September 12, 2025
For immediate release
Media contact: Cara Scarola Hansen
Center for Child Counseling Public Relations Counsel
cara@yourmissionmarketing.com
Global Leader Sounds Alarm on Child Maltreatment and Lauds Local Nonprofit for Its Public Health Approach to Ending Childhood Trauma in PBC
Statewide leaders convened in person with Benjamin Perks at Center for Child Counseling’s Lead the Fight event.
The United Nation’s Benjamin Perks sounded the alarm on the “elephant in the world’s living room,” child maltreatment, in his address at the most recent Center for Child Counseling (CFCC) Lead the Fight event. Although Perks claimed child maltreatment as the world’s most prevalent and costliest public health problem, he also delivered the hopeful message that we are the first generation in history with the knowledge to end it. Perks lauded the Center for having all the proper resources, partnerships, and people in place to build a trauma-proof future for Palm Beach County.
Emceed by WPTV 5 award-winning journalist Joel Lopez and hosted by Kathy Leone, the event took place at The Breakers on September 9. 150 community and statewide leaders attended in person and more than 100 joined the conversation via zoom from across the country. Participants left with a greater understanding of their personal role in the fight to protect our most precious asset–our children.
“You are an integral part of dismantling the mental-health-crisis bomb exploding the lives of our kids, their families, and the hope of our entire future. There are solutions. Together, we can deliver them as a trauma-informed community,” acknowledged Leone in her opening remarks.
In addition to Perks sharing his personal traumatic story which eventually led to his work campaigning on human rights and child development for the UN in New York, he outlined the public health approach it takes to systemically protect children and promote healing, resilience, and well-being.
Through his experience of healing trauma within himself, Perks came to understand the possibility of preventing trauma for every child before it happens and healing every person who is affected by trauma. His story and theory is part of his newly released book, Trauma Proof: Healing, Attachment, and the Science of Prevention—a powerful exploration of how connection and care can break the cycle of intergenerational trauma.
Perks shared that the health costs associated with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in North America and Europe is $1.3 trillion annually but “we now know how to manage, the Center for Child Counseling knows how to manage, for a fraction of what is lost.”
The public health solution includes early intervention, prevention, and treatment.
Perks recommends an investment in primary attachment to include: optimum perinatal care; family-friendly policies, including parental leave and affordable childcare; universal progressive access to parenting programs.
“We also know now that the return on investment in early childhood is huge…for every dollar invested, you have up to a $12-13 return,” presented Perks.
The prevention piece includes secondary attachment: ensuring “universal access to schools where children are secure, safe, soothed, and seen.” Perk’s emphasis on treatment as part of the public health solution is investing in “targeted care, support, and response services for children at serious risk of violence and neglect.”
The alternative to addressing ACEs is adverse health outcomes which include increased risk factors to: be a drinker, have unintended teenage pregnancy, smoke e-cigarettes or tobacco, have sex under the age of 16, smoke cannabis, be a victim of violence, commit violence against another person, use crack cocaine or heroin, be incarcerated.
In Perk’s concluding plea to the audience, he emphasized, “We are the first generation in history to know how to end toxic stress and child trauma. And we must not be the last to accept it as an inevitable and insurmountable problem. It’s up to us!”
Center for Child Counseling, a Palm Beach County based nonprofit, focuses on a public health approach to building awareness and action around addressing childhood adversity and trauma. CFCC was founded in 1999 with the vision that every child will grow up feeling safe and nurtured in communities where they can thrive. Using a prevention and healing-centered lens, CFCC focuses on changing the systems and practices that keep adversity and trauma firmly in place.
According to Center for Child Counseling CEO Renée Layman, “We don’t have to wait for a child to have a mental health diagnosis or crisis before we do something. Children have tremendous potential–which our society needs–and which we have a shared obligation to foster and protect. We host these events, like Lead the Fight, in order for all community members to understand and own the idea that we each have a stake and role in child and family wellbeing. Our work will continue until we have a trauma-free Palm Beach County.”
This important conversation was made possible by The Breakers Palm Beach, Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County, Pool Tek of the Palm Beaches, and WPTV 5. CFCC’s Fighting ACEs initiative to build trauma-informed communities is made possible with the generous support of Quantum Foundation, Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties, and private donors.
To learn more about Center for Child Counseling and how Lead The Fight continues to make a difference, visit centerforchildcounseling.org/fightingaces.
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