Category: Alliance for Positive Youth Development

Helping Youth Manage Stress

young person with hands in head leaning over desk at school

Don’t stress out, but April is Stress Awareness Month, which means we’re going to talk about stress, specifically, the stress in youth and how to support them. Stress is a response to external factors that your mind and body perceive as challenging or threatening, which causes the “fight, flight, or freeze” response.  Everyone experiences stress, it is …

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Celebrating Indigenous Heritage in K-12 Settings

There are millions of Indigenous peoples worldwide, and amongst those numbers are thousands of different cultures that make each and every tribe unique. Before we learn how to celebrate Indigenous heritage, let’s begin with the term Indigenous and its meaning. According to the Oxford dictionary, Indigenous means originating or occurring naturally in a particular place; …

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5 Methods for LGBTQ Inclusivity in Schools and Youth Programs

inclusive phrase inside a lightbox in front of a rainbow flag

It’s no secret that if our youth are in a safe, supporting, and nurturing environment, they are more likely to thrive. Unfortunately, our LGBTQ youth are not always in that environment. In a study done by The Trevor Project, LGBTQ youth were more than 4x likely to attempt suicide because of negative treatment and unsafe …

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Promoting Youth Mental Health Through Social-Emotional Learning in Schools and Youth Programs

youth working together

With everything that has happened in the past two years, it is no secret that the mental health of our youth is important. There are a variety of ways to support youth mental health: from counseling and therapy to self-care techniques and simply listening and spending time with them. Another vital strategy that can help …

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5 Ways to Support LGBTQ Youth Mental Health

rainbow painted hands

There seems to be an attack on the LGBTQ community in recent years, especially on our already vulnerable LGBTQ youth. I wish I was exaggerating, but an article published by the Human Rights Campaign last year declared that “2021 Officially Became the Worst Year in Recent History for LGBTQ State Legislative Attacks,” stating that more than 250 …

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How to Support Youth Mental Health

Black teen getting support from adult

Think back to when you were a child, a teenager, or both. You may not want to remember, I certainly don’t, or maybe you are remembering right now, but try to truly remember how it was. Were you happy overall? Was it hard? Or was it a mix of both? Did you wish you had …

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Day of Silence, 2022

blog banner of hands holding clay that reads LGBTQ

Annually, April 8th honors the LGBTQ+ students who are regularly silenced in the classroom. Their stories and authenticity are stifled by anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ legislation that too often infiltrates the public school curriculum.  Recently, the Florida government signed into law their “Don’t Say Gay Bill.” This bill prohibits teachers from discussing gender identity or sexual orientation …

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Minority Stress Effect & The Impact on LGBTQIA+ Youth

Love is Love Banner

What is the Minority Stress Effect? The Minority Stress Effect is a model used to assess how the dominant group’s values stack up and affect the minority groups’ values. In our society, the dominant discourse is white, heterosexual and male. This means that in the United States, the “norm” is centered around those people, what makes them …

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Being Queer: New Trend? Or Do We Just Not Know Our History

Blog banner showing hands holding the LGBTQ flags

LGBTQIA+ HISTORY DEBUNKED “Being gay is new,” “No one was gay when I was young,” these are things we have heard in recent years as the number of out and proud youth increases. While the people saying these things may think being part of the LGBTQ+ community is new, the wide spectrum of sexuality has …

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The Avenue to Seeing BIPOC Girls in Leadership

Group of young diverse group of girls standing in a power pose

Girls Leadership reports that while 48% of young Black, Indigenous, and girls of color identify themselves as leaders, 50% say that racism has hindered them from attaining leadership opportunities. Some adults in these girls’ lives say that the young ladies are simply not confident enough to pursue leadership roles, but we know that is not …

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