Bridgeport is one of six US cities selected for an 18-month project starting this month to create more education and career opportunities for young people.
the National League of Cities awarded Bridgeport a $150,000 grant to support projects promoting STEM education and careers, especially for young people who are not working or in school.
Marc Donald, executive director of the Regional Social Action Partnership for Young Adults (RYASAP), said the funds will be used for the Park City career path program. The goal is to help break down barriers to getting jobs in STEM fields.
“It’s just trying to put them on a better path, where they graduate from high school and then go on to some sort of post-secondary opportunity,” Donald explained. “Or dive straight into some kind of career path, especially in STEM careers or around advanced manufacturing.”
The other participating cities are Houston; Sacramento, California; Madison, Wis.; St. Paul, Minnesota; and Lauderhill, Florida.
Through the same grant, United Way of Coastal Fairfield County will also support RYASAP’s work.
Gwendolyn Brantley, Head of Centraide Greater Bridgeport STEM Learning Ecosystemsaid when presenting STEM opportunities to young people, it is about showing them that it is within their reach to find a job that interests them.
“We introduce our students to careers in the gaming industry through esports,” Brantley noted. “We try to be really intentional, using tools that are exciting and will make our students want to look into those careers.”
Brantley added that they have developed e-sports teams across the city, for kids in elementary school through their twenties. They are also working with the district to help students create profiles on the Tallo networking platform, where they can learn about STEM internships and scholarships, and connect with potential employers.
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Pennsylvania faces a shortage of psychiatrists that children’s advocates call “alarming” and they worry about the impact it could have on young people whose needs become more intense and may require medication.
A June 2020 report found that there were not enough psychiatrists to meet the demand for mental health assistance in the Commonwealth. Pittsburgh psychologist Dan Warner said that means the responsibility for prescribing medication for children with serious mental health issues often falls on pediatricians. He said the first step should be to talk to a mental health professional.
“Under significant stress, it might be necessary to elevate and really consider biomedical intervention,” he said. “A lot of times, the front line starts with your pediatrician. These people aren’t specifically trained in the needs of children with mental health issues, and they don’t necessarily have the time to do all the kind of work.”
The most recent Pennsylvania Youth Survey found that 38% of students reported feeling sad or depressed most of the time.
A possible solution to get the support of some health professionals is Senate Bill 25. It would allow certain nurse practitioners to have full power to prescribe drugs without having to enter into a collaboration agreement with a physician.
State Sen. Camera Bartolotta of R-Greene County, who introduced the bill, said it would help communities hardest hit by the shortage, both rural and urban.
“It’s very specific,” she said. “It would be highly regulated, but it would open the doors to incredibly good health care that is needed more than ever right now, especially mental health care. We have hundreds of qualified nurse practitioners who could easily jump into this field and fill the void.”
Terry Clark, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Council on Children, Youth and Family Services, which issued a position statement on the state’s shortage of psychiatrists, said the expansion can help save lives. children.
“Not all children need a psychiatrist, but for the most vulnerable children who need one, they are going without the help they need,” he said, “where why suicide is on the rise among our teenage age group.”
Senate Bill 25 would require a qualified nurse practitioner to complete 3,600 hours and three years under a collaborative agreement with a physician. The bill has been out of committee for the past few months and awaits a vote in the full Senate. According to Bartolotta, he enjoys bipartisan support.
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The Texas foster care system suffers from a severe shortage of safe and appropriate foster homes, which has led to the convening of a panel of experts to address the issue and a myriad of others.
Kate Murphy, senior child protection policy associate at Texans Care for Children, said the number of children who did not have a safe home within the foster care system hit an all-time high in the mid-2021, but is now declining.
“We know we had a really big spike in the number of kids that we couldn’t find homes for,” Murphy noted. “Part of the reason these numbers are going down is because we are placing children out of state or using temporary emergency placements.”
Over the past two years, at least 65 foster care facilities in Texas have closed, more than a third of them for safety reasons, resulting in the loss of more than 2,000 available beds. Texas lawmakers passed several pieces of legislation this year to address ongoing issues, including approving millions of dollars to fund social workers, retain providers and increase foster family capacity.
Murphy pointed out that many members of the state’s foster care system receive a “child without placement“, which means the state cannot find an appropriate placement. She added that these children have the most acute levels of need, often suffering from trauma or abuse, substance abuse or mental illness.
“So what we’re seeing is that kids are in care because they can’t meet their needs, and then the system is unable to meet those needs,” Murphy observed. “We find that this happens disproportionately among older young people.”
The pandemic has been a unique stressor for older youth, Murphy said, because of system challenges, but also because they are more vulnerable.
“We have so many young adults leaving foster care who have limited resources,” Murphy explained. “They depend on some of the jobs most affected by the pandemic, like the service sector.”
Murphy is pleased that new policies passed by the state this year will help older youth leaving foster care establish a rental history and credit score, a serious challenge for those who have been in the system for several years. years.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio — In a system plagued by a history of disparitiesOhio child protection workers and child advocates say it’s time to reinvent child protection.
Robin Reese, executive director of Lucas County Children Services, said transformation starts with defining the role of child protection. She explained that it had become “everything for everyone”, with work often falling into the areas of juvenile justice and mental health.
Reese described the set child protection system like completely overwhelmed.
“Is the state listening? I think they are listening,” Reese said. “But in child protection we need to shout louder because I don’t think they understand the urgency of the problem and the weight of child protection.”
Susan Walther, Director of Children’s Services for Warren County, advocated not just for improving foster care, but for transforming the entire system. She said they are committed to keeping children in families.
“The history of child welfare can be generational,” Walther pointed out. “How do we change that and empower those families and have children who can function in their own communities, stay in their own schools, stay with their families?”
Walther noted that connecting families with work programs, food assistance, mental health care, and other holistic services can keep families safe and successful together, and often avoid the need for child protection involvement.
Alexandra Citrin, senior associate at the Center for the Study of Social Policy, argued that transformation must start outside of the foster care system, with flexible funding for partner agencies and more collaboration.
“Our Department of Health, our departments of Medicaid, our early childhood systems, the Department of Mental Health, addictions services, developmental disabilities…to be able to work together outside of their silos and really create a full continuum of supports and services that meets the diverse needs of the community,” said Citrin.
Walther added that structural racism must also be addressed to achieve better outcomes for children and families. She emphasized that this means seeing transformation through a lens of racial equity, to better connect with families of color.
“It is important to recruit social workers of different races and nationalities,” Walther stressed. “There’s a confidence that people have when they see an image of themselves. So I think it’s important to have that in county agencies because sometimes there’s a mistrust.”
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