The Idea Farm's Blog

Parents Anonymous® Launches Podcast "Breaking the Stigma" Featuring Unfiltered Conversations Surrounding Today's Mental Health Crisis. Parents Anonymous Inc ., a national organization offering free mental health programs and a helpline for both parents and youth, announces the launch of its podcast Breaking the Stigma . The podcast highlights candid conversations with individuals who have battled mental health obstacles and their journey to wellness. Breaking the Stigma  podcast premiered on, Tuesday, July 11, featuring an interview with R&B singer and songwriter Amina Buddafly, and is co-hosted by DJ Mike Gdnss. Breaking the Stigma is hosted by Dr. Lisa Pion-Berlin, a licensed hypnotherapist and CEO of Parents Anonymous, Inc. with over 30 years of experience helping those with mental health challenges. "The mental health epidemic is something that needs to be talked about especially when it relates to parents and children of all ages and young people," say...

  Rather than 'speaking' about using a trauma-informed approach with children in foster care, " The Seven Core Issues Workbook " aid parents in understanding what that means and how to better implement those techniques in daily life. It's the perfect vehicle to understand their own elements of loss and trauma and strengthen their parenting knowledge about children experiencing trauma and loss. It's also a great resource for those anticipating fostering or adopting, and for parents already on their life-long parenting trip. Therapists will find the workbook useful in working with clients or as weekly assignments so clients can better understand what they bring to their parenting. This workbook is a companion to the authors' original book, " Seven Core Issues in Adoption and Permanency ." It's intended as a hands-on tool to guide families through the healing process as they learn what they bring to the parenting experience so that they have a d...

  A sweet love story about the twilight years. If Haruf (who died November 30, 2014 at age 71) hadn't titled his previous book Benediction (2013), that might have been perfect for this one. It's a slim novel of short chapters, and it would seem to bring the cycle of books about small-town Holt, Colorado, to a close. This isn't a dark night of the soul but one filled with hope and with second chances. Here's how it opens: "And then there was the day when Addie Moore made a call on Louis Waters." Addie is 70, a widow, and she was close with Louis' late wife. She and Louis don't really know each other that well, other than as nodding acquaintances, but she has a novel proposition: she wants him to sleep with her. Not to have sexual relations, but just to have someone with whom she can talk and share and make it through the night. He appreciates the risk she's taken in making the request, and he agrees, though on their first night he's filled wit...

  The Jane Austen Writers' Club: Inspiration and advice from the world's best-loved novelist, by Rebecca Smith (New York Bloomsbury, 2016). While creative writing manuals use examples from twentieth- and twenty-first-century writers, The Jane Austen Writers' Club is the first to look at the methods and devices used by the world's most beloved novelist. Austen was a creator of immortal characters and a pioneer in her use of language and point of view; her advice continues to be relevant two centuries after her death. Rebecca Smith examines the major aspects of writing fiction such as plotting, characterization, openings and endings, dialogue, settings, and writing methods. Smith shares the advice Austen gave in letters to her aspiring novelist nieces and nephew and providing many and varied exercises for writers to try, using examples from Austen's work.

The United Nations is holding a memorial ceremony at the General Assembly in Manhattan, New York on January 27, 2023, and other memorial events are scheduled around the globe. “The story of the struggle to save tens of thousands needs to be a part of the chronicles of the people of Israel,” said David Gur, 97, one of few survivors still alive. “It is a lighthouse during the period of the Holocaust, a lesson and exemplar for the generations.” Gur is the author of the memoir, “Brothers for Resistance and Rescue” where he recounts how the Jewish underground broke him out of the central military prison in a rescue operation. Brothers for Resistance and Rescue -  Gefen Publishing  House Hungary was home to around 900,000 Jews before the Nazi invasion. Its government was allied with Nazi Germany, but as the Soviet Red Army advanced toward Hungary, the Nazis invaded in March 1944, to prevent its Axis ally from making a separate peace deal with the Allies. Over the next 10 months, as ...

Instagram is Helping You Focus With Quiet Mode Instagram is launching ‘Quiet mode’ to help people focus, and to encourage people to set boundaries with friends and followers. Once enabled, you won’t receive any notifications, your profile’s activity status will change to ‘In quiet mode’ and we’ll automatically send an autoreply when someone DMs you. Instagram users have told them that they sometimes want to take time for themselves and are seeking ways to focus at night, while studying, and during work or school.  With quiet mode one can simply customize hours to fit your schedule and once the feature is turned off, we’ll show you a quick summary of notifications so you can catch up on what you missed. ‘Quiet mode’ is available to everyone in the US, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and Instagram hopes to expand to more countries soon. Instagram Supports Teens’ safety with Updated Parental Supervision Tools Instagram aims to help parents be more aware o...

  15 Best Writing Blogs for Writer’s to Follow in 2023 These are the best writing blogs from thousands of blogs throughout the web. These blogsites offer varied information from grammar to submitting your work to publishers. They are helpful to up-and-comers as well as more established writers. 1. The Creative Penn Bath, England, UK You will find resources to help you write, publish and market your book by Joanna Penn - New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, voted one of The Guardian UK Top 100 Creative Professionals 2013.  She was also voted one of the Top 10 Blogs for Writers and one of the Top 10 Blogs for Self-Publishers. 2. Daily Writing Tips Daily Writing Tips - Daily Writing Tips as the name suggests publishes daily articles to help writers enhance their skills. Daily articles on grammar, business writing, spelling, misused words, writing basics, writing quizzes, vocabulary, punctuation, fiction writing, freelance writing, and more! 3. Live Write Thrive Santa ...