Celebration of Mothers Event- May 9
Mental Health First Aid Monthly Newsletter

Hello, Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) family! One of the driving forces behind MHFA and the work of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing is the belief that mental wellbeing – including recovery from substance use – can be a reality for everyone, everywhere. A gleaming example of this is Alexander Hardy – a grits-powered writer; home cook, dancer, lupus survivor, co-founder of creative wellness agency GetSomeJoy and Mental Health First Aider turned MHFA Instructor. |

On the heels of five-plus years of unstable housing, including nearly three years in New York City’s loud, chaotic shelters, Hardy found that he feels the most alive in his kitchen, where he feels connected to his mother, grandmother and their Panamanian roots.
“Food is more than a source of sustenance for me. It’s an icebreaker and a way to get friends and strangers to talk about feelings. … Food is a vehicle for joy,” Hardy writes in a recent MHFA blog.
He shares five ways to use food as a tool for practicing mindfulness, fostering connection and centering joy:
To help you take care of your mental wellbeing and support those around you, we shared information and resources via the MHFA blog all month long. Check out these posts or visit us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. |
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Visit GACRS “The Adoptive Family Journey” Facebook Group

We invite you to join our forever family Facebook group, “The Adoptive Family Journey.” This group is sponsored by the Georgia Center for Resources and Support (GACRS). It is a site for all adoptive families living in Georgia to connect, share, and learn from other their journey as an adoptive family.
GACRS’ purpose for supporting The Adoptive Family Journey is to have adoptive families share and learn from one another. Adoption is rewarding but has its challenges as well. Feel free to share your heart, your struggles, and your successes.

Camp Fire Georgia: Summer Camps are Coming

- After School Programs in Stephens County
- Haunted Forest – October 16
- SUMMER CAMPS ARE COMING!
- Work Days – October to December
- Clyde’s New Years Rockin’ Eve Weekend
After School Program in Stephens County
If your child(ren) was enrolled in the Boys Club/Girls Club after school program, please know that the Camp Fire After School program has limited availability. Our staff will be happy to welcome new students!
It's Haunted Forest Time
Saturday, October 16 from 6:00 – 10:00 PM
Haunted Forest has become one of Camp Fire Georgia’s most anticipated events! This family-friendly event sees ghosts, goblins, and ghouls from across north Georgia. They participate in games. There are mazes for the small ones and a haunted house for the older and bolder. Trick-or-Treating, Marshmallow Toasting, a Hay Dig, and more! All parking and admissions will be at Toccoa Creek Baptist Church (1636 Falls Road, Toccoa GA, 30577). Ticket sales will end at 9:00 PM.
Rain date will be October 23. More information here!
Volunteer for Haunted Forest
WE NEED VOLUNTEERS to greet guests, assist with off-site parking and transportation to camp, run carnival games, pass out candy, and more! Great for individuals, youth groups, service organizations, etc. Camp Fire Georgia will gladly provide documentation of service hours for those who need it. More information may be found here, along with the volunteer waiver forms. Please complete and return to Mary McSherry.
Summer Camps are Coming
Camp Fire Georgia is EXCITED about welcoming Summer, 2022. Both day camp and residence camp will be operating, so make your plans now to grab a spot when Camp Toccoa Overnight Camp and Owenyake Day Camp open for registration soon!
Shortly after that, we’ll begin the process of hiring our Summer, 2022 staff! It’s going to be an absolutely incredibly fabulous summer for our staff, with surprises and more!
Wo-He-Lo Work Days - October through December
Camp looks FABULOUS, thanks to the hard work of staff and our amazing volunteers! But there is still more to be done to keep up our beloved property. There is an important work day on October 9th to get ready for Haunted Forest. Lots of general cleaning, most of which can be done with brooms, fittingly.
Additional dates for Wo-He-Lo Work Days are October 23rd, when we will clean up from Haunted Forest and winterize cabins; November 13th, and December 11th. If you can work one of the weekends, please let Sue Edwards know you are coming so that she knows how many people will attend.
If you can’t be in camp on a regularly scheduled work day, let the council know when you would like to come and tasks can be prepared for you and whoever comes with you. (Please arrange that in advance!) If this is your first Work Day, welcome, and please download forms here and return to Mary McSherry!
Clyde's New Years Rockin' Eve Weekend
Clyde’s New Years Rockin’ Eve Weekend will be December 31st – January 2nd. Kids have a great time, and parents get a weekend for their own celebrations. Information coming soon!
Our Promise
Young people want to shape the world.
Camp Fire provides the opportunity to find their spark,
lift their voice, and discover who they are.
In Camp Fire, it begins now.
Mental Health First Aid Monthly Newsletter

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CWLA the Networker

CWLA Celebrates Kinship Care Month
CWLASeptember is Kinship Care Month. Please join CWLA as we celebrate three decades of dedication to kinship caregiving families and recognize all of the relatives, members of the extended family, and tribes and clans who provide round-the-clock protecting and nurturing for children, either through informal family arrangements or child protective services. Nearly three million kinship caregivers across the country provide safety, support, cultural ties, and affection for the children in their care. Unique family circumstances cause stress for relatives, parents, and children including health and mental health challenges, financial and other burdens. Yet kinship caregivers – grandparents, aunts and uncles, siblings who are older, and members of the extended family who are not related – prevail. Let’s use Kinship Care Month to recognize their dedication! CWLA resources to support kinship caregivers include:
- Our curriculum, Traditions of Caring and Collaborating Kinship Family Information, Support, and Assessment Trauma-Informed Model of Practice
- A special double issue of Child Welfare journal, “Kinship Care and Child Welfare: New Directions for Policy and Practice”
- CWLA Press title, Reflections on Kinship Care: Learning from the Past, Implications for the Future
IN THE NEWS
Infants with history of reported maltreatment at greater risk of death from medical causes
Pediatrics
A study finds a heightened risk of death from medical causes for infants with histories of reported maltreatment, suggesting a need for ongoing care coordination between the child protection system and pediatric health providers.
Apple walks back plans for new child safety tools after privacy backlash |
Governor signs bipartisan child welfare overhaul bill |
The 4 F’s for proactive online child protection
EIN Presswire
As parents, caregivers, and allied professionals, have you ever wondered how to proactively supervise what is happening with children online? Have your children been on gaming devices, cellphones, and other digital devices and you have no knowledge as to what they are doing online?
Couple who fostered 620 kids in 56 years reveal golden rules of parenting including how to deal with jealousy & time-out
The Sun
The pair have tended to newborns, toddlers and teens – all while raising five children of their own. And Pauline, now 81, says they never forgot a youngster’s name or birthday, and always believed every foster child was as important as their own.
Juvenile cases in 2019 dropped to the lowest level in 14 years, federal data show |
Prevention education: More important than ever
Social Work Today
With trauma at unprecedented levels, it’s time everyone—from school administrators to government officials—steps up efforts to dismantle the child sexual abuse and exploitation epidemic. One of the highest forms of love is service. A form of service is protection. Without feelings of safety and security, a child cannot thrive.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
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CWLA SPOTLIGHT
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RESOURCES & OPPORTUNITIES
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Families First Resilience Report September 2021
OFA Peer TA Monthly Alert September 2021
Supporting Children and Families in the New School Year: What TANF Staff Need to Know

OFA’s Peer TA Monthly Alerts highlight trending topics of interest to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) agencies and partners. Get timely resources, research, tools, strategies, and tips on innovative TANF policies and programs in this monthly digital source.
Children and families are adjusting to returning to in-person learning for the first time in many months since the COVID-19 pandemic began. This issue highlights guidance, resources, and tips that TANF agency staff can use to assist families with children transitioning back to classrooms and to enhance workforce development programs that provide job training and placement in education settings.
See select articles on helping young children and parents transition back to school, COVID-19 resources for schools, supporting early child development and learning amid the pandemic, and supporting the childcare and early education workforce.
Resource Spotlight
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed structural problems encountered by Black, Latina, and Native American child care and early education providers. This report draws upon interviews with 20 experts to highlight 19 state and local policy strategies that could be implemented to address the structural inequality in this workforce. These four strategies reflect the need for a rapid crisis response; how to inform key policy responses to maximize impact; how to drive equity-based systems changes for supporting the child care and early care education workforce; and how to lay the foundation for increasing diversity in leadership roles.

This Month's Resources

This set of recordings are from a three-day workshop convened on May 20, May 25, and May 27, 2021 which explored COVID-19’s effect on students’ learning and mental health. The workshop focused on the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on children of color, children who have special health needs and learning difficulties, and children who are living in poverty. Presentations included lived experience perspectives and experts who discussed learning loss, mental health, and social-emotional learning.
Educare schools provide full-day, year-round early care and education for young children living in families from underserved communities. This brief illustrates the experiences and responses of Educare’s early childhood care and education (ECCE) staff during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as systemic inequities that Educare schools encountered. Interviews with staff from 18 Educare schools revealed three common themes: the importance of supporting the ECCE workforce’s physical and mental health and overall well-being; the redefinition of expectations and mechanisms for accountability; and the ECCE workforce’s ongoing commitment to professional development. The brief describes a set of identified challenges for each theme that the ECCE workforce encountered and overcame.
The third of a three-part series, this April 27, 2021 webinar from the Center for Health Care Strategies examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic reducing young children’s access to in-person early childhood and learning programs. Presentations covered approaches that states and communities might use to address development and learning needs as the children reenter early childhood and learning settings. Speakers included representatives from the Ohio Department of Education, the North Carolina Department of Health Benefits (Medicaid), and the Office of Head Start.
The second of a three-part series, this April 20, 2021 webinar from the Center for Health Care Strategies reviews challenges faced by families with young children in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic aftermath. Presentations covered opportunities to support families and connect them with community resources; strategies to increase parents’ knowledge of child development and communications skills while reducing their social isolation; mindfulness practices among staff at a supportive services agency; and the development of a virtual maternal-infant home visiting program. Speakers included representatives from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Families First of Boston, La Cocina of Colorado, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and ZERO TO THREE.

This Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) webpage includes CDC and partner resources and offers guidance in reducing stress children might encounter when transitioning back to in-person learning. Also included is the link to a CDC podcast entitled Transitioning Back to School or Early Child Education.
Contact us at PeerTA| peerta@blhtech.com |