Imagine going to bed at night and hearing gunshots outside your window.
Imagine living in a home where tempers rise quickly because everyone is carrying stress.
Imagine walking long distances just to get to school or to the one place that feels safe enough to focus and breathe.
Now imagine election season in a developing country where political divisions run deep and history has shown that tensions sometimes spill over into violence.
Imagine being a young person in a community where choosing who leads your country is not just a civic act, but something that can feel tribal and charged. Where conversations carry emotional weight. Where caution is necessary because past election periods have brought unrest.
In those environments, voting is not simply walking into a polling station and placing a checkmark next to a name. It can carry fear, uncertainty, and tension that ripple through neighborhoods and families.
For young people growing up in that context, stress is not occasional, it becomes part of the atmosphere. Consequently, when violence or instability happens repeatedly, it shapes more than memories. It shapes development.
Social workers and researchers refer to many of these repeated stressors as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).
ACEs can include exposure to violence in the home or community, family instability, substance misuse, loss, or chronic stress. When these experiences occur repeatedly during childhood, they influence how a young person’s brain and body learn to respond to the world.
When entire communities carry that kind of tension whether from neighborhood violence or politically charged unrest the body does not simply ignore it. It adapts. This is commonly known as the “fight or flight” response. It is our body’s natural survival system. In short bursts, it’s there to protect us. Our heart rate increases and muscles tense while the brain scans for threat.
But when stress feels constant, that system can remain activated longer in your body than it should. Over time, there is more experience of irritability, anxiety, impulsiveness, emotional shutdown, or difficulty concentrating.
This is not defiance.
It is adaptation.
In communities where stress and violence occur repeatedly, both adults and children adjust in order to survive. Over time, desensitization can occur because what should feel alarming begins to feel routine. The raised voices, conflict, or instability can become normalized. The desensitization that happens is not denial….It is coping.
However, even when stress becomes normal in the environment, its impact continues to shape emotional regulation, behavior, family dynamics, and sometimes generational patterns. Adults are often navigating the same stressors in their own way, using the tools they were given or never given growing up.
This is how generational trauma can quietly continue.
Understanding this cycle is not about labeling young people or families as broken. It is about recognizing the environments they are navigating and understanding why intentional support systems matter.
From a social work perspective, behavior does not exist in isolation. Development is shaped by environment, family dynamics, community safety, access to resources, exposure to violence, and the presence or absence of stability and connection. When young people experience prolonged social isolation or lack a sense of belonging, research shows higher risks of depression, anxiety, mood instability, and emotional withdrawal. Belonging is not optional in adolescence, it is
This is why families with disposable income often make intentional decisions to enroll their children in extracurricular activities after school and during the summer. These choices are rarely just about supervision while parents are at work. They are deliberate investments in structure, mentorship, peer connection, skill development, and identity formation for their children outside of the home. Structured activities reduce idle time, reinforce routine, and place young people in environments where positive behavior is modeled and expected.
The difference is not that some families care more than others. The difference is access.
When safe, structured spaces are available and affordable, participation becomes a protective factor. When they are not, young people may spend more time navigating unstructured environments where stress, instability, or negative influences can have greater impact.
That is why community-based youth programs are not luxuries. They are equalizers.
When adversity is repeated, it shapes how young people regulate stress, respond to authority, manage frustration, and interpret conflict. That is why practical tools matter.
Simple emotional regulation strategies can make a meaningful difference. Controlled breathing techniques such as slow, intentional inhale-and-exhale cycles help calm the nervous system. Grounding exercises, like identifying five things you can see, four you can touch, three you can hear, two you can smell, and one you can taste, help bring the mind back to the present moment when it feels overwhelmed.
If you have ever attended a Lennox Lewis League of Champions Foundation program, you have likely heard our founder, Mr. Lewis, talk about the “Water Breath.” The Water Breath is a deep breathing technique that encourages youth to inhale slowly through the nose, hold briefly, and exhale steadily through the mouth, imagining the breath flowing like water. This controlled breathing helps lower heart rate, calm the nervous system, and reset emotional responses in moments of stress.
These are not complicated tools. But in environments where tension feels constant, they are powerful.
Research consistently shows that even one stable, supportive adult relationship can significantly buffer the long-term effects of chronic stress. Mentorship provides guidance, consistency, and belief and often becomes a protective factor in a young person’s life. Structure reinforces that protection and sense of safety. Consistent routines, clear expectations, and predictable environments create psychological safety in communities where unpredictability has become normal.
Mentorship provides guidance, structure creates predictability and community fosters belonging. When young people enter environments where adults show up consistently and expectations remain steady, something begins to shift. The nervous system gradually settles, emotional regulations improve and decision-making becomes clearer. Over time, structure interrupts survival mode and when survival mode softens, resilience has room to grow.
Breaking cycles of generational trauma does not happen overnight. But when communities invest in structured programs, trusted mentors, and practical coping tools, they create opportunities for young people to experience something different, sometimes for the first time.
At their best, youth development programs become stabilizing environments that buffer the long-term effects of adversity while strengthening emotional regulation, confidence, and positive life outcomes. Therefore, when chaos is replaced with structure, and isolation is replaced with mentorship, resilience is not just encouraged, it is practiced. And practice changes trajectories.–Violet Chang-Lewis, MSW
