January/February Newsletter
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A Peek Into the 2024 Legislative Session
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In New Hampshire, proactive legislation is a great tool for improving access to behavioral and mental health services for children, youth, and families. Legislation, however, can also attempt to limit access to these needed services.
The 2024 Legislative Session kicked off on January 3, and two concerning themes are taking shape: attacks on LGBTQ+ youth, and attacks on emotional wellness in schools.
The good news is that it isn’t all bad news! There are multiple bills filed that would have a positive impact on children, youth, and families in the Granite State. One piece of legislation aims to increase access to emergency behavioral health supports and wraparound services for youth, while another looks to expand the right to an attorney for children in abuse and neglect cases.
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Helping People, Changing Lives
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The New Hampshire Community Action Partnership (NHCAP) is a collaboration of the 5 Community Action Agencies in the state:
Community Action Partnership of Strafford County; Community Action Program Belknap-Merrimack Counties, Inc.; Southern New Hampshire Services, Inc.; Southwestern Community Services, Inc.; Tri-County Community Action Program, Inc.
Your local Community Action Agency can connect you to essential services to help you thrive. They offer services with respect and dignity, understanding that everyone needs a helping hand from time to time.
Community Action Agencies serve New Hampshire with rent assistance, emergency food, weatherization, energy assistance, and connection with housing and affordable child care. Services vary by region, so for further details, ask your local Community Action Agency.
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Food Shouldn’t Be An Impossible Choice
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For many NH residents, a daily meal isn’t a choice between different dishes. It’s a choice between food and other crucial needs—like medicine, electricity, or childcare.
Our system of food and nutrition supports is like a power grid that moves
healthy food to households. In NH, the grid is well developed in some areas and patchy or non-existent in others. To foster the health and well being of NH’s next generation, we need to make sure more communities are plugged in to the grid so that everyone eligible for food and nutrition support can benefit from it.
Food insecurity has increased in recent months. As of October 30, 2023, over half (52%) of NH children lived in households that reported having insufficient food.
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End 68 Hours of Hunger in NH
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End 68 Hours of Hunger is a public non-profit effort to confront the approximately 68 hours of hunger that some school children experience between the free lunch they receive in school Friday and the free breakfast they receive in school Monday.
Childhood food insecurity is a national problem, it occurs when children receive insufficient food on a regular basis; in many cases missing meals entirely. After a while, these children also experience “fear of hunger” that affects their behavior as much as physical hunger affects their bodies.
This program puts nourishing food in the hands of school children to carry them through the weekend. Each bag of food costs $10 each week (with the support of food donations) and provides two breakfasts, two lunches, and three dinners for a child, with some left over to share!
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Arts Improving Mental Health for Youth
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Mars Dobra was uncomfortable taking medication to feel “normal,” so he expressed his emotions in dramatic paintings.
As a youngster, Mia Flegal was so anxious about taking a trip without her parents that she felt like crying in a closet. She channeled those frightening thoughts, mixed with optimism about how to cope, into a powerful essay.
Mars and Mia are among a growing number of New Hampshire young people who have shared their personal journeys through the Magnify Voices Expressive Art Contest, which uses the arts, writing and video to help draw back the curtain on mental health challenges affecting young people. (Federal statistics show that one in five young people, aged 6-17 in New Hampshire experienced depression in 2021).
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Magnify Voices Contest Now Open
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Now through April 21, New Hampshire students in fifth through 12th grade are invited to submit a creative piece about their experiences and connections to mental health. An initiative of CSoC, Magnify Voices raises awareness, erases stigma, and effects change to help ensure the social and emotional health of youth in the Granite State.
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Children's System of Care | NHCSoC.org
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