Welcome to the Center for Applied Research Solutions (CARS)!
We are a California-based nonprofit dedicated to enriching the behavioral and public health field by promoting evidence-based practice and workforce development. We provide training, consultation, and coaching to individuals, organizations, and initiatives. In all our work, our mission is to foster safe, healthy, and engaged persons and communities.We're moved to announce the launch of The Parents' Network, a global community for parents and caregivers impacted by online harm, created in partnership with The Archewell Foundation. CARS is proud to play a key role in this initiative by providing programming design, facilitation, and resources that support parents in bereavement, trauma recovery, and leadership development.
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What's Happening with CARS Projects?
A note from our Project Director:
This week, we highlight our Life After Loss & Creating the Container programming, a body of work we’ve cultivated with you and our partners at The Dinner Party.
Over the last four+ years, we’ve offered train-the-trainer sessions on how to start Life After Loss tables (LALTs) - gatherings to honor student death, loss, and the aftermath. We’ve hosted pop-up LALT sessions when there was acute pain: in 2022, we held a LALT to process the Uvalde and Buffalo shootings; in 2024, we held a LALT together to process Nex Benedict’s death, and this year we’ve continued to host by-request LALT spaces to process loss that surrounds us. I’m particularly struck by the two spaces Oriana and MP from The Dinner Party held in March 2025 to mark the 5 years since COVID, inviting us as educators to make meaning together.
During the original Life After Loss table trainings in 2021, we heard that you didn’t only want to be held, you wanted support for how to hold. We then developed our Creating the Container materials and workshops (linked below) that offer guidance for those of you who want to hone the practice of honoring your grief and that of your team in the acute and aftermath of loss.
We believe that healing is collective, that moving forward is not the same as moving on, and that our most honest and revelatory conversations happen not in school board or faculty meetings, but in spaces that feel familiar, with people who’ve been there, too.
We close with a reflection from Oriana Ides who shares her facilitation reflections.
With you in this necessary container,
Leora
#schoolcrisishealing #educatoehealing #lifeafterloss
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Happening Tomorrow!
Join us for "Centering Our Values in Our Actions: Healing-Centered Principles to Practice" (Session 3) on April 16, 2025, 10:00–11:30 a.m.
Gain strategies for implementing healing-centered change management and explore tools to create supportive, adaptable environments for yourself, your team, and the broader educational community.
Register now at bit.ly/LeadingwithSteadiness!
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Peers and Clinicians Together (PACT) - April Topic: Suicide Prevention
THURSDAY, APRIL 17 | 2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. ET / 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. PT
Coordination among providers is a key principle in systems of care. Join Millie Sweeney and Ashley Batten to explore suicide prevention at our April session. Peers and Clinicians Together (PACT) is a free monthly series offering space for clinicians and peer support providers to explore effective ways to collaborate and coordinate in a variety of areas that lead to better partnership with youth and families and positive outcomes for all.
Register now: bit.ly/nttac-pact-april17
#positiveoutcomes #clinicians #Register #April17 #suicideprevention #youthandfamilies #youthandfamily #SystemofCare #Peer #prevention #coordination #providers #support #partnership
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CREATING HOPE TOGETHER EVENT
Join us for Creating Hope Together, a free Mental Health Awareness event on Wednesday, May 28, 2025, at 1:00 p.m. at the OASIS Senior Center in Corona del Mar. This community gathering will feature guest speakers, wellness activities, and local resource tables focused on supporting mental health and well-being for all.
To RSVP, contact 949-644-3244 or email OASISCenter@newportbeachca.gov. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect, learn, and help create a more hopeful, informed community.
To learn more about events happening in Orange County during Mental Health Awareness Month, please visit www.ocmentalhealthevents.org
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Youth/Young Adult Support Space (YYASS)!
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16 | 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. ET / 12:00 p.m. - 1 p.m. PT
Join Shayn McDonald to explore "Connecting to Your ‘Why’ in Y/YA Support - Personal Mission Statements"!
This session offers a space for self-reflection, guiding you through an interactive activity to craft your own personal mission statement—a grounding tool to reconnect with your purpose in this work. This practice can also be shared with the youth you support, helping them explore their own motivations and passions. Whether you’re new to this work or have been in it for years, or whether you engage as a young person or an adult, this session offers a meaningful opportunity to reaffirm your "why."
Register Now: bit.ly/nttac-yyass-april16
#april16 #youngadult #personalmission #selfreflection #missionstatement #youngadultsupport #youth #register #explore #connect
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Closing SCRR - Celebrating Our Gems
A note from our Project Director:
As we shared in our previous message, SCRR’s funding ends May 30th.
In the weeks leading to our closing, we’ll be sending weekly reflections from our staff with compilations of themed work to download and save.
This week, we highlight our Liberated School Suicide Postvention work, a body of work we’ve cultivated with you since our project’s launch in 2020 and close with reflection from team members Zeruiah and Bri who share their facilitation reflections and highlights of the work.
Enjoy,
-Leora
School-Suicide Postvention Recovery & Renewal Resource Hub - bit.ly/SCRR_PostventionRR
“Liberated School Suicide Postvention - Collective Terminology” - Conversation Summary - bit.ly/SCRR_Postvention_Is
“What We Mean by Liberated” Video - bit.ly/SCRR_Liberated_Def
“Leading with Courage, Care, & Connection: A Reflection Guide for School Leaders Navigating Recovery & Renewal After Student Deaths by Suicide” - bit.ly/SCRR_LeadingPostvention
Issue Brief: Black Youth Suicide Prevention - bit.ly/3YqljPf
Disclosure of Youth Suicidality: Views from Lived Experience - bit.ly/3XSpEKY
“Our Right to Grieve: Grief-Informed Recommendations and Resources” - bit.ly/SCRR_Right_to_Grieve
#schoolcrisishealing #educatorhealing #schoolsuicidepostvention
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Happening Tomorrow!
Join us for "Navigating Uncertainty: Trauma-Informed Relational Leadership Strategies" (Session 2) on April 9, 2025, 10:00–11:30 a.m.
Explore how our relationship with ourselves impacts external connections in the education community, and uncover trauma-informed approaches to conflict management and leading through uncertainty.
Register now at bit.ly/LeadingwithSteadiness!
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New Resource Alert!
Learning Capture: Early Childhood Systems of Care Learning Series
Designed for professionals, caregivers, and community members, this learning capture provides a snapshot of actionable ideas, innovative approaches, and practical tools to enhance early childhood programs and services. Whether you're new to Systems of Care or a seasoned advocate for IECMH, this document will equip you with knowledge and strategies to support young children and their families more effectively.
Explore the key insights, strategies, and practices shared during our 3-part Early Childhood Systems of Care Learning Series!
Access the Resource: bit.ly/IECMH-learning-capture
#EarlyChildhood #SystemsOfCare #ChildDevelopment #learningseries #earlychildhoodsystems #earlychildhoodprofessionals #ecprofessionals #SocialWorkers #MentalHealthProfessionals #iecmhadvocates
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✨✨✨NEW FROM SCRR: Leaning In and Leading Out to Renew: Navigating Lived-Polycrisis School Leadership - A Guidebook from and for School Leaders
Our final publication, by you, about you, for you. 🌊
We hope to offer you as a crisis leader a place to name what you have been going through and a few practices to help you navigate. We hope you recognize your own strength in those in-between spaces where leadership and self-care intersect. We hope to offer the field of crisis leadership a guide of tools, practices, and pauses that foster a culture where leaders are not merely enduring but are supported in ways that sustain their wisdom, well-being and capacity to lead.
This product was written and developed from interviews conducted by three 2023-2024 SCRR Leadership Fellow’s Capstone Project.
Check it out here: bit.ly/SCRR_LeaningInLeadingOut
#schoolcrisishealing #educatorhealing #schoolcrisisleadership #polycrisis #livedpolycrisis
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