Your Voice Mattered. 🙌🏾 Here’s What Comes Next.

Thank You

California Assembly Bill 1282 requires the CA Department of Public Health to develop a statewide strategy to understand, communicate, and mitigate the mental and behavioral health risks associated with social media use among children and youth, up to 26 years old.

A few months ago, I asked you to fill out a survey sharing your opinions and concerns about the impacts of social media and gaming. Nearly 100 of you responded! This led to the California Department of Public Health receiving over 250 overall responses, more than double the responses they anticipated. Your voice allowed them to get a very clear understanding of the concerns and needs of the public to include in their report to the legislature on AB 1282. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts. Your needed insight will allow lawmakers to map policy around the needs of the communities they serve. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

Next Steps

There is now another way for you to help move the needle toward comprehensive digital literacy by helping practitioners and young people to mitigate digital harms and move toward Digital Flourishing™.

Join me on Wednesday, July 8th at 11am PST/2pm EST for a free 30-minute informational session called, "Understanding Digital Environments & Youth Vulnerability." Here we will begin a preliminary exploration into the design of online platforms, the impact on youth social-emotional and mental health, current legislation, and a review of tools and resources for educators, practitioners, administrators, and mental health professionals.

📝 Register Here:

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How You Can Help

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If you know an educator, a school or university administrator, a mental health professional, and/or a nonprofit executive, you may not know this: They are being asked to simultaneously figure out AI integration while managing the impact of digital harms on students with very little to no standardized road map, and often few structured supports. This is where Media Done Responsibly (MDR) stands in the gap with needed resources and professional development support. Please share this opportunity with them.

SPONSORSHIP & CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

The free session on Wednesday introduces the need. Sponsorship support will help practitioners, staff, grantees, and partner agencies access the deeper two-part professional development training later this month, July 29th and 30th.

As a rule, agencies prioritize work that is accountable to funders. And while it is wonderful to see legislation beginning to catch up with the urgent need for required digital and media literacy in schools, much of that legislation is not accompanied by the dollars and resources necessary for practitioners to implement at their sites. This has an especially significant impact on marginalized, under-resourced, and system-impacted communities.

We want this required work resourced so it can be prioritized without leaving teachers and practitioners to carry the overwhelming load of researching best practices, adapting them to their sites, and figuring out implementation on their own. This professional development training based on MDR's 10+ years of developing best practice models will help ease their load. Now, you can help make it accessible for them.

If you work with a corporation or agency that has a corporate social responsibility division, company matching program, or sponsorship initiative, please share this with representatives that can help offset the cost of our professional development training for constituents who are most under-resourced.

If you or your organization may be interested in sponsoring seats for practitioners, grantees, or youth-serving partners, please reply to this email or contact me directly. I would be happy to share the professional development menu and discuss the best fit.

DONATE NOW

Thank you. Your direct tax-deductible donation will also greatly support these efforts.

Our Commitment to Marginalized Communities​
MDR serves low-income, under-resourced, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, immigrant, system-impacted, and other marginalized youth who face the compounded challenges of toxic online environments. These communities are disproportionately impacted by digital media, and our work aims to give them the tools to navigate and thrive in the digital world. We are committed to amplifying the voices and lived experiences of these communities, ensuring that they are heard, valued, and empowered.