Greetings, Network faithful. Let’s start this issue off with the great Eric Clapton and friends just killin’ it with their rendition of the classic tune “Crossroads.” Get your jam on and then get to readin’ Friday Update, cuz we got work to do!

Most Important Reads of the Week

New Poll Emphasizes Negative Impacts of Anti-LGBTQ Policies on LGBTQ Youth
The Trevor Project, the leading suicide prevention organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning (LGBTQ) youth, released a new poll that finds an overwhelming majority of LGBTQ youth have been negatively impacted by recent debates and laws around anti-LGBTQ policies and that many have also experienced victimization as a result. 

Move Your Way
You know how sometimes it’s really, really hard to sit still? When you’re young, your body wants to move — naturally! (Adults, not so much.) If you’re between the ages of 6 and 17, you need at least 60 minutes of daily activity.

How to Talk With Kids About Tragedies & Other Traumatic News Events
After any disaster or crisis, families struggle with what they should say to children and how to help them cope. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) encourages parents, teachers, childcare providers, and others who work closely with children to filter information about the event and present it in a way that their child can understand, adjust to and handle in a healthy way.

Parenting in America Today
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and amid reports of a growing youth mental health crisis, four-in-ten U.S. parents with children younger than 18 say they are extremely or very worried that their children might struggle with anxiety or depression at some point. According to a new Pew Research Center survey, mental health concerns top the list of parental worries, followed by 35% who are similarly concerned about their children being bullied.

Five Strategies to Promote Reproductive Justice and Family Well-being for Black Girls and Women
This blog is part of a larger effort by Child Trends researchers to expand knowledge about Black children and families. This effort includes continued work on Black family cultural assets and the development of a new multi-year applied research agenda on Black children and families. While sometimes prioritizing adults within Black families and sometimes prioritizing children, the goals of this effort are consistent—to build a deeper understanding of the diversity of Black families, contextualize their experiences within systems and institutions, and produce evidence to inform policies and practices that promote their well-being in the twenty-first century.

Announcing the Family Exchange: A Monthly Peer Networking Group for Family Leaders Who Foster and Support Family Engagement
Are you a family leader with lived experience as a primary caregiver of a child, youth, or young adult with mental health or substance use needs working in a role that fosters and supports family engagement in agency practice and policy decisions? Whether you are new to your role or you have been in the family movement for many years, the Family Exchange is a peer networking group to share experiences, innovative and effective practices, skills and knowledge, solutions to barriers and challenges, and key information supporting your role as family leaders.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Conference
Join the Minnesota Association for Children’s Mental Health for the 27th Annual Child & Adolescent Mental Health Conference, April 23 – 25, 2023. It is one of the country’s largest conferences of its kind – the event welcomes teachers, therapists, psychiatrists, counselors, social workers, infant, and early childhood professionals, health care workers, parents, and all others who support children from prenatal to age 24—designed for everyone who works with or cares for infants, children, adolescents, and their families.

After Parkland: What We’ve Learned Tracking School Shootings for 5 Years
The total number of children exposed to gun violence at school has exploded, rising from 187,000 in 2018 to 338,000 now, a Washington Post analysis shows. But there’s hope because this is what we’ve learned: Most school shootings are preventable.

Gun Safety, Injury, and Violence Prevention Community Grant Program
With funding made possible through the AAP Friends of Children Fund, the Academy will launch a Gun Safety, Injury, and Violence Prevention (GSIVP) Grant Program. Up to 10 community grants, each worth up to $15,000, are available to qualified applicants. Grantees will be funded for a 9-month project period, April 1, 2023 – December 31, 2023. The application submission deadline is 2:00 pm CT, March 10, 2023.

Youth Risk Behavior Survey 2011 – 2021
The Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data Summary & Trends Report: 2011–2021 provides the most recent surveillance data, as well as 10-year trends, on health behaviors and experiences among high school students in the United States (U.S.) related to adolescent health and well-being. These include sexual behaviors, substance use, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, experiences such as violence and poor mental health, social determinants of health such as unstable housing, and protective factors such as school connectedness and parental monitoring. The report also highlights disparities in these important outcomes by sex, race and ethnicity, sexual identity, and sex of sexual contacts.

Children’s Mental Health Initiative (AKA Systems of Care) Notice of Funding Opportunity Now Available
Okay, system of care devotees, time to get writing as there is a new round of funding available. In addition to the reinsertion of language related to the system of care framework, there is a new requirement for trauma and grief-informed care elements across all system components. Another new addition is an emphasis on integrated care services between pediatric primary care providers and health systems. In this funding round, there is also an opportunity to develop and implement plans to address the crisis of children waiting for mental health care in hospital emergency departments. There is much more – all designed to strengthen the grant and provide an opportunity for applicants to address significant issues related to child, youth, and young adult mental health. Now get to writin’! The due date is March 21st.

2023 Virtual System of Care Summit
The National Center for Training and Technical Assistance on Child, Youth, and Family Mental Health is pleased to announce a no-cost System of Care Summit (SOC Summit) on May 10 and 11, 2023. The SOC Summit is an opportunity for all children’s mental health partners to reunite, renew, and re-energize their efforts to support children and young people with behavioral health needs and their families.

Mobile Response & Stabilization Services National Best Practices
The Child Health Development Institute has partnered with the Innovations Institute at the UConn School of Social Work to help states develop high-quality, responsive behavioral health crisis service systems. Through this partnership, the Mobile Response and Stabilization Services (MRSS) Quality Learning Collaborative developed a best practices document for MRSS. The MRSS National Best Practices document outlines elements of an effective children’s crisis system.

Call for Papers on Adolescent Mental Health
JAMA Pediatrics is soliciting research manuscripts describing rigorous empirical studies of adolescent mental health. Studies that identify factors associated with negative and positive mental health outcomes and mental well-being, as well as clinical trials that evaluate interventions to improve outcomes among adolescents with anxiety, depression, and other mental health disorders, will be considered. 

MOMENTUM NATCON 2023 May 1-3
The National Council for Mental Wellbeing invites you to learn alongside 5,000+ healthcare professionals at NatCon23, the largest mental health and substance use treatment conference from May 1-3 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California.