The Friday Five

The Friday Five

The "Friday Five" is intended to be a weekly offering to those interested in the work of Middletown Youth Services Bureau and the Greater Middletown Community Collaborative and contains various news of interest around supporting youth and building community. Enjoy!

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1. To Attend: Virtual Wellness Workshops Wednesday August 5th, 12:00pm - 2:00pm

Register HERE

Tune in to any or all of the 8 fabulous 15-minute workshops led by local experts and leaders in wellness and resiliency. The workshops include Restore and Reset with a "Resiliency" Pause, Connected - Health - Learning, Movement Matters!, Introduction to the Foundations of Yoga, Vicarious Trauma and Resilience Strategies, You Matter - Wellness Tips for Black People and Other POC, Writing and Journaling: "The Ultimate Stress Reliever", and Simple Steps to Mindful Eating. For more information on what these workshops will deliver, see the event flyer attached below.
See flyer HERE
Register HERE

2. To Attend: The Tea: Real Talks about the US and Racism

Join the Middletown Racial Justice Coalition, along with the Courageous Conversations Global Foundation, in monthly virtual talks on healing from, or engaging with racism.

In this series, we will engage in honest and REAL talks about what healing from racial trauma looks like as BIPOC (Black, Brown, Indigenous, People of Color- Includes Asian) & what it means to fully engage in Antiblack-racism work as White people. Next, as a community, we will come together and begin the work of undoing Anti-Black racism in Middletown.

"Action that stems from a place of pain or hurt, is rarely sustainable."
-CC Global Foundation

Wednesday, August 19th & September 16th: These affinity sessions are for BIPOC (Black, Brown, Indigenous, People of Color) to work on in-group healing.

Wednesday, October 21st: This affinity session will be for White people to focus on moving from avoiding uncomfortable conversations about race to anti-racism.

Wednesday, November 18th: This is an opportunity for everyone to come together and make some personal and community commitments towards healing/anti-racism.

Wednesday, December 16th: We'll come back together as a group to check-in and provide each other support.

*All Sessions are from 6:00-8:00pm.

Register HERE See Event Flyer HERE

3. To Read: Reopening Schools Is Way Harder Than It Should BE

School boards, educators, parents, and children all have their minds in a pretzel considering the best course of action for returning to school in the fall. While many education researches are advocating for the high importance of in-person learning in child development, health professionals are highlighting the risk of increased spread with the re-opening of schools. The challenge of safely reopening for schools in under-resourced communities is even more staggering. As one teacher quoted in the article attached below states,

"If we're in a non-Covid environment and I have to buy pencils for my children, and my school doesn't have enough guidance counselors and social workers, and class sizes are large, then how in the world can I trust school systems to get this right in a Covid environment?"

To learn more about the considerations, options, and possible best practices when returning to school, read the full article attached below on the New York Times website. Read article HERE

4. To Listen: COVID-19 Special Edition: Mental Health in a Locked-Down World

While some countries and U.S. states are beginning to reopen businesses and other gathering places, the pandemic is still very much with us. Physical distancing will likely be a way of life until a vaccine for COVID-19 is widely available. So much change, including the threat of illness, and grief of those who have lost loved ones, means that mental health is a great concern.

Fortunately, there are things we can do to support our mental health at this time, especially when caring for young children or other family members. In this episode of The Brain Architects, host Sally Pfitzer speaks with Dr. Karestan Koenen, Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Dr. Archana Basu, Research Associate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a clinical psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. They discuss what supporting your own mental health can look like, as well as ways to support children you care for at this time. They also talk about what mental health professionals all over the world are doing to help take care of our societies in the midst of the pandemic, and how they're preparing for the challenges that come next. Listen to Podcast HERE

5. To Attend: Restorative Justice Basics August 6th-September 23rd Virtual Training

Restorative Justice on the Rise is hosting a 7-week online basic training for doing restorative justice online and off.

"An online intensive course designed to prepare the new and seasoned practitioner for developing online circles and gain thorough best-practice-led insight into history, values and practice of RJ particular to conflict and harm response process."

Scholarships available. Free for anybody under the age of 24.

August 6th: History,Values and Modern RJ
August 13th: Best Practice Facilitation Roles, Skills
August 20th: Preparing Online Circle
August 27th: Circle Steps: Pre-conference
September 10th: Circle Steps: Circle
September 17th: After the Circle: Repair Agreements, Reintegration, Celebration
September 24th: Bonus Session: Review and Practice

See Event Details HERE
Register HERE