MONDAY MEMO #57
- Resilient Georgia
- Dec 8, 2025
- 6 min read
Welcome to your weekly Monday Memo. This week’s edition highlights seasonal resources, education, rural mental health, suicide prevention, youth, as well as a variety of professional development opportunities. Before we dive in, here are some reminders and highlights from the RG Team:
RG Highlights
Regional Coalition Events Reminder: Please submit your scheduled coalition events for 2026! This calendar is housed on the RG website and is a great way to showcase upcoming trainings, summits, and partner activities across the state. As a reminder, please submit your coalition events here. We appreciate your support in keeping this webpage up-to-date!
2026 Youth Prevention Network Training: In partnership with the CWC Alliance, this youth prevention training equips youth and adult leaders with practical tools for mental wellness, leadership, and prevention advocacy. Youth Prevention Advocates (ages 13–20) receive hands-on training, while Youth Prevention Mentors support and co-facilitate their efforts in schools and communities. Participants are compensated for their time ($15/hour for youth and $20/hour for mentors), with transportation support available. Interested groups can submit the YPN Training Request to share their input so 2026 scheduling can begin. Please share widely!
Grant Support from Teresa Raetz at Transcend Advisory Group: In a recent blog post, Building Grant-Ready Organizations Through Trauma- and Resilience-Informed Practices, we shared how Dr. Teresa Raetz is helping coalitions become “grant-ready” by embedding trauma- and resilience-informed practices into organizational culture. Teresa also offers coalition partners customized grant-prospecting support using her tool Instrumentl, generating tailored lists of potential funding opportunities based on each coalition’s unique focus areas. Teresa created a short video overview of this process, using past work for partners like Vashti Center and Resilient Communities of East GA as examples. For more information about her services, you can email her directly at traetz@transcendadvisorygroup.com.
South Georgia Healthy Start is excited to announce a new referral partnership with the Georgia Fund for Perinatal Mental Health through PSI GA, which offers eligible Georgia residents 10 free telehealth therapy sessions with a licensed perinatal mental health specialist, plus free virtual support groups. Applications open at noon on the 1st of each month, but case managers can begin referrals now for pregnant and postpartum individuals or those who have experienced a perinatal loss within the past year. (Spanish flyer here)
Coalition Highlights
The Vashti Center: Our co-lead for Resilient Communities of Southwest Georgia has begun the search for its next Executive Director, an important milestone as the organization prepares for its next chapter of growth and impact. The Board has shared a detailed Leadership Profile outlining the role and qualities they’re seeking in their next leader. We encourage our network to share this opportunity widely to help identify strong, mission-aligned candidates!
Resilient West Central Georgia: RWCG is hosting their monthly coalition meeting centered on building a more resilient, trauma-informed community on December 18 from 11:30AM-12:30PM! Join the Zoom here. Additionally, RWCG co-lead, Bloom Fosters, is hosting a virtual Strengthening Resilience training tomorrow December 9th at 10am. Register here!
Seasonal Highlights
The “Happiest” Time of The Year: Tips for Managing Holiday Stress: NAMI This resource explores how to protect one’s mental health during the holidays, like finding time to decompress and accept imperfections. Furthermore, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Mental Health America come pocket guides to dealing with seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Read through the guides here on how to support yourself and others with SAD:
YAC Holiday Headspace Toolkit 2025: The Silence the Shame Youth Advisory Council (YAC) created a Holiday Headspace Toolkit to help young people manage the emotional ups and downs of the season. Developed through youth-led conversations and collaboration, the toolkit offers practical self-care tips, mindfulness activities, creative expression ideas, reflections, affirmations, and three podcast episodes focused on holiday mental wellness. This project reflects YAC’s mission to elevate youth voices and promote mental health literacy. They invite you to explore and share the toolkit to support ongoing, year-round conversations about youth mental health.
Education
Reshaping Reading Instruction In U.S. Public Schools to Support the 60% of Children in America who are Coping with Adverse Childhood Experiences and Potentially Life-Long Traumas A growing body of research shows that more than 60% of U.S. children are coping with Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), yet current “Science of Reading” laws in 42 states fail to account for the profound impact trauma has on learning. National data reveals worsening child health, rising mortality, and increasing exposure to violence, poverty, and environmental stressors—conditions that significantly shape children’s cognitive, emotional, and literacy development. To support child well-being and improve learning outcomes, schools must adopt trauma-informed, relationship-centered literacy practices that build resilience and honor the complex realities children bring into the classroom. Read more here.
Professional Development
Human Trafficking Awareness Seminars January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month and our partner DeAndre Marshall hosts trainings and events on human trafficking/exploitation. Marshall educates parents and youth on recognizing signs of human trafficking/exploitation, how to protect oneself, and how to advocate for change. DeAndre Marshall led one of our first Lunch and Learns in 2022. Check out the recording here and learn more about her work here.
Powerful Evidence: Evaluation for Non-Evaluators — Community Evaluation Solutions: Sign up for a course on evaluation, geared towards non-evaluators. This course is $99 and includes 7 modules, 5+ hours of guided content, and 8+ page workbook for those interested in practical insights and strategies on collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and sharing evidence to support your organization’s impact and inform strategic decision-making. Learn more here.
What’s Going on with Health Coverage—And Can It Be More Affordable?: From the Robert W. Johnson Foundation for a virtual briefing exploring current healthcare coverage trends and considerations for policymakers in 2026. This free virtual event is on December 18 at 12 PM EST, register here.
Early Childhood Changemakers Summit - GEEARS Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students is hosting its inaugural Early Childhood Changemakers Summit on December 14–15 in Macon. The event will gather parents, caregivers, and community leaders from across Georgia for two days of connection, strategy-building, and inspiration focused on strengthening early learning, health, and family systems. The summit includes a mixer and dinner on December 14, followed by a full convening on December 15. Learn more and register here!
Rural Mental Health
Workforce Solutions Jam | The Future of Rural Behavioral Health - The College for Behavioral Health Leadership: This webinar co-hosted by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing will explore the future of rural behavioral health, scalable solutions, and partnerships within communities to support the rural behavioral health workforce on December 16 from 1-2 PM. Learn more and register here.
Rural mental health resources | Mental Health America: This comprehensive resource from Mental Health America explores backgrounds of the mental health challenges rural areas face, treatment and support, youth mental health in rural areas as well as farming and agricultural mental health, and many extra resources for supporting rural mental health.
Suicide Prevention
Trends and Unseen Risks in AAAI Youth Suicide— Lotus Project: Join the Lotus Project on December 16 from 12-1:30 PM for a free webinar on trends and unseen risks in Asian American and Asian Immigrant youth (AAAI). This webinar will highlight incorporating culturally responsive prevention and suicide intervention strategies for AAAI youth. Learn more and register here.
The acute suicide crisis among veterinarians: 'You're always going to be failing somebody': This BBC article uncovers the high suicide rates among veterinarians. Veterinarians have a high suicide rate compared to the rest of the population and experience high work-related stress, anxiety, or depression. Read the full article uncovering this mental health crisis here.
Youth
Supporting young minds | Mental Health America: From Mental Health America comes a helpful resource on supporting youth mental health. This kit includes resources and tools for helping youth with their mental health, build resilience, equip adults to encourage advocacy and leadership for youth, as well as a space for hearing young people. Navigate the site here to access printables, graphics, and other resources for youth mental health.
Grounding Youth Well-Being in Community Context - The Annie E. Casey Foundation: The Annie E. Casey Foundation has shared a new action guide from Penn State for local coalitions to learn how to integrate the voices, values, and histories of their communities into the work they do in order to improve public systems for youth and families. This free guide explores strong examples of relevant work in states supporting children and families in communities and how to apply these lessons in your own community.