The 24th Annual Making Healthful Decisions Conference, "Youth Mental Health, Wellbeing, and Growth After 2020," recently gave area professionals training and new ideas for creating a better community.
The conference was co-organized by Mount Saint Mary College, Cornell Cooperative Extensions of Delaware and Orange County, Maternal-Infant Services Network (MiSN), Garnet Health Medical Center, Sullivan 180, and Westchester government.
"Given the changes in our world in the last two years, young people are challenged by a unique set of circumstances and the impact of that is going to shape the rest of their lives," explained Julika von Stackelberg, Family and Community Resilience Educator at Cornell Cooperative Extension. "The goal of this conference is therefore to continue to build capacity across sectors to nurture resilience, to foster connections that increase protective factors, and to support youth mental health, wellbeing, and growth."
Over the course of the virtual, two-day event, presenters discussed compassion fatigue, promoting resilience, authentic youth engagement, developing healthy relationships, and more.
The event's keynote speaker was Marlen Gonzalez, assistant professor of Human Development at the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University. She presented "Community Neuroscience: How Context Shapes Children's Brains and Why We Should Care," which examined how young brains develop and how this can be used to better educate and connect with children.
The second day of the conference concluded with several workshops, including "Act for Change" by Mount alumna Malinda Ware, a project director at Cornell Cooperative Extension in Sullivan County and the Statewide Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion facilitator for CCE Administration. Ware also serves as a Human Rights Commissioner in Newburgh.
The Act for Change Teen Antiracism Program uses peer dialogue to challenge racist structures. It relies on the input of its teen participants to make a change. The program engages through Teen Talk breakout rooms, games and polls, short video clips to discuss, and more.