July 2023

"Navigating life’s ups and downs, even as a child, can be stressful. Howling with Huskies lays a foundation of what to do when our feelings seem out of reach."

Voices for Virginia’s Children is hosting the Beyond Trauma: Youth Mental Health Policy and Practice Summit on October 11, 2023. With 12 invigorating workshops across three tracks (Individual, Interpersonal, and Institutional), attendees will walk away with tools to embark on their healing journey and ways to incorporate healing into youth policy and practice. Be sure to visit our Summit website for details and tickets!

By Cara Nixon, Photo: Julie Leopo/EdSource, EdSource, July 19, 2023 Every time former Superintendent Robin Jones walked into Kit Carson Elementary School, she remembered getting off the bus and walking down the hallway as a child. Jones, who attended Kit Carson K-8, said coming back as an administrator “just happened.” She recalls becoming superintendent there partially because she didn’t want anyone else to have the job. “I just felt like, well, no one’s going to treat it the way I would...

By Eleni Stephanides, Illustration: Shutterstock, LGBTQ Nation, July 19, 2023 Though it wasn’t explicitly marketed as LGBTQ+ literature, I consider Middlesex my first foray into a queer narrative. It played a pivotal role for my then 15-year-old self in the early 2000s, and I would return to it many times in the years that followed. The character of Calliope is intersex, but they live their first twenty years with a female gender expression. As a closeted teenager also grappling with...

Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez and Mayor Brandon Johnson unveiled a new enrollment center for migrant families to get children enrolled before the first day of school. Mila Koumpilova / Chalkbeat By Mila Koumpilova, Chalkbeat Chicago, July 17, 2023 Recently arrived migrant families on Chicago’s West Side will get help with enrolling in school, receiving free school supplies, signing up for public benefits, and getting vaccinated at a new “welcome center” run by Chicago Public...

Megan Dunn (right), hugs Stacey Fuller, her former peer adviser. Dunn has been arrested on charges related to illicit drug use. While in Walker County’s jail, she says, she was once placed in a holding cell known as the “drunk tank,” a concrete room that lacks water, a bed, or a toilet. (Renuka Rayasam / KFF Health News) By Renuka Rayasam, California Healthline, July 19, 2023 Megan Dunn, who has struggled with addiction since her teens, points to the moment her life went “deeply downhill.”...

Tim Pippert, right, with Augsburg University students Madelyne Yang, left, and Donovan Holmes. Pippert, director of Augsburg Family Scholars program, called new state grants that cover the cost of college for foster youth a “game changer,” though he suggested such efforts should also be paired with supportive services. Photo courtesy of Augsburg University. By Farrah Mina, The Imprint, July 11, 2023 During her senior year of high school, Madelyne Yang sat down with her counselor to...

By Jill Suttie, Photo: from article, Greater Good Magazine, July 17, 2023 There is a long line of research showing that when we make contact with people who are socially different than us, we tend to feel less prejudice towards them. This is known as “the contact hypothesis,” and it has been proposed as a potential remedy for prejudice for decades. Contact seems to work best for reducing prejudice when the people involved have equal power in a situation or the contact is generally positive,...

By Laura Gallant, 7/20/23, https://positiveexperience.org/blog/ Over the last year, the HOPE National Resource Center has added several online courses to our HOPE Virtual Learning Hub . These courses include the basics of HOPE and practicing HOPE. The modules are self-paced with a certificate of completion at the end. Several courses offer continuing education credits and continuing medical education credits. Learners will engage with interactive modules featuring videos, quizzes, and...

16 Strong Project is excited to be recruiting for our Youth Advocacy Board! Our goal is to involve youth in our program and resource development as well as provide guidance to this group to be leaders and advocates around ACEs and PACEs in their own schools and communities. Together, we are combatting the youth mental health crisis by empowering youth leaders and uplifting youth voices. We are looking for a group of creative, resourceful, hard-working youth ages 14-24 to join our Youth...

Chicago high school students (Getty Images) By Jo Napolitano, The74, July 18, 2023 A recent study out of the University of Chicago showed high schools that prioritized social- emotional development had double the positive long-term impact on students as compared to those that focused solely on improving test scores. As part of their work, researchers determined school’s effectiveness based upon its impact on students’ social-emotional development, test scores and behaviors. They concluded...

By Hannah Fry, Illustration: Patrick Hruby/Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, July 18, 2023 When my son was about 2 months old, I figured I just had an extended case of the postpartum “baby blues.” It’s a right of passage of sorts for many new moms that comes with mood swings, crying, anxiety and difficulty sleeping — which seems like a particularly cruel joke. I wish I realized earlier that it was much more. My son will be 3 years old this summer and I can’t help but feel a little sad...