may have lived through, and in many cases are still trying to manage. We understand that for impoverish adults, a large majority suffered measurable trauma as impoverished children. PYP uses both individualized goals and aggregated experiential data, such as ACE scores*, to inform the programs we offer and how we deliver them.

At PYP, we aren’t interested in just inching people above the poverty line and ‘checking a box’ –
we exist to help each person reach their full potential and thrive for life.

*The ACE score is a measurement of 10 adverse childhood experiences as a predictive indicator of the risks of health problems later in life. Developed as a result of groundbreaking research through the CDC-Kaiser Adverse Childhood Experiences Study in 1995, the study discovered that childhood trauma leads to the adult onset of chronic diseases, depression and other mental illness, violence and being a victim of violence, as well as financial and social problems. In short, the rougher your childhood, the higher your score is likely to be and the higher your risk for later health problems.