KPS and McKenna’s Rae of Hope Partner with Cook Center for Human Connection to offer mental health resources for parents

KEARNEY, Neb. (KSNB) – Kearney Public Schools, in partnership with McKenna’s Rae of Hope Foundation, announces a new initiative aimed at providing vital mental health awareness resources to parents and families.

Through the Cook Center for Human Connection, parents can feel empowered with essential tools to foster their children’s mental well-being. The newly launched program, ParentGuidance.org, offers an array of resources, including e-courses led by licensed therapists and a series of one-hour webinars scheduled throughout the school year.

The Mental Health Series, paid for by McKenna’s Rae of Hope Foundation, is a series of twelve one-hour webinars on Zoom. These informative sessions are designed to provide parents with actionable insights into critical topics such as anxiety, screen time’s impact on children’s mental health, and suicide prevention. The first webinar, titled “Supporting Your Child’s Mental Health,” will take place on September 7 at 7:00 p.m. on Zoom.

Todd Schirmer, director of McKenna’s Rae of Hope Foundation, stated that the Foundation is proud to sponsor the twelve webinars that will give parents a valuable opportunity to learn more about mental health topics. The Foundation, along with KPS counselors, meticulously selected the topics for each webinar. “The one-hour zoomed webinars are a great opportunity for parents to learn how to deal with some tough parenting issues in the privacy of their own homes. You can anonymously submit questions during the Zoom,” said Schirmer.

The combination of foundations will be sponsoring the $18,000 cost of the webinar series to make it FREE to the community and those in need of mental health guidance.

” We are grateful to McKenna’s Rae of Hope Foundation for sponsoring the addition of the Mental Health series on zoom, where parents are able to access expert advice from licensed therapists.” ~Dan Endorf, KPS Director of Safety and Security

Kearney Public Schools encourages all parents to take advantage of this innovative program to enhance their understanding of crucial mental health and parenting matters. “Parenting can be tough. KPS hopes to help those in our community dealing with common parenting issues to get important information from licensed therapists either on the webinars or from the website,” said Endorf. “We hope that parents will seek additional support from our qualified local therapists, counselors, and psychologists if needed.”

Kearney Public Schools & McKenna’s Rae of Hope Foundation

Present the Parent Guidance Mental Health Series

7:00 PM on Zoom

To ensure that parents can participate seamlessly, pre-registration for the webinars is suggested.

The schedules courses are as follows:

9/7/2023

Supporting Your Child’s Mental Health

http://cookcenter.info/Sep7Kearney

9/21/2023

How to Motivate Your Child

http://cookcenter.info/Sep21Kearney

10/5/2023