About this Issue

As anyone who works with youth knows, young people as a population are experiencing an overwhelming mental health crisis. Recently we heard from an Update subscriber who eloquently pointed to educators' need for resources: How can youth development professionals (who are themselves under tremendous pressure) better support youth, build trust, and address trauma?

There is no easy answer here, but there are approaches, tools, and ways to better understand what our youth are going through and how to help them. Over the years, ACT for Youth has gathered and developed many resources in the areas of mental health and positive approaches to working with youth. Much of our website serves as a clearinghouse for resources offered by outside experts. This issue of the Update is a guide both to these clearinghouse collections and to resources developed by ACT for Youth in areas connected to mental health.

Dig in -- as always, it's our aim to be useful. And thank you for all you do to support youth!

Karen Schantz

Clearinghouse Director

Mental Health Resources

Mental Health Webinar Series

In light of the increasing incidence of mental health challenges among young people, ACT for Youth sponsored a series of webinars for youth-serving organizations funded by the New York State Department of Health.

Webinars

Mental Health in Adolescence

Here, ACT for Youth provides a brief overview of mental health and mental illness in adolescence.

Overview

Mental Health Clearinghouse

General Resources: Mental Health in Youth

Here, find selected general resources for youth development professionals and for youth. See sidebar at this link for additional resource collections from organizations specializing in mental health.

General Resources

Mental Health Inequities

Youth who experience bias and social inequities are more likely to suffer mental health burdens. Here we have collected resources that focus on LGBTQ and BIPOC youth mental health.

Resources: Inequities

Mental Health Stressors

These resources were selected to help youth development professionals respond to and help prevent youth mental health crises.

Response & Prevention

Social and Emotional Learning

SEL Toolkit: Activities to Support Resilience

A collection of resources for youth development professionals and for youth.

SEL Toolkit

Positive Environments and Relationships

Creating Inclusive Program Environments: A Training Manual

Young people with learning disabilities, ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, or trauma do not always disclose these conditions in program settings. Fortunately, even when facilitators lack this personal information about participants, there are ways to make programs more inclusive. Creating Inclusive Program Environments for Youth with Different Abilities aims to provide youth work professionals with information, practices, and activities that will help them promote inclusion and engagement for all young people.

Inclusive Environments: Training Manual

Positive Environments

Positive environments are social settings that are safe, inclusive, and welcoming, where young people feel a sense of belonging and know that they are valued. When contexts like these are also rich in opportunities, youth can undertake challenges, fail productively, and try again without emotional or physical harm.

Learn More: Positive Environments

Developmental Relationships

Relationships are at the heart of successful youth work. It is through relationships that we engage young people and help them grow. Thanks to research into brain functioning, we now know that positive relationships can also counter adversity and stress.

Learn More: Developmental Relationships

Trauma-Informed Programming

A trauma-informed approach to programming means understanding, recognizing, preparing for, and responding to the effects trauma may have on program participants. Find Trauma resources for program providers and sex educators here.

Learn More: Trauma-Informed Approach

Self-Care in Youth Work

Youth work is a profession of the heart. Most people come into the field because they are dedicated to and passionate about making the lives of young people better. Those same motivations make self-care an important topic.

Self-Care for Youth Development Professionals

This newsletter was developed with funding provided by the New York State Department of Health Bureau of Perinatal, Reproductive, and Sexual Health. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the ACT for Youth Center for Community Action and do not necessarily represent the views of the New York State Department of Health.