Click here: Hooray for Reading! for access to their new initiative's website with free books, coloring pages, a resilience book list, parent toolkit, flash cards, and a link to the San Diego County Library.
By University of California, Irvine, August 3, 2022 Developmental disruption makes people more susceptible to mental illness and drug dependence. University of California, Irvine researchers are conducting ground-breaking research into the idea that unpredictable parental behaviors, coupled with an unpredictable environment, such as a lack of routines and frequent disasters, disrupt children’s ability to develop their emotional brain circuits to their full potential, making them more...
By Rachel Daem, CNN, June 29, 2022 When Justine Larson's son came out as transgender at age 11, she didn't know how to react. Despite being supportive of LGBTQ communities, Larson struggled to accept that her child, assigned female at birth, would have a different life than she imagined. "We didn't give it as much attention as maybe we should have," she said of her and her husband's response. Their child "basically got pretty depressed and even was having some suicidal thoughts." Feeling...
By The HOPE Team, 8/9/22, https://positiveexperience.org/category/blog/ Going back to school can bring up a lot of feelings for students, parents, and even teachers. Happiness at being back together with friends, excitement about the new school year, and, of course, anxiety about the challenges ahead. The Four Building Blocks of HOPE can help focus on PCEs (positive childhood experiences). Here are 12 ways to practice PCEs as children return to school. [ Click here to read the full blog .]
By Fran Kritz, Illustration: Lisk Feng/The Washington Post, The Washington Post, August 6, 2022 The move from high school to college can be a trying one, particularly for students with mental health concerns. But today there are ways to make it easier. “In the last few years, and especially since the pandemic began, campus resources for all students have proliferated, and ahead of coming to campus is when students should be connecting with the resources that they need,” says Amy Gatto,...
By Lisa Deaderick, The San Diego Union-Tribune, June 12, 2022 Experts with the American Psychological Association and the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress offer guidance on how to help children and teens with their mental health after exposure to events of mass violence, like the latest string of mass shootings in the U.S. The most recent string of mass shootings across the country — from a grocery store in New York , a church in California and an elementary school in Texas , to a...
American Psychological Association, Updated July 6, 2022 The pandemic pushed stress to historic highs. Here are healthy ways for children and teens to cope. In the short term, stress can push a child to practice for her piano recital or inspire a teen to study when he’d rather be out with friends. But c hronic stress —for example, from unrelenting pandemic-related pressures, social unrest, or violence—is different. Left unchecked, long-term stress can contribute to a long list of physical...
New research from the National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families shows that 37 percent of lower-income Latino adults (defined here as those whose incomes are less than 200% of the federal poverty line) living with children reported either frequent anxiety or depressive symptoms during Fall 2021 and Winter 2022—rates that are statistically higher than those among their higher-income peers. Additionally, authors Yiyu Chen and María A. Ramos-Olazagasti find that, regardless of...
August is Family Fun Month, and the HOPE National Resource Center is all about families creating positive childhood experiences (PCEs) by having fun together! Throughout the month, there are several days to remember that promote PCEs and the Four Building Blocks of HOPE: Exercise with your Child Week – Starting August 7 th : There are so many ways to exercise or get moving with your children. People of different mobility levels can share in a day of intentional, and fun, exercise; from...
Pre-COVID, I was invited to speak at a conference in Flagstaff, Arizona. During lunch the organizers brought dancers from the Apache tribe to perform. What we witnessed was so powerful and moving, that it prompted me to inquire about the spiritual significance of the songs and dance. They explained to me that after going to war, the warriors returned to their land and were gathered together to perform that particular dance and song. As a tribal African woman, it all made perfect sense. As...
By Bryce Covert, Illustration: Dakarai Akil, Photos: Shutterstock, The New York Times, July 21, 2022 The United States is one of six countries in the world without a national guarantee of paid parental leave. Twenty-three other countries have universal child or family allowances. We spend just 0.2 percent of our gross domestic product on child care for our youngest children, compared with an average of 0.7 percent among countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
By Rhitu Chatterjee, Photo: Saul Martinez/NPR, National Public Radio, July 24, 2022 Shortly after Elizabeth George started her freshman year in high school last fall, her parents tested positive for COVID-19. And Elizabeth stepped up to take care of them. "I was running the house, sort of," says the soft-spoken 15-year-old. "I was giving them medicine, seeing if everyone is OK." Elizabeth's mother recovered, but her father was hospitalized. He died in September of last year. [ Please click...
Community violence can occur suddenly and without warning leaving many youth and families with a heightened sense of fear. Common types of community violence that affect youth include, but are not limited to, individual and group conflicts (e.g., bullying, fights among gangs and other groups, shootings in public areas such as schools, community parks, or neighborhoods). When these events happen, youth and families may experience a wide range of reactions including shock, anger, fear, loss,...
By Petula Dvorak, Photo: Amanda Voisard/The Washington Post, The Washington Post, July 25, 2022 “It’s a whole different generation,” Barbara Mickles said out loud, to no one in particular, shaking her head and adding a grandmotherly “mmm-hmmm” to underscore the absurdity of $100 sneakers on ever-growing kid feet. Mickles, 62, was watching a swarm of kids, including a few of her 16 grandchildren, go giddy over sneakers — Nike, Adidas, Champion. All the hot brands. Back in Arkansas, Shoe...
By Jeremy Loudenback, Photo: Kitchens for Good, The Imprint, July 27, 2022 Still reeling from the pandemic’s blow to jobs and the economy, the state of California is set to spend heavily on training young people who tend to have the most fragile links to the workforce: youth who’ve grown up homeless, in foster care or on probation. In the state budget deal approved late last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and lawmakers committed $65 million to expand apprenticeship opportunities in a range of...