Macon Mental Health Matters (MMHM) is proud to announce the relaunch of its groundbreaking community-wide Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Survey, reaffirming its commitment to understanding and addressing the impact of childhood trauma throughout Macon-Bibb County. The 2025 initiative builds on last year’s successful outreach and engagement, with new features including focus groups and post-survey resources. You can take the survey now through July 11, 2025. The survey is open to all residents of Macon-Bibb County. All responses are strictly confidential and will be used to inform local strategies for resilience, support, and prevention.

ACEs are potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood such as abuse, neglect, or exposure to violence and can have lasting effects on health, behavior, and opportunity well into adulthood. The more ACEs a person has, the higher their risk is for developing mental health challenges, chronic illness, substance misuse, and other life-altering outcomes.

“As a community, we can better address the presenting issues if we know what we’re facing,” said Andrea Cooke, Macon Mental Health Matters Coordinator. “I’m hopeful that our community improves as a direct result of this knowledge.”

Participants in the online survey will anonymously answer a short set of questions and receive a personal ACEs score. Based on this score, respondents will be provided with a customized list of free, local mental health resources through MMHM and its community partners.

Why This Matters

The results of the survey will:

• Guide future programming and mental health services in Macon-Bibb.
• Inform public health efforts and local policies to prevent and respond to trauma.
• Empower residents and organizations to become more trauma informed.

Participants will also be connected with local resources and services based on their responses helping them take another step toward healing and community care.

Partner Engagement

MMHM is also calling on organizations, schools, nonprofits, faith groups, and civic leaders to partner in amplifying this initiative. Interested partners can join the effort by:

• Sharing the survey with their networks
• Hosting survey sessions or events
• Engaging in trauma-informed training opportunities

Organizations can indicate their interest by completing the Partnership Interest Form available at https://forms.gle/fDkgfjSCpwr52qkQ8.

Click here to take the survey.