
The Prevention Leaders Podcast
Beyond ACEs: The Power of Positive Childhood Experiences with Carla Ritz
45 min
Guest: Carla Ritz
Listen on SpotifySummary
This episode features Carla Ritz discussing the transformative power of Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs). She explains how focusing on strengths can reduce risk factors and build resilience in children, families, and communities. Carla also explores the research behind PCEs, their practical application for prevention professionals, and their synergy with Positive Community Norms.
Key takeaways
- Understand what Positive Childhood Experiences are and their significance.
- Learn how PCEs can buffer against the long-term effects of trauma and ACEs.
- Discover actionable ways prevention professionals can promote PCEs.
- Recognize the power of community traditions.
- See how PCEs and Positive Community Norms collaborate to change culture.
Show notes
In this energizing episode, Dave Closson chats with Carla Ritz about the transformative power of Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs). Carla shares how focusing on strengths, rather than solely on adversity, can reduce risk factors and help build more resilient kids, families, and communities.
Carla dives into the research behind PCEs, explains how prevention professionals can apply this science in practical ways, and explores the synergy between PCEs and Positive Community Norms. Plus, there’s a heartfelt (and hilarious) reflection on parenting, community traditions, and how small actions can have big ripple effects.
What You’ll Learn:
- What Positive Childhood Experiences are, and why they matter
- How PCEs buffer against the long-term effects of trauma and ACEs
- Actionable ways prevention professionals can promote PCEs
- Why community traditions are more powerful than we give them credit for
- How PCEs and Positive Community Norms work together to change culture
“We’re not just preventing what’s bad, we’re growing what’s good.”, Carla Ritz
- https://www.montanainstitute.com/msi
More episodes from The Prevention Leaders Podcast
October 7, 202658 min
How SAFE Project Is Strengthening What Protects Us
This episode features Ronna Yablonski and Adam Swift from SAFE Project, who discuss the organization's comprehensive approach to substance misuse prevention. They emphasize that prevention is an ongoing, daily effort that involves individuals, families, and communities. The conversation highlights how SAFE Project strengthens protective factors before, during, and after a crisis, particularly for veterans.
ListenAugust 12, 202647 min
Culture Is Prevention: Protective Factors, Belonging, and Strength-Based Prevention with Barbara Bessette
This episode of The Prevention Leaders Podcast features Dave Closson and Barbara Bessette, an enrolled member of the Chippewa-Cree Tribe Rocky Boy. They explore how reconnecting with culture, identity, belonging, and community can be a powerful substance misuse prevention strategy. Bessette shares her insights on approaching prevention through an Indigenous lens, emphasizing protective factors and moving beyond deficit-based narratives.
ListenJuly 2, 20261 hr 3 min
Fall, Feel, Rise: Hope Tour, Fourth Wave Foundation, and the Practice of Resilience
This episode, a collaboration with the Unnecessary Harm podcast, explores resilience with the architects of World Resiliency Week 2026, Adam Woods and Sneha Patiyathal. They discuss the critical practice of resilience in diverse cultural contexts, focusing on community-rooted and relationship-centered prevention work for young people. The conversation highlights on-the-ground efforts in schools and communities across Australia and India.
ListenJune 24, 202651 min
The Pulse of Resilience: Why Falling, Feeling, and Rising Matters
This special multicast episode, originally recorded with the Dalgarno Institute for their podcast Unnecessary Harm, explores the 2026 World Resiliency Week campaign theme, "The Pulse of Resilience: Fall, Feel, Rise." Guests Dave Closson and Jen Schneeman discuss resilience as a rhythm rather than a destination, drawing on diverse fields such as trauma recovery and prevention science. They offer a hopeful conversation about navigating adversity and building stronger individuals and communities.
ListenYour people are waiting.
Join a private community built only for prevention professionals. Look around, meet your people, and choose your membership when you're ready.
