Live Beyond

The Challenge

Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, are potentially traumatic events that occur before the age of 18, such as abuse, violence, or neglect. ACEs can lead to toxic stress, particularly in the case of young people who lack a supportive, nurturing parent or caregiver. Left unaddressed, toxic stress can compromise mental, emotional, and physical health into adulthood, increasing the risk of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other conditions.

In California, three out of five young people between the ages of 16 and 25 have experienced an ACE, and one out of five have experienced four or more ACEs. Nevertheless, despite the enormity of this public health challenge, 90% of Californians have never even heard of ACEs. In 2023, the Office of the California Surgeon General hired Civilian to develop a campaign to increase public awareness of ACEs and to help those affected by ACEs and toxic stress begin to heal from their effects.

Our Approach

A review of the scientific literature taught us that understanding ACEs is the first step toward preventing them and the long-term effects of toxic stress. We realized that by increasing awareness and knowledge of ACEs and toxic stress, promoting the belief that healing is possible, providing culturally relevant resources for healing, and encouraging those affected by ACEs to take action, we could support young people, caregivers, and communities across California in improving their mental, emotional, and physical well-being.

We defined our primary audience as young people between the ages of 16 and 25, as this window represents a critical transitional stage for establishing lifelong habits of stress-management and self-care. Our secondary audience included parents and caregivers with children between the ages of 8 and 16, who are in the unique position to recover from the effects of their own ACEs while supporting the next generation in their recovery.

To develop a campaign that would truly resonate with our audiences, we worked directly with individuals with lived experience of ACEs. To engage this population, we partnered with ACEs Aware and their Youth and Young Adult and Parent Caregiver Advisory Boards, and with a group of Native youth ambassadors who further helped to indigenize our campaign resources. In addition, we worked closely with subject-matter experts and public health leaders, including the current and former California Surgeon Generals. We hosted a series of statewide listening sessions with youth, caregivers, and community partners to solicit input on the campaign’s creative, messaging, outreach tactics, and more. Our collaborative work with these groups directly inspired our winning campaign concept, Live Beyond, and led us to the resounding insight that ACEs are just a part of our story, and we are all more than the worst things that have happened to us. Audience collaboration also influenced the look and feel of the campaign, with its natural and candid presentation of authentic stories told by real people across California.

We laid the groundwork for widespread discussion of ACEs with a tailored paid media campaign spanning digital and traditional platforms. We relied heavily on social media, in particular TikTok, which we recognized as the most effective platform for reaching transition-age youth. We also employed a variety of innovative media tactics to get people talking about ACEs in settings and communities where young people and caregivers are working together to create positive childhood experiences. For example, we partnered with South Central Los Angeles’ Drew League, whose 2024 season was sponsored by Live Beyond, yielding over 1,000,000 hyper-targeted impressions through signage, interactive events at local high schools, social media posts, and video interviews with Drew League basketball athletes and other celebrities.

Acknowledging that 28% of Gen Z play online games, we sought to reach young people in these spaces. We worked with Valkyrae, a prominent influencer and the most-streamed female gamer on YouTube, to authentically amplify our message on her streaming channels, generating more than 150K views. In addition, we leveraged unique paid partnerships, including working with Refinery 29 on two special episodes of their popular Twitch gaming show, “Good Game,” which paired gaming influencers with subject-matter experts and generated more than 781,710 views.

Finally, the Live Beyond website served as a central hub for learning about ACEs and toxic stress. Designed with a mobile-first approach, it provides rich yet accessible resources for youth and caregivers and supplies a forum where those affected by ACEs can share their stories.

The Results

Civilian’s Live Beyond campaign offers a compelling demonstration of the power of healing through storytelling. By combining authentic stories of healing from people with lived experience of ACES, with paid media, social media, and PR, Live Beyond not only educated Californians about ACEs and toxic stress but also shifted the discussion surrounding ACEs toward resilience and collective healing. In the first five months since launch, the campaign achieved:

• 588 million paid and organic social media impressions
• 18 unique earned media placements resulting in 583 million potential earned impressions
• 876,000+ visits to the Live Beyond website with 22% of users visiting the Spanish-language site
• 6,500+ engagements across organic social channels
• An average monthly follower growth rate of 53%, indicating that the content is both attracting new followers and successfully retaining their interest