This blogpost illustrates how to cope with negative emotions spurred by holidays and family gatherings. The blogpost presents the Change Triangle to providers as a guide to help clients work with emotions and the ways they avoid them, as well as steps to “work the triangle” and identify and be with emotions so they stay connected with themselves. Vignettes explain how two individuals used the Change Triangle, and five suggestions are presented to help families and individuals get through the holidays.

Children and youth are dealing with new challenges due to COVID-19, like social distancing, changes to their routines, and a lost sense of security and safety, making them especially vulnerable to feeling stressed, anxious, or depressed. For some children, these challenges are exacerbated by the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on their communities. Black and Hispanic Americans, in particular, have faced a disproportionate share of COVID-19 cases. The tools offered in five interactive videos, tailored for either younger children and their parents or for youth and teens, help support their emotional wellbeing by guiding an understanding about how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are all connected.

During the holiday season, families are dealing with stress from multiple sources, including navigating how to safely gather given the COVID-19 safety protocols. This National Child Traumatic Stress Network fact sheet offers parents and caregivers a set of strategies and ideas to make the holiday season special. These strategies include starting a family conversation on what has changed and how family members are feeling, finding ways to make connections, making small moments matter, keeping a routine, and noticing good things. The fact sheet also suggests ideas for self-care and notes on how to find available help and support.

This online fact sheet begins with an illustration of the body areas affected by stress and a list of anxiety symptoms. The fact sheet follows with several questions about holiday depression, anxiety, and stress, and their causes, risk factors, symptoms, and signs. Questions include: How do health care professionals diagnose and treat holiday, anxiety, stress, and depression? What kinds of specialists treat them? What are possible complications and the prognosis? and Is it possible to prevent holiday depression, anxiety, and stress?

Despite reduced COVID-19 casualties, the pandemic has substantially impacted social determinants of health. Inadequate housing, unemployment, poor nutrition, and poverty can have lasting impacts on one’s physical and emotional well-being. The Healthcare Association of New York State and the State University of New York at Albany are hosting a monthly Understanding and Eliminating Minority Health Disparities webinar series which examines COVID-19’s impact on racial and ethnic inequities affecting New Yorkers. The next webinar on December 14, 2021 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET will discuss the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on social determinants of health and the value of partnering with communities to achieve the most effective interventions.

The Administration for Children and Families will host a webinar on December 13, 2021 from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET as part of a series of webinars on topics related to implementation and coordination of early childhood programs in American Indian and Alaska Native communities. This webinar supports participants in learning about approaches to building and improving facilities for early care and education in tribal communities. During the webinar, participants will hear an overview of issues related to building and improving facilities for early care and education, followed by a panel highlighting innovations and promising practices being implemented in tribal communities. Participants will discuss highlighted strategies with peers and hear about resources they can use in their own communities and programs.

The Dibble Institute will host a webinar on December 8, 2021 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET to introduce the Me & My Emotions website. Me & My Emotions supports teens’ social-emotional learning while increasing their resilience. Webinar objectives include supporting participants to understand who Me & My Emotions will benefit and ways to promote it; how the website is organized and what content is covered; and how Me & My Emotions can support teens individually as well as in classrooms and youth organizations.

The Urban Institute will host a webinar on December 14, 2021 from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET, which will discuss how to better understand the strengths of rural communities and to leverage their assets. The webinar will begin with remarks by Xochitl Torres Small, Under Secretary for Rural Development at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, followed by a demonstration of a new typology and dashboard with national data on rural census tracts and peer groups that support asset-based rural investments and capacity building. After the demonstration, a panel of rural stakeholders will discuss the opportunities and challenges of identifying rural assets and using an asset-based investment framework.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration has issued a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for the YouthBuild program. The program funds organizations to provide a pre-apprenticeship program model that encompasses education, occupational skills training, leadership development, and high-quality post-program placement opportunities to opportunity youth between the ages of 16 and 24 who left high school prior to graduation and also have other risk factors. The YouthBuild program simultaneously addresses multiple core issues important to youth in low-income communities: affordable housing, leadership development, education, and employment opportunities in in-demand industries and apprenticeship pathways. Applications are due by January 21, 2022.