Areas of Work

Systems of Care

Initiative Related Links

• Resources for Parents and Caregivers
• Resources for Pediatricians and Health Care Providers
• Resources for Educators and Schools
• Resources for Youth

Resources for Parents and Caregivers

• Advocates for Youth — This site provides information on what parents need to know to raise healthy children. It includes information on growth and development at various stages, including sexual development. This site also provides resources on how parents can talk to their children about “the facts of life."
• Bright Futures for Families — Bright Futures for Families offers a variety of materials and resources developed specifically for families. Families want and need materials that have the same information used by their health care providers, written in a way that they can understand and refer to when needed.
  • Bright Futures Family Tip Sheets — Divided into the four developmental stages of childhood, these easy-to-read sheets are designed to help families promote the health and well-being of their children.
  • Transitions—Growing Up and Away — For many families this will be a year to get ready to launch a son or daughter into the next phase of life after high school.
  • Developmental Tools for Families and Providers — Throughout the tools, a strong emphasis is placed on strengths as well as concerns. The resources offer a guide to healthy development and parenting. Tools are provided for each developmental stage and are available in Spanish.
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is committed to promoting optimal child health outcomes by preventing developmental delay and disabilities. The CDC website contains information on child development, including positive parenting across all developmental stages.
• Child Development Institute: Keeping Parents Informed — The Child Development Institute provides information for parents on developmental stages and the various types of growth. It also contains helpful articles on parenting and how to support your child's social and emotional development and learning.
• Children of Incarcerated Parents —The Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for children, working with experts in the field, developed a flyer to help parents who have been arrested plan for their children. The flyer describes and provides forms to designate a person in parental relation so that their children have caregivers with the legal ability to make education and medical decisions for their children.
• Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) — CASEL provides a wide variety of resources for parents, educators, and other professionals. Resources cover different age ranges/grades and provide parents with information on what to expect from children at different developmental stages, and some basic ways to promote social and emotional well-being in their children.
• Docs for Tots — Docs For Tots is an organization formed to encourage doctors to become active advocates for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers on the national, state and local level. They also provide information and resources for doctors on promoting children's mental health.
• Families Together in New York State — A non-profit, family-run organization that strives to establish a unified voice for children and youth with emotional, behavioral and social challenges. The site provides information for families about family-run family support services, information and referral services that are available in New York State as well as statewide advocacy services.
• Kids Growth — KidsGrowth.com is a unique Web site tailored specifically toward the concerns and interests of today's parents. The site was developed and created by well-respected medical leaders in the field of pediatrics and adolescent medicine. The site provides information on child development and growth for ages 0 - 18.
• Links Digest— As part of the Family to Family Health Care Information & Education Center, Parent-to-Parent of NYS provides information related to the issues of health care and parenting children with special health care needs. Some links are specific to New York State, but there are many that will be helpful to everyone.
• myBenefits.ny.gov— Check your eligibility for a wide range of economic supports. It’s quick, easy and confidential!
• nyacts—a website designed to provide current information on New York State services and supports for individuals with autism.
• NYU Child Study Center
• Growth and Development — This site provides a variety of resources to present a broad spectrum of benchmarks and milestones that can help parents to evaluate their child's progress.
• The Parent Letter — This publication from the NYU Child Study Center provides parents with tips and advice on special topics relevant to teenagers and school-age children.
• Ohio State University Extension — Ages and Stages for Caregivers Fact Sheets give parents and caregivers an idea of the developmental milestones that they can expect to see in their child from 0-5 years, ways to encourage their child's development, and other helpful information.
• Parents—The Anti-Drug — This is a website for parents on how to help guide their teen to a healthy life. The site addresses affective parenting approaches and to talk to teens about drug and alcohol use. It also includes the free resource: “Navigating the Teen Years: A Parent's Handbook for Raising Healthy Teens”
• Search Institute's 40 Developmental Assets — Developmental Assets are common sense, positive experiences and qualities that help influence choices young people make and help them become caring, responsible adults. The Search Institute's website provides lists of assets for each developmental stage.
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
  Building Blocks for a Healthy Future — Parents, caregivers, and teachers of children aged 3 to 6 can find lots of great tips, materials, and ideas for spending time with their children and learning together.
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
  A Family Guide To Keeping Youth Mentally Healthy & Drug Free—a public education web-site to communicate to parents and other caring adults about how they can help promote their child's mental health and reduce his or her risk for becoming involved with alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs.
• YOUTH POWER! — A network of young people with disabilities and social/emotional challenges. This site provides information about the youth movement in New York State as well as opportunities for networking. The theme of this site is that young people are the voices of the future and there should be "nothing about us without us!"
• Zero to Three — This site includes a number of resources for parents and professionals on a variety of key topic areas. One topic area is social and emotional development. The site provides tips for parents on how to promote and nurture their child's skills, helping them to learn to communicate, connect with others, resolve conflict, and cope with challenges.

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Resources for Pediatricians and Health Care Providers

• Bright Futures for Families — Bright Futures for Families offers a variety of materials and resources developed specifically for families to complement the Bright Futures publications and materials used by health care professionals. Families want and need materials that have the same information used by their health care providers, written in a way that they can understand and easily refer back to when needed.
• Developmental Tools for Families and Providers — A variety of tools for parents and providers to help guide healthy development are provided for each developmental stage. The information under "When to Seek Help" includes concerns that might be addressed with additional information, as well as concerns that signal the need for further assessments and services. There is also a Referral Tool for Providers to help parents identify where to go for assistance.

Other Bright Futures Resources Available:

• Bright Futures in Practice: Mental Health, Volume I — The information and resources in this guide provide primary care health professionals with the tools needed to promote mental health in children, adolescents, and their families. It also helps them recognize the early stages of mental health problems and mental disorders, and to intervene appropriately.
• Bright Futures in Practice: Mental Health, Volume II - Tool Kit — This two-volume tool kit that accompanies Volume I, provides hands-on tools for health care professionals and families for use in screening, care management, and health education.
• Bright Futures Center for Pediatric Education — Pedicases is the Bright Futures Center for Pediatric Education in Growth and Development, Behavior, and Adolescent Health. This Web site contains more than 30 self-contained edu cational modules, covering important topics in child growth, development, behavior, and adolescent health.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — CDC offers background information, screening tools, and recommendations for developmental screening. The site includes information about and resources to support the role of primary care health professionals in children’s developmental health.
• Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics Online — This resource contains resources for health professionals about child development and behavior, especially in the medical setting. Includes forms, checklists, and other screening tools; online tutorials; and articles to support improvement in developmental and behavioral screening, surveillance, and identification of disabilities.
• Developmental Screening Toolkit for Primary Care Providers — This site presents information for primary care health professionals considering beginning to screen or planning to begin screening children for developmental needs using a validated tool.
• Docs for Tots — Docs For Tots is an organization formed to encourage doctors to become active advocates for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers on the national, state and local level. They also provide information and resources for doctors on promoting children’s mental health, including fact sheets on "What Docs Should Know About…"
• Enhancing Developmentally Oriented Primary Care Project (EDOPC) — Offers training curricula and self-study guides for health professionals to improve the delivery and financing of preventive health and developmental services for infants and young children from birth to age three.
• MCH Training Program: Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics — Offers information about these programs working to prepare health professionals to develop or improve the behavioral, psychosocial, and developmental aspects of general pediatric care. The training program is part of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB).
• Ounce of Prevention Fund — The site contains program information, reports, fact sheets, and other materials about the fund’s efforts to foster the healthy development of at-risk infants, toddlers, and preschool-age children. Recent publications include: Snapshots: Incorporating comprehensive developmental screening into programs and services for young children.
• The CNY Early Childhood Direction Center — The Mid-State Central Early Childhood Direction Center (ECDC) is a regional clearinghouse providing information, referral and support to families, professionals, and community agencies concerned with young children birth to five. Developmental Checklists - Birth to Five

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Resources fo Educators and Schools

• Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) — CASEL provides a wide variety of resources for parents, educators, and other professionals. Their website contains a variety of SEL (social and emotional learning) resources and tools.
• Committee for Children — The committee seeks to foster the social and emotional development, safety, and well-being of children through education and advocacy. The organization develops and publishes programs and curricula for children from preschool through middle school about social skills, bullying, and sexual abuse.
• Helping Your Child Series — The Helping Your Child publication series aims to provide parents with the tools and information necessary to help their children succeed in school and life. These booklets feature practical lessons and activities to help their school aged and preschool children master reading, understand the value of homework and develop the skills and values necessary to achieve and grow. Teachers can share these booklets with parents to encourage their involvement in and support of their child’s academic success.
• National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) — Success in School/Skills for Life This online resource for parents, teachers, and students offers a series of fact sheets about academic, emotional, and social development in children and adolescents. The topics rotate throughout the school year and include materials in Spanish.
• National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth (NCFY) — The site offers information about positive youth development. Resources include: fact sheets, outreach materials, conference reports, online journals, Span-ish-language materials, technical-assistance materials, and news and funding information. Also includes an extensive list of links to Web sites that focus on adolescent development.
• Resilience Guide for Parents and Teachers — The American Psychological Association provides tools and information on building resilience – the ability to adapt well to adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or even significant sources of stress. Developing resilience can help children to manage stress and feelings of anxiety and uncertainty.
• School Mental Health Project -Center for Mental Health in Schools — This site provides a wide variety of resources and information for teachers and schools on mental health issues and supporting children in their learning. One example is a paper on: Social and Interpersonal Problems Related to School-Aged Youth (PDF).
• Technical Assistance Center on Social and emotional Intervention for Young Children (TACSEI) — TACSEI takes the research that shows which practices improve the social-emotional outcomes for young children with, or at risk for, delays or disabilities. The website provides products and resources to help decision makers, caregivers, and service providers apply these best practices in the work they do every day.
• The Center for Social and Emotional Education (CSEE) — CSEE works with educators, parents, schools, and communities to promote academic achievement and prevent youth violence and other at-risk behaviors by fostering effective social and emotional education and character education for children and adolescents.
• The Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) — CSEFEL is focused on promoting the social and emotional development and school readiness of young children birth to age 5. They have a variety of tools and resources for teachers, parents and and caregivers.
• The National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention — Provides technical assistance and training to 147 school districts and communities that receive grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The site highlights resources for social and emotional development and learning, including a list of articles and publications available on-line.

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Resources for Youth

Australian-based Websites for Youth. Please note that while these websites provide good information, they are from Australia.

• Reach Out! — This is a website that inspires young people to help themselves through tough times. The aim of the service is to improve young people’s mental health and well being by providing support and information in a format that appeals to young people. For teens who may be struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, want to do something for their local community or simply are experiencing new ways to learn and grow.
• The Headroom — This website aims to inform young people, their caregivers and service providers about positive mental health. The Headroom website provides information for:
• Young people aged 12 -18 in the Lounge
• Young people aged 6-12 years in the Cubby House
• Parents and friends in the Family Room
• Service providers and professionals in the Kitchen.
• Change Your Mind About Mental Health — The American Psychological Association provides helpful information on understanding mental health and how it is a part of everyone’s healthy overall development.
• Resilience for Teens—Got Bounce? — The American Psychological Association provides information to youth on how they can build their own health and resilience. Resilience – the ability to adapt well in the face of hard times; disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes or fires; tragedy; threats; or even high stress – is what makes some people seem like they’ve "got bounce" while others don’t.
• Half of Us — This site provides a public dialogue to raise awareness about the prevalence of mental health issues on campus and connect students to the appropriate resources to get help.
• KidsHealth — This site provides articles and information for kids and teens on how they can keep themselves healthy and happy. Being healthy means dealing with the changes in your body - and your mind. The site had resources for parents, kids and teens.
• Mindzone—Cope. Care. Deal. — Mindzone is a mental health website for teens that includes helpful information such as how to cope with everyday stress to information about more severe mental health problems.
• MPower — This is a new youth awareness campaign that’s harnessing the power of music to change youth attitudes about mental health and fight the stigma facing the 1 in 5 youth with mental health problems. Working with a diverse coalition of artists, music industry executives, mental health advocates and youth leaders, mpower is dedicated to reaching out to today’s youth about a range of mental health issues, including depression, substance abuse, anxiety, eating disorders and suicide, and providing important resources and information to encourage those in need to seek help.
• National Mental Health Awareness Campaign — The student section of the webpage, youth can learn more about mental disorders, check out our frequently asked questions, and get hooked up with the help they may need. Youth can use the information on this site to educate themselves and learn how to take action.
• Search Institute — Presents the framework of 40 Developmental Assets, which are positive experiences and personal qualities considered critical to the positive development of adolescents. In addition, for some ideas on how to build assets, choose to "View" the list and click on the asset you want to build.
• Youth In Progress—The mission of Youth in Progress is to enhance and advance the lives of today’s and tomorrow’s youth by supporting their sense of self and responsibility.

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