By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News
Talking to your child – especially when the conversation enters the world of mental health and substance use – can be a challenging journey. Luckily for parents in the Castle Country, Utah State University Extension Be Epic is hosting an Everyday Strong Resilience Training to help parents in these conversations.
Be Epic Health and Wellness Program Coordinator Josie Hatch joined the KOAL newsroom to preview the event and share the benefits it offers parents.
“It’s a one-hour presentation, just kind of empowering parents with tools and resources for strategies they can use right away to help their kids be a little more confident and resilient,” explained Hatch of the event. “We’ve seen that there’s been a lot of concern about kids and mental health struggles, and this is the kind of stuff that you can do as a parent right away to build relationships and to be a safe place for your kids, and just to raise those resilient youth that we all want as parents.”
Not only will parents gain tools to discuss difficult topics with their children, but they will also receive a free Costa Vida-style dinner and a swag bag full of resources by attending.
As for the content of the presentations, Hatch explained,” We’re gonna go over some of the latest SHARP data, and I’m just really excited to share that our youth are actually doing really well. It’s been hard after the COVID pandemic and things, but we’ve seen a lot of improvements in the data that Mental health is improving, and things are doing better. So we’re excited to share some of that overall data, but also just parent feedback coming in and saying, ‘I’m so excited to implement this with the kids, my own kids and kids that I work with,’ because it’s just really powerful.”
Due to the free food provided, event organizers ask that attendees RSVP online via Eventbrite.
Closing our conversation, Hatch stated,” I hope parents, guardians and adults in the community feel welcome to come and attend. Come learn and enjoy the food. We look forward to seeing everybody there.”
Utah State University Extension Be Epic’s Everyday Strong Resilience Training takes place on Monday, Feb. 23, starting at 6 p.m. in the Jennifer Leavitt Student Center Alumni Room. Registration is open online through Eventbrite.
