During the holiday season, families are dealing with stress from multiple sources, including navigating how to safely gather given the COVID-19 safety protocols. This National Child Traumatic Stress Network fact sheet offers parents and caregivers a set of strategies and ideas to make the holiday season special. These strategies include starting a family conversation on what has changed and how family members are feeling, finding ways to make connections, making small moments matter, keeping a routine, and noticing good things. The fact sheet also suggests ideas for self-care and notes on how to find available help and support.

This online fact sheet begins with an illustration of the body areas affected by stress and a list of anxiety symptoms. The fact sheet follows with several questions about holiday depression, anxiety, and stress, and their causes, risk factors, symptoms, and signs. Questions include: How do health care professionals diagnose and treat holiday, anxiety, stress, and depression? What kinds of specialists treat them? What are possible complications and the prognosis? and Is it possible to prevent holiday depression, anxiety, and stress?

Despite reduced COVID-19 casualties, the pandemic has substantially impacted social determinants of health. Inadequate housing, unemployment, poor nutrition, and poverty can have lasting impacts on one’s physical and emotional well-being. The Healthcare Association of New York State and the State University of New York at Albany are hosting a monthly Understanding and Eliminating Minority Health Disparities webinar series which examines COVID-19’s impact on racial and ethnic inequities affecting New Yorkers. The next webinar on December 14, 2021 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET will discuss the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on social determinants of health and the value of partnering with communities to achieve the most effective interventions.

The Administration for Children and Families will host a webinar on December 13, 2021 from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET as part of a series of webinars on topics related to implementation and coordination of early childhood programs in American Indian and Alaska Native communities. This webinar supports participants in learning about approaches to building and improving facilities for early care and education in tribal communities. During the webinar, participants will hear an overview of issues related to building and improving facilities for early care and education, followed by a panel highlighting innovations and promising practices being implemented in tribal communities. Participants will discuss highlighted strategies with peers and hear about resources they can use in their own communities and programs.

The Dibble Institute will host a webinar on December 8, 2021 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET to introduce the Me & My Emotions website. Me & My Emotions supports teens’ social-emotional learning while increasing their resilience. Webinar objectives include supporting participants to understand who Me & My Emotions will benefit and ways to promote it; how the website is organized and what content is covered; and how Me & My Emotions can support teens individually as well as in classrooms and youth organizations.

The Urban Institute will host a webinar on December 14, 2021 from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET, which will discuss how to better understand the strengths of rural communities and to leverage their assets. The webinar will begin with remarks by Xochitl Torres Small, Under Secretary for Rural Development at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, followed by a demonstration of a new typology and dashboard with national data on rural census tracts and peer groups that support asset-based rural investments and capacity building. After the demonstration, a panel of rural stakeholders will discuss the opportunities and challenges of identifying rural assets and using an asset-based investment framework.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration has issued a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for the YouthBuild program. The program funds organizations to provide a pre-apprenticeship program model that encompasses education, occupational skills training, leadership development, and high-quality post-program placement opportunities to opportunity youth between the ages of 16 and 24 who left high school prior to graduation and also have other risk factors. The YouthBuild program simultaneously addresses multiple core issues important to youth in low-income communities: affordable housing, leadership development, education, and employment opportunities in in-demand industries and apprenticeship pathways. Applications are due by January 21, 2022.

The National Association of Social Workers will host a webinar on November 30, 2021 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET with a focus on the emotional wellness of students during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as other trauma experiences. The discussion will include the presentation of analogies to help students learn to cope with issues of loss and grief, as well as school-wide activities that promote traumatic growth and resiliency. Participation in the webinar counts for one continuing education credit within the Social Work Online Continuing Education Institute. A participation fee is required.

The Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP), the Alliance National Parent Partnership Council (ANPPC), and the Children's Trust Fund Alliance will host a networking webinar on November 11, 2021 at 3:00 p.m. ET to share resources developed by and for parents. This webinar will include a discussion from ANPPC, which has developed a series of parent-to-parent infographics that share strategies on how they use strength-based protective factors in their everyday lives and how parent groups have defined the protective factors. In addition, the Children’s Trust Fund Alliance will discuss the Alliance Resiliency Project, a flexible funding model to support families during the pandemic, and CSSP will present new resources and opportunities related to Strengthening Families.