MONDAY MEMO #10
- Resilient Georgia
- Dec 9, 2024
- 5 min read
It’s hard to believe 2024 is winding down, and December is already here! Welcome to another edition of the Monday Memo, your trusted resource for updates, highlights, and opportunities to foster resilience and well-being in our communities. A special thank you to everyone who joined us—either in person or virtually—last month to celebrate Resilient Georgia's 5-year anniversary. Your presence and support mean so much to us. This week, we’re starting with partner spotlights, followed by a wealth of child and youth resources, funding opportunities, and professional development insights. Let’s finish the year strong together!
RG Highlights
New Blog Post: Parenting-Take Time to Connect: Our partner, Sally Miller at the Emily Lembeck Early Learning Center, shared an insightful blog about the video Parenting – Take Time to Connect, created in collaboration with Marietta City School District, Brownieland Pictures, Cobb Collaborative, and GEEARS. The video emphasizes the importance of spending a few quality minutes each day connecting with your child to build their self-esteem and sense of security. The blog offers practical ways for organizations, schools, and early learning centers to use the video, including holiday-themed newsletter text and social media sharing ideas. Check it out to help spread this vital message in your community!
Partner Spotlight
Congratulations to our partners Jennifer Wilds and Bonnie Hardage for receiving the 2024 Flame of Hope Award from DBHDD, recognizing their exceptional contributions to mental health and well-being in Georgia. Jennifer, Executive Director of the Newton Rockdale Suicide Prevention Coalition, was honored for initiatives like Kick the Habit and Sounds of Support that empower communities and inspire hope. Bonnie, leader of the Georgia Mental Health Funders Collaborative and RG Co-founder and board member, was celebrated for fostering systemic change and improving mental health care access through innovative collaboration. Their impactful work continues to uplift and transform lives across the state. Big congratulations to Bonnie and Jennifer!
ARCHI: Last month, ARCHI hosted the inaugural State of Metro Atlanta Health Symposium at the Decatur Conference Center, bringing together over 300 leaders and community members to address pressing health disparities across the region. The sold-out event featured keynote speakers Dr. Sandra Elizabeth Ford and Dr. Bryan Buckley, as well as a panel of experts discussing topics like care coordination, mental health, housing, and legal advocacy. Breakout sessions explored solutions around income and health, access to care, housing stability, and policy advocacy. The symposium fostered collaboration and innovative approaches to shaping a healthier, more equitable future for Metro Atlanta. Thank you, ARCHI!
Child & Youth Development
The Brain Architects Podcast: Building Resilience Through Play: This podcast sponsored by the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University highlights the resilience building benefits of play. Far from frivolous, play contributes to sturdy brain architecture, the foundations of lifelong health, and the building blocks of resilience, yet its importance is often overlooked. In this podcast, Dr. Jack Shonkoff explains the role of play in supporting resilience and five experts share their ideas and personal stories about applying the science of play in homes, communities, and crisis environments around the world. Check it out and share!
Help Your Young Children Name and Manage Their Emotions: Teaching young children to identify and manage their emotions is an important step in helping them to develop emotional intelligence and resilience, which are indicators that they are more likely to have better relationships with others as they mature and do better in school. This resource from the Quality Care for Children includes information and resources to support parents and caregivers in supporting children in learning about their emotions, including a wonderful list of board books!
Youth Mental Health Tracker The Youth Mental Health Tracker (YMHT) is a comprehensive data platform poised to transform our understanding and approach to youth mental health and wellbeing. Its mission is to empower equitable, youth-centered solutions that improve outcomes and foster meaningful change for the future of our young people. Launching December 2024, the Youth Mental Health Tracker will provide an unprecedented, integrated understanding of youth mental health drivers to inform scalable solutions. This tracker is made possible by a partnership between Surgo Health, Pivotal Ventures, Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios.
Mindful Self-Compassion for Teens in Schools: Whether you’re a teacher, counselor, instructional aide, administrator, or anyone working with teens, this book by Dr. Karen Bluth is your go-to Social Emotional Learning guide with 16-sessions for middle and high school youth. Please share with your youth-serving professionals!
Featuring ready-to-use lesson plans, teaching tips, mini-sessions, and handouts, this guide aims to help students:
Be kinder and more supportive to themselves
Quiet their minds and re-center themselves
Work through difficult emotions like anger, sadness, and anxiety
Break free from the social media comparison trap
Rein in impulsivity or distractibility to focus on the task at hand
Overcome perfectionistic tendencies, rumination, and “over-analysis paralysis”
Cultivating Connections
Recipes for Connection: This holiday season, let’s embrace Recipes for Connection by using food to nourish both our bodies and our relationships. This booklet, developed by the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General, offers creative ideas to foster social connections through shared food experiences. Recognizing that social connections are vital for health and well-being—protecting against issues like heart disease, stroke, dementia, and depression—the booklet provides inspiration for diverse and engaging gatherings centered around food. It encourages individuals to share their own "recipes for connection" using the hashtag #recipesforconnection, promoting a collective effort to strengthen relationships and community bonds.
Funding
The Community Corps – Community. Sustainability. Change. The Community Corps offers scholarships and grants to support under-served ideas and educational concepts that provide a future benefit to a community. The Community Corps background includes 40 years of success providing non-traditional education. They now seek to invest in the development of people and projects providing alternative solutions to needs in their community. Our projects will emphasize change, education, and related sustainability. Apply by December 31, 2024!
JUSTICE SQUARED: This funding provides up to 12 teams of five core healthcare and community leaders with $300,000 ($400,000 for safety-net institutions) in funding over two years. Teams will engage in a guided process focused on learning and action, supported by experts in systemic change and organizational transformation. The program helps healthcare organizations address structural, racial inequities by either (1) improving how they measure and account for systemic factors affecting health or (2) refining clinical, operational, and administrative processes to ensure equitable outcomes. Justice Squared makes navigating these complex challenges more manageable, equipping teams with the tools to create meaningful and sustainable change. Apply here by December 15, 2024!
For Professionals
Nonprofit Capacity-Building Session 5: Advocacy Strategies for Nonprofit Engagement: As part of the Cobb Collaborative’s on-going efforts to bring high quality, relevant capacity-building information to their members, they have added an additional session to the Virtual Nonprofit Capacity-Building training series. Your community work is important, and policy makers need to know about the people you serve and the complex systems that you work within. Casey Tanner, Vice President of External Affairs for KSU, will share best practices for nonprofit leaders on how to be an effective advocate December 12 from 3-4PM. Casey will cover many aspects of advocacy – the people, the policies and the process. Join for an informative session just a few weeks before the start of the 2025 Georgia General Session! Registration here.
2025 Health Care Champion Awards Nominations - Atlanta Business Chronicle: The Health Care Champion Awards will honor frontline healthcare heroes alongside the industry’s most innovative and influential leaders, paying tribute to the nurses, physicians, and community outreach professionals plus the preeminent leaders in health equity, women’s health, pediatric care, rural health and more. Winners will be honored during a special awards program on March 20, 2025, and are featured in that week’s Atlanta Business Chronicle. We encourage you to nominate someone in your region! Applications are due Friday, December 27, 2024.