Each of us doing one small thing makes a huge difference.
You could do one small thing from the list below to help some of the millions of kids suffering emotional “devastation” from Covid-era restriction.
Declaring a national “youth mental health crisis,” U.S Surgeon General Murthy was echoed by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, which worries that many children face a lifetime of mental and emotional problems compounded by learning problems.
At the same time you will be helping create preK-12 school cultures that teach kids how to manage their feelings, traumas and relationships so they don’t go on to shoot other kids.
Dr. Murthy specifically called for rapid advancement of what educators call “social and emotional learning” (SEL) in all schools. SEL has the ability to teach kids how to manage their emotional and mental states, re-open their capacity for learning, and gain life skills for success. This approach is especially needed because there aren’t enough counselors and child psychologists to serve kids in trouble.
YOUR ONE THING might be one of the following (below are what your businesses can do):
- Share this message on your social media. There are sharing buttons at the top of the post.
- Share information about SEL with at least one parent you know. Send them to https://equipourkids.org.
- Ask the HR director where you work to contact us for free information or free SEL workshops that would be helpful to parenting employees at your workplace. They can email contact@equipourkids.org.
- Arrange for one of our speakers to talk to groups you belong to.
- Parent or not, call your local school (ask for the principal) or school district (ask for the superintendent) and tell that person you support comprehensive SEL in schools. It doesn’t matter if you are not a parent. You can use this guide to help you.
- Call or email your state legislators and tell them you support comprehensive SEL in schools. Again, it doesn’t matter if you’re not a parent.
- If you are a parent of school-age kids or younger, practice SEL tools at home. Visit our Child/Parent Emotional Health Toolkit . And sign up for our weekly Parent Tip Newsletter.
- Donate a few bucks to our campaign that effectively mobilizes support for SEL from parents, the public, employers and others, as well as directly assists grassroots educator organizations in their work advancing SEL into our schools.
- Volunteer with us. You can find listing on our volunteer page and also at Taproot.
FOR BUSINESSES AND OTHER ORGANIZATIONS:
- See the real benefits to your company or organization and a range of ways to make a difference on this page.
- Use our webinars featuring parents who are SEL experts for your parenting employees and/or customer parents. You can also choose a webinar (or just a meeting) for your executive team to learn more about beneficially engaging with this national education movement and its range of options.
- Call your local school district, ask for the superintendent, and tell that person you support comprehensive SEL in schools. It makes a difference to you as a local employer and taxpayer. You can use this guide to help you.
- Arrange for one of our speakers to talk at your next internal company meeting or industry event.