MONDAY MEMO #4

Hello partners! As always, we’re excited to bring you another weekly round of resources and reminders! Before diving into our carefully curated list, we want to share some key highlights from the Resilient Georgia team. Read on for updates, upcoming events, and resources to help you continue making an impact in your communities! Thank you so much for all you do across the state. 

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RG Highlights

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Stock Market Game  Georgia Council on Economic Education (GCEE): The fall Stock Market Game launched on September 30th, and rural participation has surged with 15 new districts, including many counties from Resilient Georgia Regional coalitions. This growth stems from expanded workshops. In addition to the Stock Market Game, GCEE offers outstanding workshops and materials at no charge, and we hope more rural counties take advantage! Thank you for helping spread the word and supporting teachers across Georgia!  

RG County districts that have partnered with GCEE: 

• Chickamauga City Schools (BRRNWGA) 

• Commerce City Schools  (Resilient NEGA) 

• Crisp County (Resilient SWGA Albany) 

• Dodge County (Resilient SWGA Albany) 

• Elbert County (Resilient NEGA) 

• Glascock County (Resilient Communities East GA) 

• Randolph County (Resilient SWGA Albany) 

• Stephens County (Resilient North GA) 

• Sumter County (Resilient SWGA Albany) 

• Union County (Resilient North GA) 

Final Lunch and Learn of 2024: Thank you for attending our final 2024 Lunch and Learn this month! Morgan Marler from the Foundation for Social Connection (F4SC), provided an insightful overview of F4SC’s work in advancing social connection. They focus on translating research into practice, fostering partnerships, and prioritizing social connection. Morgan also shared promising strategies to address Social Isolation, Loneliness, and Social Connection (SILC). For those who missed it, here are the presentation slides and the Action Guide for Socially Connected Communities. 

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Regional Coalition Spotlights

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BRRNWGA Encouragement Family Table Talks – these conversation starter graphics provide prompts for families to discuss and provide encouragement with one another. Additional relational values content and resources can be found here.  

Cobb Collaborative  is making resources available to the community in the following categories: mindfulness, grounding, providing support, and promoting 988. These resources are available in Spanish as well. The Collaborative also has posted a Q&A blog with American Foundation for Suicide Prevention that details the work AFSP is doing in Georgia.  

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Adverse Childhood Experiences

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Childhood Trauma and the Brain - UK Trauma Council:  This video from the UK Trauma Council is designed to help youth-serving professionals and caregivers understand the latest neuroscience research on childhood abuse and neglect, with insights and advice from clinicians, teachers, and social workers on how to put your learning into practice. The webpage includes videos, articles and tools. Check it out and share widely! 

Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences & Promoting Positive Childhood Experiences Webinar Public health, child welfare, and other child- and youth-serving professionals play a critical role in preventing adverse childhood experiences and promoting positive ones. Check out the webinar to learn more about how you can incorporate effective methods and tools in your work to promote the well-being of children and youth in your communities. 

The Administration for Children and Families hosted a webinar featuring expert from the CDC and Massachusetts DPH focused on preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and promoting Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs). Key resources highlighted include the CDC’s ACEs Prevention Guide, VetoViolence website for training and prevention and the CDC parent resource website, including Learn the Signs. Massachusetts also offers a data dashboard on ACEs and PCEs and guidance for creating positive childhood experiences. 

Adverse Childhood Experiences, Protective Factors, and Childhood Obesity: Comparing the Effectiveness of Three Resilience Frameworks:  This article discusses a study that found that the strongest protective factors against childhood obesity were strong self-regulation, mastery/after-school activities, and living in a supportive neighborhood. Given the relationship between these protective factors and several covariates in the study with childhood obesity, future ACEs interventions should potentially target these protective factors and other social determinants of health to reduce the negative impact of ACEs on childhood obesity. 

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Addiction & Recovery

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Stigma to Strength, Georgia and the Certified Peer Specialist Movement premiered last week at The Carter Center, followed by a panel discussion about the movement. This new documentary underscores Georgia's leadership in pioneering the certified peer specialist movement and emphasizes the state's commitment to mental health and addiction recovery. 

How one student is fighting opioid overdose deaths  This article outlines a student’s efforts to put Narcan in every classroom at her high school. Cohen contacted Narcan and created a business proposal for her principal to implement the new Georgia law mandating all high schools to stock Narcan. She is working on addressing the vagueness of the guidelines. The article talks about plans to expand the bill and other activities that supplement those efforts. There is so much power in youth voice!

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LGBTQ+ Resources

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Parasocial Relationships, AI Chatbots, and Joyful Online Interactions  A study from Hopelab, in collaboration with media psychology expert Dr. Bradley Bond, provides a nuanced understanding of how unique online connections with media figures, such as social media content creators, contribute to the positive experiences, community connection, and identity development for Queer young people. Download the full report here. 

AAAI LGBTQ+ Youth Webinar Recap —  This webinar from the Lotus Project will focus on the unique experiences and struggles among AAAI LGBTQ+ adolescents/young adults and their access to and experience in trauma-informed care and mental health services. Participants will be able to: Understand the complexity and intersectionality of AAAI LGBTQ+ experience; Describe mental health disparities or access barriers to mental health care among AAAI LGBTQ+ adolescents and young adults; and dentify strategies on providing affirmative care and supporting the healing of AAAI LGBTQ+ adolescents and young adults. 

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Nonprofit Resources

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Created by the NPSS Hub, District Engagement Best Practices for Nonprofits is a tool that child and family serving organizations can use to build and manage relationships with schools and school districts. The best practices and strategies shared will support community organizations in helping schools understand their value and the value add of partnerships and allowing them access to students and their families. The tool also includes additional resources and tools for nonprofits to use in relationship building. 

Community Evaluation Solutions (CES) partners with nonprofits, community coalitions, and foundations to design and evaluate strategies to create thriving and equitable communities. CES uses a participatory, utilization-focused evaluation approach that keeps you engaged throughout every step of the change process. Dr. Ann Price also hosts a podcast called Community Possibilities featuring community leaders doing the hard work of community change. A new online course, Powerful Evidence: Evaluation for Non-Evaluators, helps smaller organizations on a budget learn practical insights and strategies for collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and sharing evidence in ways that demonstrate your organization’s impact and inform strategic decision-making. You can learn more about CES and their work and engage Ann Price and her team to support your evaluation efforts. 

Building Evidence to Strengthen Nonprofit Programming This strat­e­gy helps com­mu­ni­ty-based pro­grams around the coun­try improve their col­lec­tion and use of data to bet­ter serve their com­mu­ni­ties. It is the sub­ject of a recent report from the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion: Build­ing Evi­dence to Advance Equi­ty. Since the strategy’s incep­tion, 16 grantee orga­ni­za­tions have par­tic­i­pat­ed as a net­work. It high­lights how four of the orga­ni­za­tions used the approach to mea­sure results, refine their work and bring effec­tive prac­tices or pro­grams to scale.