Resources for Guardians

For immediate support

                      Call 988                  Text HOME to 741741 

             

 

Mental and Emotional Well-Being

Call 988 anytime of day to connect with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline for free. 988lifeline.org has guides to understand, respond to, and help someone in a mental health crisis.

For immediate support text HOME to 741741 to connect for anytime of day for free with a trained Crisis Counselor at the CrisisTextLine. Additionally, CrisisTextLine provides informative articles on a variety of mental health topics including anxiety, depression, non-suicidal self-harm, and more.

Tools for Families provide a wide variety of resources for families with kids of all ages, including academics, family life, building character and Book Lists that can be filtered by age and topic.

The nonprofit Understood has resources for parents, educators, and youth for those who learn and think “differently.” Includes articles pertaining to dealing with distractions, managing emotions, stress and anxiety and so much more!

The Child Mind Institute’s Family Resource Center has information to help you support children who are struggling with mental health, behavior or learning challenges.

Teen Talk provides resources and hotline information for teens and adults regarding suicide prevention, addiction, mental health concerns, and more.

Talking With Children about Anxiety or Worries Counselor Keri has helpful tips about how to talk to kids who are struggling with stress and anxiety.

Child Abuse: Prevention, Identification, Response

Fight Child Abuse uses age-specific animated videos and Protect Yourself Rules to help youth recognize, refuse, and report abuse. Includes Get Help links to locate local resources.

Hot Chocolate Talk. Easy to use How-to-Guides are age-specific and walk care givers step-by-step through having a discussion about sexual abuse, providing youth the tools to refuse, recognize, and report abuse. Additional tools for adults to recognize and prevent child sexual abuse.

Rock the Talk by the non-profit the Mamma Bear Effect breaks down the importance of talking to your children about their bodies and their rights in age-appropriate ways with specific objectives. Free downloads, book recommendations, and other resources for adults can be useful tools.

Internet Safety, Cyberbullying, and Living in a Digital Age

NetSmartz provides resources for families of elementary through high school youth, complete with age-specific videos and information for guardians concerned about internet safety topics such as cyberbullying, sexting, online enticement, smart phone usage and more.

NetSmartzKids utilizes videos and games to teach kids aged 10 and younger online safety.

Common Sense Media provides comprehensive advice on the best ways to keep your child safe online, including tutorials about safety suggestions for specific apps, web sites, and other media. Also includes tips/tricks and on-line games regarding learning at home, cyberbullying, internet searches, and more.

General Tips, Mindfulness, and Bullying

Pacer’s National Bullying Prevention Center has tools for parents and students to understand, identify, prevent, and respond to bullying, cyberbullying, as well as videos and resources for Kids and Teens Against Bullying.

Empathy vs. Sympathy – Brené Brown talks about the differences between empathy and sympathy in this video

Elementary and Younger:

Sesame Street, Little Children Big Challenges provides printable downloads, videos and songs that help families of children ages 2 through 5 deal with building resiliency, dealing with divorce, or discussing incarceration. Also videos regarding bullying and 12 Books Recommended Books to Build Empathy and Kindness.

Mind Yeti provides guided mindfulness videos to help kids and their adults calm their minds, focus their attention and connect to the world around them.

In a comic-style story, Captain Compassion helps Kid Kinder learn to recognize, report, and refuse bullying while guiding readers to grow their upstander power. Includes resources for adults and links to blogs with up to date information on a variety of youth development topics.

Middle School and Older

ParenTeen Connect has videos and resources for parents of teens on screen time, independence, communication, and responsibility.

Grief and Loss

The Dougy Center – The National Center for Grieving Children and Families that provides a wealth of resources about grief and loss

Safe Crossings – A Seattle-based organization associated with Providence Hospital that provides grief and loss counseling, support groups, and online resources.

Eluna has a comprehensive Resource Center for parents and youth impacted by grief or addiction.

Our House – Lists of grief resources by developmental levels

Judi’s House Grief Activities for Home – List of activities kids and teens can do to work through their grieving at home

 

This webpage is constantly evolving! Check back regularly for updates and we welcome suggestions if you have a resource you’d like to share!