Significantly reduce the impact of overload on your ability to make decisions, problem-solve, empathize with others, and accomplish tasks successfully. Gain an understanding of what healthy “control” looks like including its impact on your emotions, thoughts, reactions and ultimately your outcome!  Recognize what you can and can’t control and target your efforts for success.

Presented by Susan Graham, CFLE

Susan Graham Certified Family Life Educator with over 15 years of experience working with families and children at Huron Valley Schools, and 3 years at Oakland Schools ISD. She has 6 years of experience as a Parent Engagement Coordinator at a school-wide Title I Elementary School.  She has over 10 years’ experience developing evidence-based workshops for court-ordered Michigan families working toward reunification. She’s experienced in grant-based parent engagement requirements and increasing stakeholder attendance at events.  Her workshops are designed for successful engagement and inclusive programming for diverse audiences.

A visually appealing booklet for students that explains how drugs change the way the communication centers in the brain work and ultimately cause their effects. This booklet is part of the Mind Matters series focused on easy-to-understand scientific facts.

Classroom WISE is a FREE 3-part training package that assists K-12 educators and school staff in supporting the mental health of students in the classroom. Developed by the Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC) Network in partnership with the National Center for School Mental Health, this package offers evidence-based strategies and skills to engage and support students experiencing adversity and distress.

In addition to a free online course on mental health literacy for educators and school staff, a video library and resource collection are also available!

In 2014, the U.S. Department of Education released Guiding Principles: A Resource Guide for Improving School Climate and Discipline. This resource for schools helps to create positive, safe, and supportive environments that can prevent and change inappropriate behaviors. This guidance also recommends using suspension only as a last resort for serious violations. In fact, school suspension can have long-term impacts. Students who are suspended miss time in the classroom and are at risk for not graduating on time, repeat a grade, drop out, or become involved with the criminal justice system.6 Suspensions also affect a greater proportion of students of color, students receiving special education services, students from low-income families, LGBTQ+ students, and male students. Most young people who vape want to quit. Suspending students who violate a school’s tobacco-free policy is unlikely to help them quit tobacco use, and could alter their academic and future goals. Because young people have been unfairly targeted with marketing tactics, the science of addiction, and long-term consequences of suspension, schools should provide a supportive environment and encouragement to quit using tobacco products, not suspension.

Most people start using tobacco in their pre-teen and teen years, a time during which a youth’s brain is still growing, making it easier to get addicted to the nicotine in tobacco. That’s why it’s important to educate youth about the dangers of tobacco and the fact that they are targeted by the tobacco companies and should say “no” to starting.

Increasing the price of tobacco products and presenting messages that counter the tobacco industry’s marketing are among the ways in which we can help youth never start using tobacco.

Policies that make “tobacco-free” the norm and that protect youth from getting and using these deadly products are also important. 24/7 tobacco-free school policy, prohibiting the sale of flavored tobacco products, and having tobacco-free outdoor parks and beaches are all examples of policies that may help prevent kids from using tobacco.

School policies regulating the use and possession of commercial tobacco products, including electronic delivery devices (e.g., e-cigarettes, vaping devices, JUUL, Suorin), often contain punitive measures for student violations. This publication provides sample language and ideas for evidence-based solutions and information as to why these alternative measures may be more effective than suspension and expulsion at addressing student tobacco use and nicotine addiction as part of a school’s Commercial Tobacco-Free Policy.

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) is the name given to a group of battery-operated tobacco products that allow users to inhale aerosolized liquid (e-juice) containing nicotine and other substances.

The terms “e-cigarettes” and “e-cigs” are often used for electronic cigarettes, as well as for e-pens, e-pipes, e-hookah, and e-cigars. These products are also sometimes called “JUULs” (after a branded e-cigarette of the same name), “vapes,” and “vape pens.”

Unlike traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes are made up of a battery-operated heating part — a cartridge (unit) that typically holds nicotine and other chemicals that change into a chemical-filled aerosol when heated.

The Tobacco Prevention Toolkit is a theory-based and evidence-informed educational resource created by educators and researchers aimed at preventing middle and high school students’ use of tobacco and nicotine products.  Developing this Toolkit was accomplished by partnering with key stakeholders (educators, parents, and students), others involved in tobacco or health education, and scientists. We also conducted formative research to inform our curriculum, including holding a series of focus groups with students, health educators, tobacco prevention researchers, leaders within the California Department of Education’s Tobacco Control Branch, and basic scientists focusing on tobacco, e-cigarettes, and addiction, to identify the most important content areas that need to be included, delivery strategies that are engaging for youth, and to obtain the latest evidence known about each tobacco product to ensure that the information presented in our curriculum is accurate.

Parents and educators will find the following short videos helpful in identifying the risks of youth drug and alcohol use. The University of Virginia’s Gordie Center released this video series in partnership with Region Ten Community Services Board. To learn more, go to https://regionten.org/blog/talk/.

Search institute has identified the following building blocks of healthy development in ages 3-5

Search institute has identified the following building blocks of healthy development in ages 5-9

Search institute has identified the following building blocks of healthy development in ages 8-12