As universities look to the fall and figure out a game plan, students, families, and faculty alike are trying to create a vision for what is to come. Here at the Co-Lab we are seeking ways to inform justice intiatives through our work on gratitude and other-focused actions in children from relatively privileged families, on how African American families talk to their college students about the risks of drinking, and on parenting youth in an increasingly diverse world. We have initiated work targeting the wave of mental health challenges that accompanies our shared and unique pandemic experiences (Raising Grateful Children during COVID-19) and developed easy implementation tools to relief associated distress (Self-Care through Self-Massage). But what I am most excited about is interacting with graduate and undergraduate students, even though remotely, this Fall. With more than 20 years at UNC-CH, I know that the challenge of engaging and learning with students and its rewards – the more you reap, the more you sow. We are waiting for you! 7.6.20
2020. A new world that pulls our attention in several directions at once. That puts the big issues front and center. That calls us to be better people than we have ever been. That requires us to think, feel and act beyond the self. To connect with others. To celebrate others. To learn from others. Embracing this shift, I have closed the era of the Developmental Risk and Resilience Lab and entered into a new one marked by collaboration. Or, as I call it, Co-Laboration. The Family Journeys Co-Laboration. Rejecting the ill-fitting role of academic as expert, I aspire to join with communities from all walks of life to address problems that confront children, youth and families in their daily lives. I have no idea what the future holds, but our youth and young adults are brave, bold, and ready for change. And in them is hope. 6.25.20
A new world..
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