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By Jericka Duncan, Image: Screenshot from article, CBS News, March 3, 2022 When 35-year-old Maureen Gardner was pregnant, she was on the brink of homelessness — until a new pilot program created a financial bridge to help her stay out of poverty. For years, Gardner worked as a director of a nonprofit after-school program. Right before the pandemic hit, she left the job and went through her savings. Gardner soon found herself expecting her now 5-month-old son Garrett with no job. But then, a...

By Laura Gallant, 3/7/22, https://positiveexperience.org/category/blog/ Today Monday, March 7, is the first day of the Week of HOPE. This week is intended to spread awareness of HOPE – Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences TM and help people learn about the difference that positive childhood experiences can make for children, families, and those who serve them. We are excited to be celebrating the Week of HOPE across the country. We are especially grateful to Vicky Roper, director of...

March 1, 2022 by Rise As part of our community-building workshops to begin the program , parents in the 2022 Rise & Shine leadership program engaged in discussion about self-care and community-care strategies. Together, parents developed a list of self-care and community-care strategies for our group, which we also want to share as a resource for our Rise community. We hope it can be a tool as we continue to explore ways to build relationships, keep each other safe and care for ourselves...

In light of recent events, Resilient Guilford Network is sharing resources from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) in response to the war on Ukraine. Some are specific to military families, while others are more general resources. Please see the links below and let us know if you have questions and how we can help support your local efforts. Deep breaths as we start a new week together. We look forward to staying connected and are grateful for all you do. General Child...

Getting Out the Door on Time For many families, getting out the door to school each morning can be a source of stress and conflict. For preschoolers, you can help parents promote autonomy and self-regulation skills by suggesting that they create a simple picture schedule of the morning activities to empower their child to be “in charge” of their own behavior. Having control over how and when things get done increases cooperation skills and builds competence. See this video for an example...

Depression in young people is vastly undertreated. About two-thirds of depressed youth don’t receive any mental health care at all . Of those who do, a significant proportion rely on antidepressant medications. Since 2003, however, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned that young people might experience suicidal thinking and behavior during the first months of treatment with antidepressants. The FDA issued this warning to urge clinicians to monitor suicidal thoughts at the start...

Families with young children face barriers in finding and accessing services to meet their needs. A complex array of services exists across health, early care and education, economic assistance, and family supports. However, services and supports are rarely coordinated and are too frequently divided by where families live or how much income they have. State partners can be leaders in developing approaches to better connect families to services, but there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

By Summer Allen, Greater Good Magazine, February 24, 2022 Humans are social creatures with a propensity to connect with others and to form relationships. Our relationships can be sources of fun, gratification, peace, well-being, obsession, love, pain, and grief. They inform the rhythms of our days, the work that we do, and how we feel about ourselves—and they add meaning to our lives. But our social nature isn’t just a product of the way we are raised or the culture we live in. It’s actually...

LAST CALL FOR PRESENTERS - Proposals are due by Wednesday, March 2, at 12:00pmET to present at the upcoming biennial virtual Together for Families Conference

Ryan Reynolds seems like one of the most confident people in Hollywood. He's constantly ribbing on famous friends like Hugh Jackman, playing brash characters like Deadpool and married to another A-lister, Blake Lively . But that public persona is very different from the anxious person he is on the inside , Reynolds says. The 45-year-old actor has dealt with intense anxiety since he was a child, Reynolds said on CBS Sunday Mornings . "I've had anxiety my whole life really. And you know, I...

New research helps explain how stressful events make teens vulnerable to anxiety and depression—and points to ways to help them cope better. Adolescence is a stressful time in life. Teens have to navigate increased independence from their parents, new and more complicated peer relationships, and more demanding academics, all while managing radical changes in their brains and bodies. Not only that, the current COVID-19 pandemic has created additional hardships for them. No wonder they may be...

Families that experience poverty-related stressors such as income insecurity or loss , material hardship , and housing hardship or instability —in other words, families with a financial inability to provide for their children—are also more likely to come into contact with the child welfare system. The intersection of poverty and economic insecurity with neglect poses a challenge to child welfare agencies when they respond to reports of maltreatment. Of all maltreatment types, neglect is...