These are crucial times to be involved in advocacy for children and families. Advocating for children and families is hard work, and it helps to be part of a community of like-minded individuals. Div. 37 is full of passionate professionals who care deeply about the well-being of children and families. Let us be your community. I hope you can join us for some fantastic programming at the APA Annual Convention in Chicago this year. We have a great line-up, thanks to our program chair, Colleen Cullinan.
This year we collaborated with Divs. 44 (lead division), 7, 9, 27 and 43 to help organize a preconference on LGBT youth, titled, “A New Agenda for the Psychology of LGBTQ Youth and Emerging Adults.” The preconference will occur on Wednesday, Aug. 7 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. There’s still time to registeropens in new window. We are also hosting a highly interactive walk-a-mile program to highlight the concerns of families of children with disabilities. This program will allow participants to experience some of the challenges faced by families of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We will also host an interactive skill-building session on providers’ cultural identity, bias, intersectionality and health disparities (Saturday at 4 p.m.). If you’re a student, please join us for a student mentoring breakfast on Friday morning at 8 a.m. Also, this year, in lieu of a presidential address, I will be presenting a data blitz session based on my presidential theme, “Promoting Resiliency among Low-Income and At-Risk Families.” We have several excellent presentations lined up — I hope you will join us on Saturday morning at 8 a.m. Please also join us for our awards presentations on Saturday at 11 a.m. Our Hobbs awardee, Elizabeth Gershoff, PhD, will be presenting a talk titled, “How to be an Advocate for Children in an Era of Distrust of Science.” Don’t miss it.
The division has also been working on increasing our social media presence. We have created a new appointed board position (social media coordinator) to help disseminate information about division activities on social media. We are grateful to have Spencer Evans take over this important role — he’s working closely with Sonia Rubens, our communications member-at-large. Thank you, Spencer and Sonia. Please check out and like our Facebook pageopens in new window. You can also find us on Instagramopens in new window and Twitteropens in new window.
Speaking of social media, Div. 37 is the lead division for a CODAPAR-funded grant (funded in 2015 under the leadership of Mary Ann McCabe) that established InfoAboutKids.orgopens in new window, a clearinghouse for evidence-based information about children and adolescents. The site allows you to access reputable websites that are relevant to parents, teachers or health care professionals. We also post monthly blogs from experts about important and timely topics. We’re now partnering with Ninth Floor Communications to develop a social media presence for the site — thank you to our two early career professional (ECP) volunteers who have agreed to serve as social media chairs — Cynthia Najdowski and Danielle Guttman-Lapin.
As you can see, Div. 37 continues to serve its membership by engaging in important educational and advocacy-related activities. Please don’t hesitate to be in touch and to get more involved. We have opportunities to serve on student and ECP committees, and there are ways for others to get involved as well. Thank you for your membership.