March 2022

ParentPowered, home of Ready4K, is going to Middle School! Check out why middle school family engagement is essential to supporting your early adolescents, what you want in your middle school family engagement programming, and why middle school might just be the absolute coolest time of life.

“The power of relationships is something we can’t forget about. It’s important for teachers to connect with their students more deeply so that they can support them in their academic goals.” —Renee Prince, LCSW, Director of Mental Health Integration, Turnaround for Children On the last episode of our podcast, The 180, we discussed the national state of emergency in child and adolescent mental health. In the two years since the pandemic first hit, young people around the world have reported...

By H.A. Hellyer, Image: Screenshot from article, The Washington Post, February 28, 2022 “This isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan, that has seen conflict raging for decades,” Charlie D’Agata, a CBS correspondent in Kyiv, told his colleagues back in the studio. “You know, this is a relatively civilized, relatively European — I have to choose those words carefully, too — city where you wouldn’t expect that or hope that it’s going to happen.” Putin’s criminal invasion...

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Photo: Saul Loeb/Associated Press, Associated Press, March 3, 2022 President Joe Biden’s new plan to expand mental health and drug abuse treatment would pour hundreds of millions of dollars into suicide prevention, mental health services for youth, and community clinics providing 24/7 access to people in crisis. Unveiled as part of his State of the Union speech, Biden’s plan seeks to shrink America’s chronic gap in care between diseases of the body and those of...

By Laura Bliss, Photo: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/The Washington Post, Bloomberg CityLab + Equality, February 25, 2022 An independent study of a basic income pilot in a disadvantaged part of Washington, D.C., adds to a growing body of research on the benefits of direct cash transfers to communities in need. The study by the Urban Institute, a policy think tank, highlights the material as well as emotional improvements that such payments can create, particularly when they’re provided by a trusted...

By Brian Contreras, Image: Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, March 2, 2022 A nationwide investigation will explore the risks that the wildly popular short-form video app TikTok poses to children, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta announced Wednesday. Among the issues the investigation will focus on will be how the company has sought to increase the duration and frequency of use of its app by young people, the extent to which the company is aware of any harm it may be causing those users and...

In this series, we have discussed how to make better memories to lessen the impact of those that are trauma-based and very unpleasant. The holidays are the perfect time to build new memories by beginning new traditions. This article will focus on ways you can build a better tomorrow by using the knowledge and skills you have learned along your healing journey. The Benefits of Making New Experiences Allowing oneself to experience new things is vital to the healing process of overcoming...

Chronic stress, trauma exposure, frequent threats of violence and the relentless grind of gun crimes’ impact: A recently-released report from the University of Illinois Chicago reveals in stark terms the strain and struggles that many frontline violence prevention workers face as they try to combat gun violence. In 2022, Chicago is coming off another record year of homicides, similar to many other major cities across the U.S. 797 people were killed in 2021 with 3,677 non-fatal shootings—an...

By Maria Di Mento, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, March 1, 2022 The technology billionaires Steve and Connie Ballmer pledged more than $425 million to the University of Oregon to create an institute where the university’s researchers and experts in children’s behavioral and mental health will work with Oregon’s public school systems, families, nonprofits, and state agencies to tamp down the surge in mental-health issues children and youths in the state are facing after two years of the...

By Bob Berwyn, Photo: Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Inside Climate News, February 22, 2022 Black, Brown and Indigenous people have been systematically excluded from earth sciences, magnifying their exposure to the most severe impacts of climate change, said Asmeret Asefaw Berhe , lead author of a recent commentary in the journal Nature Geosciences. That adds to the burden of global warming that people of color already bear more heavily than other populations because the world for centuries has been...

By Rebecca Ruiz, Photo: Bloomberg, Mashable, March 2, 2022 Without warning, there it was in my Twitter feed: video of a Russian missile exploding a Ukrainian administrative building in Kharkiv. Minutes earlier, I'd seen footage of Ukrainians rushing to flee the country's capital via train. The reporter's caption was more haunting than the imagery: "A mother was just briefly separated from her child on the platform and her scream was something I'm not sure I can find words to describe." This...

By Color of Change, Photo: Getty Images, Black Entertainment Television, February 28, 2022 Despite advances over the decades in medicine and medical technology, for many years the healthcare industry has delivered negligent care rooted in systemic bias to Black communities. There is a long history of mistreatment and exploitation of Black people in the health care system. Black patients are more likely to experience systemic racism in health care, according to several studies. Below are four...