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 Content Manager | 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

White Mountain Science, Inc.'s Mobile STEM Lab crisscrosses the North Country to bring STEM — Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics — programs to students who may not otherwise have the opportunity to dive into this modern curriculum. The mobile lab was launched with support from the Charitable Foundation's Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund

Coös Youth Grantmaking program awards first grants

Tilly Players, after-school program at Boys & Girls Club of the North Country and After School Kids in Whitefield receive support from youth-led program of the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund

Together, we are making progress for our kids

The Charitable Foundation invested $17.5 million to increase opportunities for young people through its New Hampshire Tomorrow initiative last year. Read our 2018 progress report

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

Kristin Lizotte awarded 2019 Christa McAuliffe Sabbatical

Kearsarge Elementary School teacher plans to make the traditional three R’s more meaningful to young students by exposing their teachers to three C’s — creating, collaborating and connecting

Fat-bike racers crossing Moose Brook in Gorham, NH. (Photo by Joe Klementovich.)

Building a mountain-biking mecca in Gorham

The Coös Cycling Club is providing outdoor recreation opportunities for local residents, drawing tourists, and contributing to economic revival in the Gorham area. The group has now joined forces with the Borderlands Trail System, which is promoting trail networks and communities across the Northern Forest region. Grants from the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation support this work and other efforts to promote sustainable economic development for the North Country

Acres and acres of corn are grown for silage at the Chickering Farm, now protected in partnership with the Monadnock Conservancy. (Photo courtesy of Monadnock Conservancy, © Stacy Cibula.)

Monadnock region’s largest dairy farm now protected

The 350-acre Chickering Farm, on the Connecticut River in Westmoreland, will remain intact in perpetuity

William Evatte receiving care at Coös County Family Dental. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Meeting a community’s dental needs

Coös Family Dental, on Berlin's Main Street, is open to anyone in the community who needs care. The clinic is filling a need that is particularly acute in the North Country, where more than two in ten adults have not seen a dentist in the past five years, and very few dental practices are accepting new Medicaid patients. The Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation has supported the clinic with a grant to upgrade equipment

Lancaster Play & Learn in Lancaster, NH. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Collaborative efforts for Coös kids gain national recognition

A decade-long collaboration funded by the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation has resulted in a coordinated system of care and services aimed at improving outcomes for every child in Coös County. A research brief about that work, “By Us and For Us, A Story of Early Childhood Development Systems Change and Results in a Rural Context,” has been published in the The Foundation Review, a national, peer-reviewed journal. Now, lessons learned in Coös County can be applied to other rural communities around the country to improve outcomes for children

2018 Northern Forest Symposium participants. (Photo by Cheryl Senter.)

Committed to the North Country

The Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation made more than 70 grants and totaling $3.3 million in 2018. Read the stories of just a few of those grants in the Tillotson Fund's annual Report to the Community

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