Join us for an extra special episode where we celebrate awareness of the National Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and learn about common the "NICU" through our very own co-host Wendy's personal experience having an infant in the NICU as a new mom. Wendy will share her top strategy for supporting new parents with similar experiences and empower us all to advocate as families. We consider the need for families to feel heard and share two critical resources:

Postpartum Support
NICU Family Support

In this episode Wendy and Heidi discuss tips for keeping our kids safe in the water, tell you about some options for where to swim and how to be safe in the water on those hot summer days.

Champions for NorCal kids: Recent Episodes

Wendy Dickens and Heidi Mendenhall

72 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and Superintendent of schools in Shasta County Office of Education Judy Flores as they discuss important topics such as education, early education, and Reach Higher Shasta!

71 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and special guest Julie Fetherston from First 5 Mendocino as they discuss important resources!

70 Listen in to the conversation with Wendy Dickens and Mike Freeman about hinge moments, having intentionality, and staying curious. Who is your champion?

69 Listen in to the conversation with Wendy Dickens and Mike Freeman about hinge moments, having intentionality, and staying curious. Who is your champion?

68 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and special guest Nick Webb to expand in the conversation that started last week and learn how you can support books in the NICU in the north state.

66 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and Simply Well Balanced founder and local first-grade teacher Lauren Tingley as she discusses her own journey to a more balanced life and how she now uses the information and strategies she has learned to support her students, her community, and her family.

64 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and local school administrator, literacy champion, and author Nancy Veatch as they discuss early and middle literacy!

58 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and special guests Gina Grecian, and Elena Bramble as they discuss the relationship-based services that Rowell offers to our counties.

57 Join Wendy Dickens and Heidi Mendenhall as they dig into Emotional Literacy, describe what it is, why it matters, and share real-life examples of how it shows up for our youngest children and adults alike. For more on this explore Mark Brackett's work and publications.

54 Join Wendy Dickens and Heidi Mendenhall as they dig into the nuts and bolts of trauma-informed care, who benefits, who can practice it, and where to find out more. Spoiler alert trauma-informed care starts with you!

52 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and Special guest Jennifer Torres as they discuss family table talks!

51 Join Wendy Dickens and Heidi Mendenhall and listen to them share about what early education means, and how we can use lessons learned to support ACCELERATED learning and WHOLE child learning.

50 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and special guest Brin Greer as they discuss nature meditation for children and adults!

49 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and special guest Jennifer Torres as they all discuss how important school attendance is and ACES.

48 Join Wendy Dickens and Heidi Mendenhall to discuss how to both identify your own needs in transitions as well as child needs and framing transitions to best support positive social-emotional growth and learning.

46 Join Wendy Dickens and Heidi Mendenhall as they discuss how having social connections help relieve stress.

45 Join Wendy Dickens and Heidi Mendenhall as they discuss how being in nature can help relieve stress!

44 Join Wendy Dickens and Heidi Mendenhall as they discuss how sleep can help relieve stress!

43 Join Wendy Dickens and Heidi Mendenhall as they discuss how Mental Health Care can help relieve stress!

42 Join Wendy Dickens and Heidi Mendenhall as they discuss how Mindfulness Practices can help relieve stress!

41 Join Wendy Dickens and Heidi Mendenhall as they discuss how nutrition can help relieve stress!

40 Join Wendy Dickens and Heidi Mendenhall as they discuss how physical activity can help relieve stress!

39 Join Wendy Dickens, and Heidi Mendenhall as they discuss all the Stress Busters!

38 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and Special guest Brian Cole as they discuss the importance of a father figure and to hear Brian's fatherhood journey!

37 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and special guest Kenneth Cho as they discuss how important a father figure is and to hear Kenneth's fatherhood journey!

36 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and special guest Doug Woodworth as they discuss how important a father figure is and to hear about Doug's fatherhood journey!

35 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and special guest Kevin O'Rorke as they discuss the importance of a father figure and talk about Kevin's fatherhood journey.

34 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and special guest Joe Chimenti as they discuss how important a father figure is and talk about Joe's fatherhood journey!

33 Join Wendy dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and special guest Jake Mangas as they discuss how important a father figure is and talk about Jake's fatherhood journey!

32 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and special guest Renee Menefee as they discuss important resources you can use in the NorthState.

31 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and Tamarra Osborne as they discuss motherhood and important resources.

30 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and Loreiana Santana as they discuss motherhood and important resources.

28 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and special guest Jake Mangas as they discuss family health, child health, and business health!

25 Join Wendy Dickens and Amy Cavalleri as they discuss Center for Mind-Body Medicine!

24 Join Wendy Dickens and Heidi Mendenhall as they discuss Week of the Young Child and how to nominate a local champion!

23 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and special guest Karen Clemmer as they discuss making space for grace and other helpful resources about ACEs!

22 Join Wendy Dickens and Heidi Mendenhall as they discuss Adverse Childhood Experiences through a family, and experience lens!

21 Join Wendy Dickens and Heidi Mendenhall as they discuss new necessary resilience resources, including Mind-Body Medicine. https://cmbm.org/ wdickens@first5shasta.org hmendenhall@first5tehama.com first5shasta first5tehama https://cmbm.org/trainings/

19 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and Karen Lee as they uncover the values and meaning behind Level Up NorCal resources for supporting families through language and culture connections.

18 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, Barbra Ivins, and Kristen Reinsburg as they cover topics about mental health and family supports.

17 Join guest Carla Ritz-Executive Director of First 5 Lake County and hosts Wendy Dickens and Heidi Mendenhall as they unpack new and innovative ways to support families, providers, and community through a 0-5 lens.

16 join Wendy Dickens and Heidi Mendenhall as they discuss some ways to have a difficult conversation with your child.

15 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and Sharon Bisolara as they discuss being creative, how to play, and resilience.

14 Join Wendy Dickens and Heidi Mendenhall as they discuss how important it is for young children to play, and the benefits from it.

13 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and special guest Sara Grijalva to talk about the resources Far Northern Regional Center has.

12 Join Wendy Dickens and Heidi Mendenhall as they discuss the importance of reading to your child at a young age and the benefits of reading.

11 Join Wendy Dickens and Heidi Mendenhall to discuss types of rituals around the Holidays.

10 Join Wendy, Heidi, and special guests Jenn Snider and Christine Kingsbury, to discuss early reading and resources in our community.

9 Join Wendy and special guest Kevin O'Rorke to talk about what is Northstate together.

8 Join Wendy and Heidi to talk about what hopeful parents can do for their children.

7 Join Wendy and Heidi to talk about what creativity is.

6 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and Michael Burke to talk about hope.

5 Join Wendy and Heidi to discuss the importance of your emotions.

4 Join Wendy Dickens, Heidi Mendenhall, and special guest Aaron Hayes.

3 Join Wendy, Heidi, and Renee to talk about what resources you can utilize in the NorthState.

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1 In this Episode Wendy and Heidi talk about the importance of a Childs education in the early 0-5 years.