April 2012

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month

In honor of National Child Abuse Prevention Month, here are five NCFY articles about how youth-serving organizations can help victims and prevent further abuse:

1. NCFY Recommends: Hotline Helps Child Abuse Victims 24/7

Every ten seconds, child abuse is reported in the United States. Anonymous help for victims and their families can be found by calling Childhelp's National Child Abuse Hotline 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

3 Ways to Capitalize on Global Youth Service Day

Seems like there’s never enough time to do all the things that need to be done to make the world a better place. Maybe that’s why Global Youth Service Day -- the largest and longest-running service event in the world, and the only day of service dedicated to children and youth -- is actually a weekend. Mark your calendar for April 20-22, 2012.

But don't stop there. Here are three things you can do to use Global Youth Service Day as a springboard for a year's worth of community service:

Primary Sources: A New Study Finds That Exposure to Violence Affects Girls and Boys Differently

Gender Differences in the Longitudinal Impact of Exposure to Violence on Mental Health in Urban Youth (abstract). Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Vol. 40, No. 12, December 2011.

What it’s about: This study examined differences in the mental health symptoms experienced by boys and girls who have been exposed to violence.  Researchers surveyed 615 Chicago-area young people about their mental health at age 14 and again at age 16.

NCFY Recommends: An Easy Read About Drugs

The National Institute on Drug Abuse's Easy-to-Read Drug Facts site is just that: Easy to read.

The site talks about drug abuse, addiction and treatment in short sentences and plain English. Pages can be easily printed out for people who don't have computers. And users can listen to pages if they prefer that to reading.

The site is a good tool if you work with young people and families who have difficulty reading or understanding English. You'll find:

Primary Sources: Helping Homeless Youth Succeed in School

"Resilient Educational Outcomes: Participation in School by Youth With Histories of Homelessness," Youth & Society, Vol. 43, No. 1, March 2011

What it's about: This study looks at how homelessness and extreme poverty affect young people's education. The researchers surveyed homeless youth to find out what factors made them more or less likely to stay in school and do well.

The ABCs of STDs: Sexual Health Educators Recommend Online Resources for Youth Workers

In honor of Sexually Transmitted Disease Awareness Month, in April, NCFY asked two longtime sexual health educators to recommend their favorite online resources on STDs.

Monica Rodriguez is president of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, or SIECUS. Deborah Mathis is administrative chief of women’s health at the University of Pennsylvania’s Student Health Center.

Here are the sites they recommend:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Sexual Health Pages

Bright Idea: At a Seattle Corporation, Youth Hear Opportunity Knocking

When 18-year-old Dan Wall started out as a messenger at the Seattle logistics company Expeditors in 1988, he had no intention of attending college. And he never imagined he would become the senior vice president of a Fortune 500 Company.

His bosses, CEO Peter Rose and President of Sales and Marketing Tim Barber, saw what he couldn’t see. They knew he had the right attitude to go far. He just needed training to help him gain the skills that would get him there. 

Primary Sources: Are Youth-Serving Mental Health Agencies Underdiagnosing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?

"Underdiagnosis of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in At Risk Youth" (abstract), Journal of Traumatic Stress, Vol. 23, Issue 5, October 2010.

What it's about: Researchers studied two agencies that treat at-risk youth with mental health problems. The researchers looked at how often youth were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as PTSD. Ten years later, the researchers returned to find out if agencies were better able to diagnose PTSD.

NCFY Recommends: Supporting LGBTQ Youth in School

School should be a safe space for all students to learn. But too often lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth are taunted and bullied in class, the hallways and the schoolyard.

New Video: Linda Mascarenas

NCFY's new video series features seven youth workers from around the country, each sharing a time when they made a big difference in a young person's life.

Up first is Linda Mascarenas from Family and Youth Services in Stockton, CA. She talks about a teen mother who eventually became a paid employee of Mascarenas' youth program.

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