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child_trauma

What is Childhood Trauma?

One out of four children will experience a traumatic event before age sixteen. There are key differences between run-of-the-mill stressful times and a traumatic experience. First, it poses a real or perceived threat to the life or well-being of the child or someone close to them (such as a parent or best friend).  Second, it causes an overwhelming sense of terror, horror, and helplessness. And finally, the body generally reacts to this threat automatically with increased heart rate, shaking, dizziness, and rapid breathing due to the release of stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol.
suicide_prevention

Three Ways to Support Suicide Prevention

Every year, thousands of individuals die by suicide and these numbers continue to increase. We can all help to reverse this trend. Here are three simple ways to be a positive force.
virtual_learning

Your Child and Virtual Learning

As summer ends the reality (whether parents, students, or school systems like it or not), is that most students are headed toward a mostly or entirely virtual fall.
Preparing kids for school

A New School Year: Expect the Unexpected

Figuring out how to safely reopen schools this fall is one of the most challenging decisions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Attention

What Are You Doing with One of Your Most Powerful Superpowers?

Attention is power. It can bring us wellbeing and effectiveness. Left to its own devices, our attention can often flit about, at the mercy of our brain’s draw to stimuli. We can all be more conscious of the power of our attention.
Stressed

Employees Feeling the Stress?

Many are facing financial constraints with reduced work schedules or layoffs, making it more difficult to make ends meet or put food on their tables. As an employer, it is critical we extend empathy and grace to our employees during this time. Employee stress and mental health challenges are at an all-time high. Leaders should be prepared to recognize the signs of stress from their direct reports and provide tools to offer ideas and support. 
resiliency camp kids

Raising a More Resilient Child

As a parent, one of the most important things you can do is to help your child learn to deal with the inevitable challenges that life brings. Children who can successfully manage the stressors that come into their life have lower rates of mental health issues, greater levels of happiness, and often have more success later in life.
Social Distancing Games

Better than Gazing at Grass

Do you remember the profound sense of boredom that could inflict you as a child? Perhaps with the influx of screens many kids access at will, they don’t have those loooong summer afternoons with nothing to do; the times when it’s on you to make up your own fun. Here we are in 2020, the plaintive “but what will we do?” is being heard again across our child welfare systems as families and kids interact socially distanced, through a video camera or outside. To answer that plea, we offer this list of activities you can do distanced, both with and without materials or objects. 
Dealing with Uncertainty

The Air Beneath Us

When asked, “How are you doing?” the answer is always some version of “as well as I can be.” Many things that we used to anchor our safety and security to are gone. And the initial strategy of waiting it out is simply inadequate. Like a child holding their breath to get their way, it just can’t last. As I needed to make peace with the fact that the ground is and will be about as steady as quicksand, I searched for a metaphor to get me through the tough times.
young adult packing a moving box

Life after Foster Care

With celebrations, graduation parties, and preparing for college in the fall, many young adults completing high school are itching with anticipation to leave “the nest.” These young adults may feel a newly found freedom and take for granted their intricately woven support system that helps them along the way.  For young adults in foster care who are graduating from high school, this transition often looks much different.