This morning Daisy caught up with educational consultant Kit Messenger to discuss anxiety in teens and coping strategies for teens and parents. They covered how to talk to your young person, about how to have a more positive relationship as well as helping children with ADHD find ways to manage at school.

They discuss the fact that parents don’t get training for the job, and offered practical tips to help us communicate more positively and enable us to be a better supporter to our children.

Catch up with their conversation below:

Live Q&A: Anxiety in teens: coping strategies

Live Q&A with Daisy Cresswell and Kit Messenger from Changing Chances – a virtual hug of support where we will be discussing anxiety in teens, coping strategies and more

Posted by Make Good Trouble on Thursday, 10 September 2020

You can find out more about Kit and her work at Changing Chances.

Today we spoke with PC Joe Davis from Sussex Police about how to keep our teens safe, whether there’s been a rise in incidents involving young people since lockdown and back to school concerns.

Joe spoke about trust, and said that “young people will appreciate being trusted a little bit. We need to trust them to socially distance and follow the guidelines… it’s up to them to consider their role in keeping everybody safe”.

Sussex Police’s strategies around connecting with young people are to stay relevant – they have a strong social media presence (links below) – as well as a focus on talking to young people, in order to reach out and break down barriers. Engage, explain, encourage… and enforce as a last resort.

If you missed it, you can catch the 20 minute Q&A here:

Live Q&A with PC Joe Davis

Make (Good) Trouble founder Daisy Cresswell speaks to Sussex Police PC Joe Davis, Prevention Youth Officer about teenage safety, return to school concerns and supporting young people

Posted by Make Good Trouble on Thursday, 3 September 2020

Useful links
Sussex Police on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook
Yourpolice.uk on Instagram (content and advice aimed at young people)
Fearless, a charity that provides a crimestoppers service for young people
Sussex Police online – report a crime – which you can do anonymously if you wish

Next week, we’ll be talking to Kit Messenger, co-founder of Changing Chances, a former primary school Headteacher, a tutor at the University of Sussex and a qualified coach. Kit works to bring about big changes in how challenging behaviour is tackled in the education system and beyond. If you have any questions for Kit around helping your young people ease back into school life, worries about their mental health and wellbeing, pop them in the comments below or on our Facebook Page.

⭐️ LIVE Q&A with Kit Messenger at 11am on Thursday 10th September on our Facebook Page.

Thank you to those who joined us this morning for our Make (Good) Trouble Facebook Live Q&A about the impending return to school/college/uni. Make (Good) Trouble founder, Daisy Cresswell was joined by Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust sleep expert, Lara Rutherford and YMCA e-wellbeing‘s Nicola Harvey to discuss the why’s and wherefores of face masks, social distancing and ever-changing guidance.

Back to School Q&A

Back to School Q&A hosted by Daisy Cresswell with guests Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust sleep expert, Lara Rutherford and YMCA e-wellbeing's Nicola Harvey

Posted by Make Good Trouble on Thursday, 27 August 2020

Daisy, Nicola and Lara discussed the understandable anxiety of students and parents facing a return to education, and offered plenty of advice about where to get help, talking to your employer about flexible working arrangements and how to get back into a routine once term starts.

Resources

www.e-wellbeing.co.uk/schools offers lots of resources and tips for parents/teachers and young people to support the transition back to school. This includes videos of young people talking about their mental health, Covid-19 resources, tools that help to challenge anxious thoughts and content on ways to redevelop social skills.

Search the e-wellbeing services for young people and find a mental health support service in Brighton & Hove, East Sussex and West Sussex.

 Parents can access the Parent Talk Team on Action for Children –  a chatroom and platform specifically for parents during this unprecedent time.

ChatHealth text service, (open 9-4.30) run by the Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust. 11-19 year old and parents of school-aged children can text 07480 635423.

School Nurse duty number (9-5 every day) 01273 696011 ext 1692

You can also join our Facebook Group, Raising Teens in Lockdown, for further support from parents, teachers and mental health specialists.

We believe that education is so important in helping us to understanding people’s lives and the issues that they deal with every day, in understanding racism, institutional racism, systemic racism, for example… In the wake of the protests around the world about the death or George Floyd, many have asked for book recommendations suitable for young people and we’ve had some brilliant suggestions from our Facebook group, Raising Teens in Lockdown. Here’s are a few of them. Thanks to everyone on for contributing.

Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman

Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah

The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging by Afua Hirsch

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y Davis

There’s a great piece by Gary Younge about his year of reading books by African women. He writes: “Faced with an array of choices and limited time, when it comes to literature, there’s a part of me that I’m not particularly proud of that chooses not to make the effort, even when there is little to no translation necessary. Somewhere deep in my subconscious I must have decided that books by African women would be harder than those by some other demographics. They weren’t. On some level I must have had reading African women down as self-improving but not necessarily enjoyable, when in fact it was mostly the latter and often both.”

There’s also a really good list here on the embracerace website.

Please leave a comment if you have any others to add ❤️