July is National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, dedicated to bringing attention to the unique mental health issues that ethnic minority communities experience due to the racial trauma and inequity these specific communities face in the United States. A greater awareness of the variety of mental health experiences will enable mental health professionals and community members to better support and provide the necessary resources needed to heal collectively.

The Office of Minority Health is providing a free e-learning program on Improving Cultural Competency for Behavioral Health Professionals as a resource to help health professionals develop knowledge and skills to deliver appropriate services. There are also a number of trainings addressing minority mental health that can be accessed here. For more information, please visit Great Lakes ATTC website.

Charlie Leonard, coalition coordinator for the City of Milwaukee Tobacco-Free Alliance, made an important appearance with Milwaukee's TMJ4 local news. This segment explored data that shows Wisconsin LGBTQ residents having higher tobacco use compared to other groups. "It has to do with stress and it's an easy population to exploit," Charlie explains, as the challenges with smoking are evolving through vape products as well. To watch this segment, you can click here.

One of the ongoing effects of the pandemic has been a growing concern in the rise of deaths caused by overdoses. In an effort to address the issue, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley is reminding residents of resources available as we are beginning to open up. Milwaukee County Substance Abuse Prevention (MCSAP) coalition coordinator Alexandria Kohn has worked diligently to adapt to changes during the pandemic. "We had to learn how to reach this big county with only using online platforms," Alexandria explained in an interview with CBS 58. Many organizations like MCSAP have had to face a lot of the same struggles since the pandemic. To learn more information and to watch this segment on CBS 58, click here.

Community Advocates has put together information and resources on the expanded Child Tax Credit payments, which are due to begin this week. Check out the fact sheets and links to helpful resources in English and Spanish on Community Advocates' website.

If you are interested, please go to the Voices of Gun Violence webpage to get more information. Thank you.

Join public health leader and Director of Violence Prevention from the MCW Comprehensive Injury Center, Reggie Moore, with a coffee and discussion about violence prevention. This conversation will be held virtually on Tuesday, July 13, at 12 noon. If you are interested in attending, click here for more information.

Campus Drug Prevention and SAMHSA's Communities Talk initiative will be hosting a Twitter chat on underage drinking and substance misuse prevention on college campuses. The conversation will be held on Wednesday, July 14, at 1 p.m. For more information on how to join, click here.

The Wisconsin Society of Addiction Medicine and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services will be sponsoring a buprenorphine x-waiver training in an effort to increase treatment capacity for opioid use. The webinar will be held on Wednesday, July 14, from 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. To register, click here. For more information on Wisconsin’s opioid epidemic, click here.

This in-person training will be held on Wednesday, July 14, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Community Advocates Training Center, 6900 W. Brown Deer Road, Milwaukee. It's provided free of charge thanks to a partnership between Community Advocates Public Policy Institute and the City of Milwaukee Office of Violence Prevention and a ReCAST Milwaukee grant. For details and to register, click here.

Learn about the nature of common conversations and behavior change in this Motivational Interviewing webinar hosted by Great Lakes MHTTC. You will explore the difference between a guiding style and confrontational one, identify using a guiding style to help explore ambivalence about change and identify and proactive open questions, affirmations, reflections, and summaries. The webinar will be held on Thursday, July 15, from 8:45 a.m. to 11 a.m. Click here to register.

This webinar explores how positive factors impact culture and experience in the health and safety field. The science of the positive focuses on creating healthy, positive and protective factors in our communities. This helps expand their focus from problems to ways to cultivate the strengths and protective factors that keep communities strong. Join this webinar Monday, July 19, at 10 a.m. via Zoom. Click here to register.

Join this webinar and learn about how the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center & Wisconsin Facets can help LGBTQ+ students with disabilities, their families, and guardians. This session will be great to attend as there will be helpful information and resources shared. This webinar will take place on Tuesday, July 20, at 5 p.m. Click here to register.

The Public Health in Practice conference is for governmental and non-governmental public health positions that teaches skills and tools to help improve community or workplace health. Identifying the benefits of public health workforce diversity and using holistic approaches to strengthen individual talents are just some of the few objectives of this conference. Registration rates may vary and the early bird deadline ends July 16. To learn more and to register, click here.

Classroom WISE, which stands for Well-Being Information and Strategies for Educators, is a training package that supports K-12 educators with the mental health of their students in the classroom. This is a 3-part training that offers evidence-based strategies and skills that engage and support students with mental health concerns. This package also includes a free online course on mental health, a video library and resource collection. To learn more about classroom WISE, click here.

Researchers at UW-Milwaukee are looking for e-cigarette users to participate in a study that examines the effectiveness of computerized attentional bias training for active e-cigarette users aged 18-29. If you are interested, click here for more information. If you have questions, contact Dr. Joshua Gwon by phone at 414-242-2977 or by email gwon@uwm.edu.