Beyond the stigma: helping kids deal with trauma, suicide danger signs, more professionals entering recovery field and more

By Lois R. Shea, Senior Writer and Communications Officer | October 3, 2018

“Beyond The Stigma” is a year-long series sponsored by the New Hampshire Solutions Journalism Lab at the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications and funded by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, the New Hampshire chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and private individuals.

During September, the series explored how trauma affects children’s developing brains; how schools are helping kids manage trauma; the programs that help professionals get credentials they need to work in the recovery field; the way a young boy’s life, and his suicide, affected his family; how to spot danger signs of suicide; student-led anti-bullying and mental health awareness campaigns, and more.

Read the full series here.

Grants in Action, Health and Well-being, Statewide, Substance Use Disorders Portfolio

Schlapak will help Career and Technical Education teachers connect the dots for students between math concepts and career skills. Math matters in diagnosing auto problems, adjusting recipes in a culinary class, welding, carpentry, reading meters in electrical work — even in cosmetology, where geometry helps sculpt hairstyles.

William Tuthill and his husband, Greg Anderson. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Supporting LGBTQ youth

Mentoring partnership between Big Brothers Big Sisters and Seacoast Outright gets help from the Respect for All Youth Fund.

Susan Griffin, second-grade teacher at Brown Elementary School in Berlin, NH. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

New Hampshire’s children deserve school-funding fairness

In New Hampshire, according to a recent American Institutes for Research report, “The highest poverty school districts have the lowest student outcomes. The negative relationship between poverty and outcomes is very strong.” The Charitable Foundation is supporting two nonprofit organizations that are addressing these issues: Reaching Higher New Hampshire and the New Hampshire School Funding Fairness project. Because all students in New Hampshire should have equal access to educational opportunity so they can thrive in school, graduate and grow into adults who are able to help sustain New Hampshire’s communities and economy.

Young entrepreneurs share stories

On February 9, Stay, Work, Play New Hampshire is offering the opportunity to hear from three young New Hampshire entrepreneurs about their experiences as people of color starting businesses in the Granite State. The event is part of Stay, Work Play’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion series, of which the Foundation is a proud sponsor.

Kristin Lizotte, a teacher at Kearsarge Regional Elementary School, was awarded the 2019 Christa McAuliffe Sabbatical from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Teacher Kristin Lizotte reflects on her McAuliffe Sabbatical year

Each year, the Christa McAuliffe Sabbatical awards a year-long leave of absence to an exceptional New Hampshire public school teacher. The sabbatical provides the teacher with the time, space, and funding to explore, through a self-designed project, new ideas and ways to enhance classroom teaching. Here, Kearsarge Elementary School teacher Kristin Lizotte, who was awarded the McAuliffe Sabbatical in 2019, reflects on her experience.

Bobbie Bagley, director of the Nashua Division of Public Health and Community Services. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

More community health workers being deployed in Nashua

New Hampshire’s COVID-19 Equity Response Team recommended deploying an army of COVID-19 response community health workers to help people of color access care, testing and other services and resources to improve health outcomes. A grant from the Foundation’s Community Crisis Action Fund, combined with federal CARES Act funding, is making it possible for the City of Nashua to hire four community health workers to serve communities of color disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Woman walking her dog on a snowy trail. (Photo courtesy of Trail Finder).

Trail Finder put trails — and local businesses — on the map

Trail Finder puts up-to-date, trail-manager-sourced information for multiple outdoor activities at users' fingertips, along with information about local businesses — from inns to bike shops to breweries. Grants from the Foundation's Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund are supporting the service.

Nonprofits helping educate about absentee voting

All New Hampshire voters will be allowed to vote absentee in next month’s general election — for the first time ever. A coalition of New Hampshire nonprofits is working to help ensure that people know how to vote safely and securely.

Photographer Carl Austin Hyatt of Portsmouth, NH, winner of the 2020 Artist Advancement Grant. (Photo by Tammy Byron.)

Carl Austin Hyatt Awarded 2020 Artist Advancement Grant

Portsmouth photographer receives grant that helps cultivate the Piscataqua Region’s arts community, boost artists’ careers and helps keep them living and working in the area.

Teacher Martha Sharp works with child at Easterseals Child Development Center in Manchester. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Progress for the youngest among us

In recent years, the Charitable Foundation has made investments that helped push statewide policy change and funding, build coalitions and secure significant federal dollars to help improve outcomes for young children. Christina Lachance, who had been leading that work, has now taken the helm as director of the New Hampshire Council For Thriving Children.

Sarah Mattson Dustin, executive director of New Hampshire Legal Assistance (courtesy photo).

NH Legal Assistance sees increasing demand for services

The ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic mean an increase in need for services from the nonprofit that represents people in civil cases. Unlike in criminal cases, litigants in civil court have no guarantee of counsel, even when their homes, economic stability or personal safety are on the line. That is where New Hampshire Legal Assistance comes in. A grant from the Foundation's Community Crisis Action Fund is helping meet the need.

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