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Blue Elephant Children’s Grief Camp - Lisle, Illinois

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Residential Hospice’s children’s grief camp in Lisle, Illinois allows kids to connect, explore grief, and learn healthy coping skills together.

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Discover grief support resources, including healing guides and summer camps, to help children cope with loss and start their healing journey.

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Grief and Play: a Cornerstone of Our Model

The first thing you will notice when you step foot into any Experience Camps is that it looks just like any other camp. There are cabins with bunkbeds and swinging screen doors. There are basketball hoops and campfire pits. And there are children running, playing, cheering, laughing, singing, and jumping.

What you might not notice right away is that each element of camp has a purpose. Those cabins create a communal living environment that require cooperation, problem-solving, and respect for each other. The athletic facilities provide a backdrop for play: the common language of childhood. They allow kids to connect without words and build trust and familiarity before opening up. The campfire pits become a place of nature, reflection and quietude at the end of a full day.
Through these essential elements of childhood, campers are learning coping and communication skills in developmentally appropriate ways. We are allowing them to be kids after a loss has altered that critical time in their lives.

Clinically Informed Fun

Each of our camps are supported by a Clinical Director, a licensed, masters-level clinician that directs a team of staff specializing in youth development and bereavement who are assigned to each camper cabin. The clinical team supports the emotional well-being of campers and volunteers, facilitates peer-support opportunities and oversees bereavement activities designed to develop coping skills, sharing opportunities, and expressions of grief.

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Experience Camps Michigan - Experience Camps

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The first thing you will notice when you step foot into any Experience Camps is that it looks just like any other camp. There are cabins with bunkbeds and swinging screen doors. There are basketball hoops and campfire pits. And there are children running, playing, cheering, laughing, singing, and jumping.

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On June 13, 2026, Soaring Spirits International will host Camp Widow® Chicago, a one-day program created specifically for people who have experienced the death of a spouse or partner.

Camp Widow brings together the camaraderie of a reunion, the insights of a conference, and the healing atmosphere of a retreat.

Participants connect with others who understand widowhood, attend resilience-building workshops, and gain practical tools for rebuilding life after loss.

Camp Widow Kids runs alongside the adult program for children ages 5–17 who have experienced the death of a parent. The program is free for children attending with a registered adult and provides trauma-informed activities and peer connection to help kids feel less alone.

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Fox Valley Hands of Hope | Compassionate grief support, at no cost to you.

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Fox Valley Hands of Hope | Compassionate grief support, at no cost to you.

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Upcoming Events and Programs | Fox Valley Hands of Hope

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Fundraiser events benefiting Fox Valley Hands of Hope.

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Registration is open for the Peace of the Heart Grief Camp June 29-July 2, 2026.

To learn more, check out this link: https://lightways.org/event/peace-of-the-heart-kids-camp/

To apply to camp, check out this link: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=k7gcew-FEEyJ1ysQE-7rXni6g4vBM9ZMixcTRfk365RURVZZUkRJQjFSRlg1QUtJQTg5UjRCTU1DTy4u&route=shorturl

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Peace of the Heart Kids Camp - Lightways

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Peace of the Heart Grief Camp - June 29 - July 2, 2026  

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Peace of the Heart Grief Camp - June 29 - July 2, 2026  

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Lightways will be holding their annual kids day camp from June 29 to July 2 this summer. The camp will be held at the Nature Center at Pilcher Park in Joliet, IL

Stay tuned for registration information!

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Your Story Counseling offers parent support groups for parents seeking peer support, advice, and guidance.

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July 28-July 30 @ Katherine Legge Memorial Park

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July 28-July 30 @ Katherine Legge Memorial Park

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Registration required.  For more information about out camp for 2025, contact the Bereavement Department at 630-856-6990

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Stepping Stones Camp Grief Support for Children | BJC Hospice

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Stepping Stones, BJC Hospice’s weekend bereavement camp, is free to children 6-12 who have suffered the death of a family member, friend or loved one.

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Saturday, July 25, 2026 in Libertyville, IL

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Saturday, July 25, 2026 in Libertyville, IL

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Please email info@willowhouse.org for more information.

Donna Panfil Remembrance Retreat

Saturday, July 25, 2026 (9am-2pm)

Libertyville, IL

Flyer attached.

Register HERE

*Intake Required

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Donna Panfil Remembrance Retreat Flyer 2026 (1)

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Camp Erin - Chicago - camp located at Lake Delevan, Wisconsin

July 17-19, 2026

For age range - 6 - 17

Completely Free for campers

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(Please note: Kesem offers camps for children through and beyond a parent's cancer and not necessarily a death)

Illinois Camps: https://www.kesem.org/chapters/illinois

Northern Illinois University -

Camp: tdb

email: northernillinois@kesem.org

Northwestern University -

Camp: tdb

Teen FFD: April 26, 2026 and May 3, 2026 Email: northwestern@kesem.org

DePaul University -

Camp: tbd

2026 Friends+Family Days: May 2, 2026

Email: depaul@kesem.org

Augustana College -

Camp: tbd

2026 Friends+Family Days: April 25, 2026

Email: augustana@kesem.org

University of Illinois -

Camp: tbd

Friends + Family Days: 4/19/2026 and 4/25/20265.

Email: illinois@kesem.org

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Don't worry! Many of our programs and services are hosted off-campus (we rent out campsites for Camp Kesem!).

Are you a college student looking to join a Kesem chapter?

Great! We want to hear from you. Contact the chapter directly at their email address. Kesem chapter? If so, email that chapter directly at the email listed above.

Do you want to help us start a new chapter?
Fill out this quick form!

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Don't worry! Many of our programs and services are hosted off-campus (we rent out campsites for Camp Kesem!). Great! We want to hear from you. Contact the chapter directly at their email address. Kesem chapter? If so, email that chapter directly at the email listed above. Fill out this quick form!

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Willow House is a non-profit, social service organization whose sole mission is to support children, families, schools & communities who are coping with grief.

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Please register below and your local site will contact you directly.

CALLING All CAMPERS!

Camp season is our favorite season, no matter what time of year it is!

A HEALING AND SUPPORTIVE ATMOSPHERE

In partnership with AccentCare Hospice, formerly Seasons Hospice & Palliative Care, Camp Kangaroo will be offered for bereaved children at the locations below. If you are interested in camp, please register..

Broward County, FL November 11 - 12. 2023
California (Southern) October 27-29, 2023
Pinellas, FL November 4-5, 2023
Connecticut September 9-10, 2023
Hillsborough County, FL November 4-5, 2023
Houston, TX (Late Fall 2023)
Illinois June 23-25, 2023
Maryland August 11-13, 2023
Massachusetts (Camp will not be held in 2023 in MA, but will return in 2024)
Miami, FL July 21-23, 2023
Michigan June 23-25, 2023
Oregon August 3, 2023
Pasco County, FL November 4-5, 2023
Wisconsin (Camp will not be held in 2023 in WI, but will return in 2024)

Register for Camp

COST

Camp Kangaroo is offered free of charge to eligible children through the generous gifts of Seasons Hospice Foundation donors. Will you consider sponsoring a bereaved child to attend our camp? The Sponsor a Camper Program is your opportunity to make a difference. By providing a sponsorship, you can help change a child's life forever! A gift of $300 will sponsor one child to attend our camp. The emotional impact that this camp program provides is priceless. For more information please contact Rebecca Martin at 847-692-1000 or email her at: ReMartin@seasons.org

SPONSOR A CAMPER

HELPFUL TOOLS FOR GRIEVING

The Tree That Survived the Winter by Mary Fahy
Saying Goodbye by Jim and Joan Boulden
When Dinosaurs Die by L.K. and M. Brown
I Will Never Forget You, (Teen Journal) by Emilio Parga
The Fall of Freddie The Leaf
35 Ways to Help a Grieving Child By the Dougy Center
When Sickness Happens by Jim and Joan Boulden
When Death Happens by Jim and Joan Boulden
Back to Life: Your Personal Guidebook to Grief Recovery by Jennie Wright

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Camp Kangaroo - Seasons Hospice Foundation

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Here at Seasons Hospice Foundation - We envision a future where more people will celebrate life and honor its end through the guidance of hospice. Seasons Hospice Foundation's purpose is making memories by fulfilling a wish or providing financial support for a patient/family that will create a lasting memory.

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Lightways – Hospice and Serious Illness Care

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Our newly-renovated and expanded Hospice Inpatient Unit provides care to hospice patients who are unable to comfortably manage their pain or symptoms at home.

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July 17-19, 2026: Camp Erin @ Northwestern Settlement

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July 17-19, 2026: Camp Erin @ Northwestern Settlement

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Eluna Network | Northwestern Settlement House | Chicago IL

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Enroll your child in one of our many programs and camps designed to help kids with family struggles. We help children with family addiction, loss, and much more. Enroll today!

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Don't worry! Many of our programs and services are hosted off-campus (we rent out campsites for Camp Kesem!).

Are you a college student looking to join a Kesem chapter?

Great! We want to hear from you. Contact the chapter directly at their email address. Kesem chapter? If so, email that chapter directly at the email listed above.

Do you want to help us start a new chapter?
Fill out this quick form!

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Don't worry! Many of our programs and services are hosted off-campus (we rent out campsites for Camp Kesem!). Great! We want to hear from you. Contact the chapter directly at their email address. Kesem chapter? If so, email that chapter directly at the email listed above. Fill out this quick form!

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Begin the Kesem registration process for your child(ren) below.

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Friday, September 11, 2026 – Sunday, September 13, 2026

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Friday, September 11, 2026 – Sunday, September 13, 2026

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Session One (grades 2-5) July 13-July 24
Session Two (grades 6-8) July 27-August 7

St. Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Church
5649 N. Sheridan Rd., Chicago, IL 60660

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NACG's list of bereavement support programs (National list by state)

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NACG's list of bereavement support programs (National list by state)

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Please use the links below to Find Support in your area.

The National Alliance for Grieving Children lists grief support service providers who serve children, teens and their families. The National Alliance for Grieving Children does not evaluate or check the validity of certifications or licenses of any provider. In seeking grief support services and/or counseling, NAGC recommends that each consumer inquire directly with the providers listed as to their trainings and certifications, with the better business bureau or with any applicable governing licensing boards.

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Please use the links below to Find Support in your area. The National Alliance for Grieving Children lists grief support service providers who serve children, teens and their families. The National Alliance for Grieving Children does not evaluate or check the validity of certifications or licenses of any provider.

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We are grateful for the funding support received from ARCC/Alliance for Research in Chicagoland Communities (Northwestern), Advocacy Grant/Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital and NAGC/National Alliance for Grieving Children.

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Every Dollar Counts The Legacy Guild is a nonprofit fellowship group that provides college scholarships and mentorship to local students who have lost a parent. We honor the legacy of those who have died by helping send their children to college.

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Need Help Dealing with Grief? - GriefShare

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GriefShare is a grief recovery support group where you can find help and healing for the hurt of losing a loved one.

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About Us

The Coalition to Support Grieving Students is a unique collaboration of the leading professional organizations representing classroom teachers (including teachers, paraprofessionals, and other instructional staff), principals, assistant principals, superintendents, school board members, and central office staff, student support personnel (including school counselors, school nurses, school psychologists, school social workers, and other student support personnel), and other school professionals who have come together with a common conviction: grieving students need the support and care of the school community.

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Home Page - Coalition to Support Grieving Students

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The Coalition to Support Grieving Students is a unique collaboration of the leading professional organizations representing classroom teachers (including teachers, paraprofessionals, and other instructional staff), principals, assistant principals, superintendents, school board members, and central office staff, student support personnel (including school counselors, school nurses, school psychologists, school social workers, and other student support personnel), and other school professionals who have come together with a common conviction: grieving students need the support and care of the school community.

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Hear from mother and fathers currently in support groups for widowed parents, and see if there are groups available in your area.

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When grief hits a family, children often become the focus - how to talk to them about death, how to recognize if they are grieving 'normally', how to create open communication and dialogue. etc. When we ask adults what they need in their grief often their first response is what they need for their children. We have number of articles on WYG offering this type of support. We have posts on the impact of age on understanding , on grief journals and workbooks for kid s, on the risks of using euphemisms , on art activities for grieving kids , on art activities for grieving kids and adults , on talking to kids about suicide , an activity book for kids after a suicide , on holiday activities for kid s, and more holiday activities for kids. We also have an article reminding you why it is important to take care of yourself in order to better care for the children in your life. But one thing that we don't have is a list of kids books about death and grief, despite the fact that we get asked about this fairly often.

We have talked about journal, activity and workbooks for kids , but sometimes a story is the best way to open a dialogue. Often reading a story can help kids know they are not alone and normalize what they are experiencing. It can offer a safe way to open a dialogue with children about death and grief, in groups, as a family, or one-on-one. So today, here it is! We have a list of 64 children's books about grief. As with all of our '64 things' lists, we know this is not an exhaustive list. Please add your favorites in the comments. The books are primarily for the 10 and under crowd but, rest assured, a list of 64 Young Adult novels about grief is on the horizon.

1. Lifetimes: The Beautiful Way to Explain Death to Children (kids 5+)

2. The Invisible String (kids 3+)

3. Everett Anderson's Goodbye (Reading Rainbow) (kids 5-8)

4. The Tenth Good Thing About Barney (kids 6-9)

5. I'll Always Love You (kids 3-7)

6. When Dinosaurs Die: A Guide to Understanding Death (Dino Life Guides for Families) (kids 4-8)

7. I Miss You: A First Look at Death (First Look at Books) (kids 4+)

8. The Saddest Time (kids 6-9)

9. Tear Soup: A Recipe for Healing After Loss (kids 8+)

10. The Fall of Freddie the Leaf: A Story of Life for All Ages (kids 4+)

11. Gentle Willow: A Story for Children About Dying (kids 4+)

12. Where Are You? A Child's Book About Loss (kids 4-8)

13. Samantha Jane's Missing Smile: A Story About Coping With the Loss of a Parent (kids 5+)

14. The Scar (kids5-9)

15. A Terrible Thing Happened (kids 4+)

16. The Elephant in the Room: A Childrens Book for Grief and Loss (kids 4+)

17. The Boy Who Didn't Want to Be Sad (kids 4+)

18. I Wish I Could Hold Your Hand...: A Child's Guide to Grief and Loss (Little Imp Books) (kids 9+)

19. Water Bugs and Dragonflies: Explaining Death to Young Children (kids 4+)

20. When Your Grandparent Dies: A Child's Guide to Good Grief (Elf-Help Books for Kids) (kids 5+)

21. Someone I Love Died (kids 4-8)

22. What Happened When Grandma Died? (kids 4+)

23. Always and Forever (kids 4+)

24. Badger's Parting Gifts (kids 4-8)

25. Ghost Wings (kids 5+)

26. Finding Grandpa Everywhere: A Young Child Discovers Memories of a Grandparent (kids 7+)

27. The Grandpa Tree (kids 3+)

28. Sad Isn't Bad: A Good-Grief Guidebook for Kids Dealing with Loss (Elf-Help Books for Kids) (kids 6+)

29. Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs (Picture Puffins) (kids 4-8)

30. Daddy, Up and Down: Sisters Grieve the Loss of Their Daddy (kids 4-8)

31. Saying Goodbye to Daddy (kids 4+)

32. The Angel with the Golden Glow: A Family's Journey Through Loss and Healing (kids 4+)

33. Where's Jess: For Children Who Have a Brother or Sister Die (kids 3-6)

34. A Taste of Blackberries (kids 8-12)

35. Bridge to Terabithia (kids 8-12)

36. My Grandson Lew (kids 4-6)

37. Aarvy Aardvark Finds Hope: A Read Aloud Story for People of All Ages About Loving and Losing, Friendship and Hope (as the title says, people of all ages!)

38. The Empty Place: A Child's Guide Through Grief (Let's Talk) (kids 5-10)

39. Dancing on the Moon (kids 3+)

40. Lost and Found: Remembering a Sister (kids 6+)

41. Stacy Had a Little Sister (A Concept Book) (kids 4+)

42. Ragtail Remembers: A Story That Helps Children Understand Feelings of Grief (kids 4+)

43. Goodbye Mousie (kids 4-8)

44. Remembering Crystal (kids 3+)

45. Rudi's Pond (kids 5-8)

46. The Memory String (kids 4-8)

47. Sammy in the Sky (kids 4-8)

48. Where Do People Go When They Die? (kids 3-8)

49. Chester Raccoon and the Acorn Full of Memories (kids 3-8)

50. Her Mother's Face (kids 4-8)

51. Remembering Mama (kids 4+)

52. Old Pig (Picture Puffin) (kids 3-8)

53. Pearl's Marigolds for Grandpa (kids 3-7)

54. Saying Goodbye to Lulu (kids 3-6)

55. The Mountains of Tibet (kids 7+)

56. Rabbityness (kids 3-7)

57. I Wish I Could Hold Your Hand...: A Child's Guide to Grief and Loss (Little Imp Books) (kids 9+)

58. Can You Hear Me Smiling?: A Child Grieves a Sister (kids 8+)

59. The Copper Tree (kids 5-8)

60. Everybody Feels Sad (kids 4+)

61. Grief is Like a Snowflake (kids 4+)

62. My Baby Big Sister: A Book for Children Born Subsequent to a Pregnancy Loss (kids 4-8)

63. Ladder to the Moon (kids 4-8)

64. Missing Mommy: A Book About Bereavement (kids 3-8).
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64 Children's Books About Death and Grief - Whats your Grief

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When grief hits a family, children often become the focus - how to talk to them about death, how to recognize if they are grieving 'normally', how to create open communication and dialogue. etc. When we ask adults what they need in their grief often their first response [...]

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About Us

The Coalition to Support Grieving Students is a unique collaboration of the leading professional organizations representing classroom teachers (including teachers, paraprofessionals, and other instructional staff), principals, assistant principals, superintendents, school board members, and central office staff, student support personnel (including school counselors, school nurses, school psychologists, school social workers, and other student support personnel), and other school professionals who have come together with a common conviction: grieving students need the support and care of the school community.

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Home Page - Coalition to Support Grieving Students

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The Coalition to Support Grieving Students is a unique collaboration of the leading professional organizations representing classroom teachers (including teachers, paraprofessionals, and other instructional staff), principals, assistant principals, superintendents, school board members, and central office staff, student support personnel (including school counselors, school nurses, school psychologists, school social workers, and other student support personnel), and other school professionals who have come together with a common conviction: grieving students need the support and care of the school community.

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Home - Center for Loss & Life Transition

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Led by death educator and grief counselor Dr. Alan Wolfelt, we are an organization dedicated to helping people who are grieving and those who care for them. Perhaps someone you love has died, or you want to help a grieving friend or family member. Or maybe you are a professional or volunteer grief c…

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Someone you love is grieving. Do you know what to do, what to say, and how to help? Or do you say "I'm so sorry", pick up what everyone else does, and perpetuate the mistakes? Let this book be your personal, informative, enlightening guide. Learn what to ask, what to say, how to write a condolence card, what books to recommend, concrete actions to take, and the best ways to be truly helpful and supportive to those you care about, especially when they go through the toughest times of their lives. Make a difference when it counts the most.

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A Friend Indeed: Help Those You Love When They Grieve.

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A Friend Indeed: Help Those You Love When They Grieve. [Florian, Amy, Florian, Ken] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. A Friend Indeed: Help Those You Love When They Grieve.

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National Center for School Crisis & Bereavement

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National Center for School Crisis & Bereavement

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National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement

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The Coalition to Support
Grieving Students

We lead a collaboration of national
organizations, representing the full range of
school professionals, that has developed
free training materials to help empower
schools to support grieving students.

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National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement

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The NCSCB is dedicated to helping schools support their students through crisis and loss.

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Give your child the help and support needed to cope with grief and loss.

Guiding Your Child Through Grief, by the founders of the New England Center for Loss & Transition and The Cove, a highly praised program for grieving children, takes away the uncertainty and helpless feelings we commonly feel as we reach out to children who mourn. This caring and compassionate guide offers expert advice during difficult days to help a child grieve the death of a parent or sibling. Based on their experience as counselors--and as parents of grieving children--the authors help readers to understand:

The many ways children grieve, often in secret
Changes in family dynamics after death--and straightforward, effective ways to ease the transition
Ways to communicate with children about death and grief
How to cope with the intense sorrow triggered by holidays
The signs grief has turned to depression--and where to find help
And more insights, information, and advice that can
help a child heal

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Guiding Your Child Through Grief [James P. Emswiler, Mary Ann Emswiler] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Guiding Your Child Through Grief

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Over 700,000 suicides are reported each year, with many more going unreported.

1 in 5 U.S. adults experience mental illness each year. In the U.S. alone, over 130 individuals complete suicide on a daily basis.

Hope for the Day (H.F.T.D) is a non-profit movement empowering the conversation on proactive suicide prevention and mental health education. Through outreach, education, and action, we can equip people with the right tools to be proactive in their communities.

Together, we can break the silence around mental health.

Use our Resource Compass to search for free and reduced-cost mental health resources in your community.

Proactive suicide prevention starts with a conversation. We don't wait for individuals to come to us, we meet people where they're at in their community. We distribute and raise the visibility of resources and information to break the silence of stigma.

By understanding our mental health, we dispel stigmas. Our peer-led, clinically backed education programs ensure that individuals, institutions, and communities can proactively respond and support individuals experiencing mental health challenges.

By Mobilizing individuals and communities to foster proactive environments, we can equip people with the right tools to take action on their own mental health and be supportive to peers in their community.

Involvement Opportunities

There are plenty of ways to support our mission! As an individual or as an organization, out in the field or from the comfort of home, you can make a difference. Look through our options and find the way that works best for you.

Events

We hold and attend events year round, traveling near and far to meet people where they're at. Whether we're meeting in another state or simply via the World Wide Web, we're happy to start the conversation about mental health in your community. Check out if we'll be somewhere near you!

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Hope For The Day (HFTD) is a non-profit movement empowering the conversation on proactive suicide prevention and mental health education.

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American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

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Learn about suicide, how you can help prevent it, and resources for those affected, from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Our mission: save lives and bring hope to those affected by suicide

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Six Books for Grieving Teenagers - Whats your Grief

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It is a little terrifying when you realize time is escaping you. I was going to start this post by saying “last month Eleanor wrote a post about helping teens who are grieving”. But it turns out that post was in SEPTEMBER. It is DECEMBER!! I have apparently […]

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Well, we've gotten a bit carried away...again. Our intention was to provide you with a list of 64 memoirs or novels about death and grief; you know, so you could add a little light reading to your summer book list. I quickly realized that 64 books (with links and descriptions) might be a bit much, so instead we're going to start with 32 books about grief and death and save the other half of the list for another day. These are all either books we've read and loved or books we have on our own reading lists.

1. Mourning Diary by Roland Barthes

"The day after his mother's death in October 1977, Roland Barthes began a diary of mourning. For nearly two years, the legendary French theorist wrote about a solitude new to him; about the ebb and flow of sadness; about the slow pace of mourning, and life reclaimed through writing."

2. A Widow's Story: A Memoir by Joyce Carol Oates

""A Widow's Story" is the universally acclaimed author's poignant, intimate memoir about the unexpected death of Raymond Smith, her husband of forty six years, and its wrenching, surprising aftermath."

3. Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala

"In 2004, at a beach resort on the coast of Sri Lanka, Sonali Deraniyagala and her family - parents, husband, sons - were swept away by a tsunami. Only Sonali survived to tell their tale. This is her account of the nearly incomprehensible event and its aftermath."

4. Her: A Memoir by Christa Parravani

"Christa Parravani and her identical twin, Cara, were linked by a bond that went beyond sibling hood, beyond sisterhood, beyond friendship...But, haunted by childhood experiences with father figures and further damaged by being raped as a young adult, Cara veered off the path to robust work and life and in to depression, drugs and a shocking early death. Beautifully written, mesmerizingly rich and true Christa Parravani's account of being left, one half of a whole, and of her desperate, ultimately triumphant struggle for survival is informative, heart-wrenching and unforgettably beautiful."

5. Say Her Name: A Novel by Francisco Goldman

"In 2005, celebrated novelist Francisco Goldman married a beautiful young writer names Aura Estrada in a romantic Mexican hacienda. The month before their second anniversary, during a long-awaited holiday, Aura broke her neck while body surfing. Francisco, blamed for Aura's death by her family and blaming himself, wanted to die, too. Instead, he wrote "Say her Name", a novel chronicling his grief love and unspeakable loss, tracking the stages of grief when pure love gives way to bottomless pain."

6. Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time by Rob Sheffield

"In 2007 Rolling Stone's writer Rob Sheffield wrote his memoir, "Love is a Mixtape: Life and Loss One Song at A Time". The concept was simple, 22 chapters written around 22 mix tapes. The content was not: grief, love, and a relationship that ended far too soon when his wife, Renee, unexpectedly died of a pulmonary embolism." [Read our thoughts here]

7. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

"At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State-and she would do it alone. Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her."

8. Death Be Not Proud (P.S.) by John J Gunther

"Johnny Gunther was only seventeen years old when he died of a brain tumor. During the months of his illness, everyone near him was unforgettably impressed by his level-headed courage, his wit and quiet friendliness, and, above all, his unfaltering patience through times of despair. This deeply moving book is a father's memoir of a brave, intelligent, and spirited boy."

9. Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson by Mitch Albom

"[Mitch Albom] rediscovered Morrie [a college professor from twenty years prior] in the last months of the older mans life. Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final "class": lessons in how to live."

10. Poems of Mourning (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets) by Peter Washington

"Saluting, lamenting and honoring the dead are the poet's primal tasts in all ages. Whether it be Ben Jonson pining for his son, Keats and Rilke envisaging their own demise, Wilfred Owen commemorating comrades in war, or Homer's Odysseus grieving over his dog-all give expression to the universal need for mourning. But mourning has many forms and moods, and this collection explores them all, from Tennyson's black grief to Whitman's radiant melancholy, from Hardy's despair to Rochester's humor, from Sassoon's anger to Christina Rossetti's tender resignation."

11. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

"The moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together."

12. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Revised Edition) by Jesse Andrews

"It is a universally acknowledged truth that high school sucks. But on the first day of his senior year, Greg Gaines thinks he's figured it out. The answer to the basic existential question: How is it possible to exist in a place that sucks so bad? His strategy: remain at the periphery at all times. Keep an insanely low profile. Make mediocre films with the one person who is even sort of his friend, Earl. This plan works for exactly eight hours. Then Greg's mom forces him to become friends with a girl who has cancer. This brings about the destruction of Greg's entire life." [For young adult literature lovers]

13. Ordinary People by Judith Guest

"Judith Guest's remarkable first novel, the Jarrets are a typical American family. Calvin is a determined, successful provider and Beth an organized, efficient wife. They had two sons, Conrad and Buck, but now they have one. In this memorable, moving novel, Judith Guest takes the reader into their lives to share their misunderstandings, pain...and ultimate healing."

14. The Long Goodbye: A Memoir by Meghan O'Rourke

"What is it like to mourn today, in a culture that has largely set aside rituals that acknowledge grief? After her mother died of cancer at the age of fifty-five, Meghan O'Rourke found that nothing had prepared her for the intensity of her sorrow. She began to create a record of her interior life as a mourner, trying to capture the paradox of grief-its monumental agony and microscopic intimacies-an endeavor that ultimately bloomed into a profound look at how caring for her mother during her illness changed and strengthened their bond. With lyricism and unswerving candor, The Long Goodbye captures the fleeting moments of joy that make up a life and the way memory can lead us out of the jagged darkness of loss. Effortlessly blending research and reflection, the personal and the universal, it is a love letter from a daughter to a mother that will touch any reader who has felt the powerful ties of familial love." [Read our thoughts on the book here]

15. Hamlet by William Shakespeare

If you like Shakespeare, Hamlet is your man.

16. Swimming in a Sea of Death: A Son's Memoir by David Rieff

"David Rieff's loving tribute to his mother, the writer Susan Sontag, and her final battle with cancer. Rieff's brave, passionate, and unsparing witness of the last nine months of her life, from her initial diagnosis to her death, is both an intensely personal portrait of the relationship between a mother and a son, and a reflection on what it is like to try to help someone gravely ill in her fight to go on living and, when the time comes, to die with dignity."

17. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

"Nine-year-old Oskar Schell has embarked on an urgent, secret mission that will take him through the five boroughs of New York. His goal is to find the lock that matches a mysterious key that belonged to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11. This seemingly impossible task will bring Oskar into contact with survivors of all sorts on an exhilarating, affecting, often hilarious, and ultimately healing journey."

18. Bough Down by Karen Green

"In this profoundly beautiful and intensely moving lament, artist and writer Karen Green conjures the inscrutable space of love and loss, clarity and contradiction, sense and madness. She summons memory and the machination of the interior mind with the emotional acuity of music as she charts her passage through the devastation of her husband's suicide. In crystalline fragments of text, Green's voice is paradoxically confessional and non-confessional: moments in her journey are devastating but also luminous, exacting in sensation but also ambiguous and layered in meaning."

19. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

"From one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage-and a life, in good times and bad-that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child."

20. Rare Bird: A Memoir of Loss and Love by Anna Whiston-Donaldson

"On an ordinary September day, twelve-year-old Jack is swept away in a freak neighborhood flood. His parents and younger sister are left to wrestle with the awful questions: How could God let this happen? And, Can we ever be happy again? They each fall into the abyss of grief in different ways. And in the days and months to come, they each find their faltering way toward peace."

21. Giving Up the Ghost : A Memoir by Hilary Mantel

"In postwar rural England, Hilary Mantel grew up convinced that the most improbable of accomplishments, including "chivalry, horsemanship, and swordplay," were within her grasp. Once married, however, she acquired a persistent pain that led to destructive drugs and patronizing psychiatry, ending in an ineffective but irrevocable surgery. There would be no children; in herself she found instead one novel, and then another."

22. Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss by Hope Edelman

"Building on interviews with hundreds of mother- loss survivors, this life-affirming book is now newly expanded to reflect the author's personal experience with the continued legacy of mother loss; now married and a mother of young children herself, Edelman better understands how the effects of mother loss change over time and in light of new relationships."

23. H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

"When Helen Macdonald's father died suddenly on a London street, she was devastated. An experienced falconer-Helen had been captivated by hawks since childhood-she'd never before been tempted to train one of the most vicious predators, the goshawk. But in her grief, she saw that the goshawk's fierce and feral temperament mirrored her own. Resolving to purchase and raise the deadly creature as a means to cope with her loss, she adopted Mabel, and turned to the guidance of "The Once and Future King" author T.H. White's chronicle "The Goshawk" to begin her challenging endeavor. Projecting herself "in the hawk's wild mind to tame her" tested the limits of Macdonald's humanity and changed her life."

24. The Still Point of the Turning World by Emily Rapp

"What does it mean to be a success? To be a good parent? To live a meaningful life? Emily Rapp thought she knew the answers when she was pregnant with her first child. But everything changed when nine-month-old Ronan was diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease, a rare and always-fatal degenerative disorder. He was not expected to live beyond the age of three. Rapp and her husband were forced to re-evaluate everything they thought they knew about parenting and to learn to parent without a future."

25. The Beginner's Goodbye: A Novel by Anne Tyler

"Crippled in his right arm and leg, Aaron grew up fending off a sister who constantly wanted to manage him. So when he meets Dorothy, an outspoken, independent young woman, she's like a breath of fresh air. He marries her without hesitation, and they have a relatively happy, unremarkable marriage. Aaron works at his family's vanity-publishing business, turning out titles that presume to guide beginners through the trials of life. But when a tree crashes into their house and Dorothy is killed, Aaron feels as though he has been erased forever. Only Dorothy's unexpected appearances from the dead-in their house, on the roadway, in the market-help him to live in the moment and to find some peace. Gradually, Aaron discovers that maybe for this beginner there is indeed a way to say goodbye."

26. A Monster Calls: Inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd by Patrick Ness

"At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting- he's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It's ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth. From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd- whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself- Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined." [For young adult literature lovers]

27. A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis

"Written after his wife's tragic death as a way of surviving the "mad midnight moment," A Grief Observed is C.S. Lewis's honest reflection on the fundamental issues of life, death, and faith in the midst of loss. This work contains his concise, genuine reflections on that period: "Nothing will shake a man - or at any rate a man like me - out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover it himself." This is a beautiful and unflinchingly honest record of how even a stalwart believer can lose all sense of meaning in the universe, and how he can gradually regain his bearings."

28. Sweet Hereafter: A Novel by Russell Banks

"Russell Banks tells a story that begins with a school bus accident. Using four different narrators, Banks creates a small-town morality play that addresses one of life's most agonizing questions: when the worst thing happens, who do you blame?"

29. The Best Day the Worst Day: Life with Jane Kenyon by Donald Hall

"In an intimate record of his twenty-three-year marriage to poet Jane Kenyon, Donald Hall recounts the rich pleasures and the unforeseen trials of their shared life. The couple made a home at their New England farmhouse, where they rejoiced in rituals of writing, gardening, caring for pets, and connecting with their rural community through friends and church. "The Best Day the Worst Day" presents a portrait of the inner moods of "the best marriage I know about," as Hall has written, against the stark medical emergency of Jane's leukemia, which ended her life in fifteen months. Between recollections of better times, Hall shares with readers the daily ordeal of Jane's dying through heartbreaking but ultimately inspiring storytelling."

30. The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

"During her treatment for cancer, Mary Anne Schwalbe and her son Will spent many hours sitting in waiting rooms together. To pass the time, they would talk about the books they were reading. Once, by chance, they read the same book at the same time-and an informal book club of two was born. Through their wide-ranging reading, Will and Mary Anne-and we, their fellow readers-are reminded how books can be comforting, astonishing, and illuminating, changing the way that we feel about and interact with the world around us."

31. Wit: A Play by Margaret Edson

"Margaret Edson's powerfully imagined Pulitzer Prize-winning play examines what makes life worth living through her exploration of one of existence's unifying experiences-mortality-while she also probes the vital importance of human relationships. What we as her audience take away from this remarkable drama is a keener sense that, while death is real and unavoidable, our lives are ours to cherish or throw away-a lesson that can be both uplifting and redemptive."

32. Half a Life: A Memoir by Darin Strauss

"In this powerful, unforgettable memoir, acclaimed novelist Darin Strauss examines the far-reaching consequences of the tragic moment that has shadowed his whole life. In his last month of high school, he was behind the wheel of his dad's Oldsmobile, driving with friends, heading off to play mini-golf. Then: a classmate swerved in front of his car. The collision resulted in her death. With piercing insight and stark prose, Darin Strauss leads us on a deeply personal, immediate, and emotional journey-graduating high school, going away to college, starting his writing career, falling in love with his future wife, becoming a father. Along the way, he takes a hard look at loss and guilt, maturity and accountability, hope and, at last, acceptance. The result is a staggering, uplifting tour de force."
What grief books would you recommend? Let us know in the comments below.

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Well, we've gotten a bit carried away...again. Our intention was to provide you with a list of 64 memoirs or novels about death and grief; you know, so you could add a little light reading to your summer book list.

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About the LOSS Program for Children and Youth

The LOSS Children's Program addresses the needs of children and adolescents impacted by the suicide of a family member or person close to them. The LOSS Program is a free and non-denominational service, serving Cook and Lake counties, offered by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago. We are funded by the Illinois Children's Health Care Foundation, other foundations concerned with the welfare of children, as well as your private donations.

LOSS Program for Children and Youth is here to guide and support young survivors of suicide through the grief recovery process. We help children and adolescents develop an age appropriate understanding of the death, develop tolerance for painful feelings, regain a sense of security in a reconfigured family, and reconstruct new and healthy self-concepts as survivors.

What does the LOSS Program for Children and Youth do?

The LOSS Children's Program begins with assessment to better understand the impact of suicide on your child's emotional and behavioral functioning. We work to help your child make sense of the loss and move through the grief process in a developmentally appropriate way that minimizes unhealthy expressions of grief. Treatment goals include trauma resolution and strengthening of family connections.

What you may not know about the impact of suicide on your child

Studies show that bereaved parents may not recognize the full scale of their children's distress due to their own grief.

Children may inhibit their grief reactions in order to avoid increasing their parent's sadness or anxiety.

Children and adolescents need support in handling their interactions with peers after the suicide loss.

Traumatic reactions can interfere with normal grieving processes and present emotional and behavioral risks.

Children seem particularly vulnerable to the dual demands of trauma mastery and grief work.

(R. S. Pynoos, MD, MPH)

How does the LOSS Program for Children and Youth help?

We provide a helping environment that is safe and nurturing.

We assist with trauma resolution.

We normalize the intense feelings of grief while correcting misconceptions you child may have formed about the suicide.

We assist with coping skills and a realistic understanding of the grief process.

We help you to understand your child's needs and model healthy grieving.

Available Services

Individual therapy for children and teens, ages three to eighteen.

Family counseling.

Peer support groups.

Parent consultation.

School and community debriefings when a suicide has occurred.

Please call the LOSS office for additional information (312) 655-7283.

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About the LOSS Program for Children and Youth The LOSS Children's Program addresses the needs of children and adolescents impacted by the suicide of a family member or person close to them. The LOSS Program is a free and non-denominational service, serving Cook and Lake counties, offered by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

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When children and teens at The Dougy Center are asked, "What's something you wish people would stop saying?", they break out in a chorus of "I'm sorry!" What do you say when you find out someone died? What words do you write in a sympathy card or email? It's a universal struggle to know what to say in an inherently emotional and potentially uncomfortable situation. Grieving people, especially children and teens, are extremely tuned into other people's discomfort. Friends, teachers, and colleagues often don't know what to say or how to react when it comes out in conversation that someone's parent, sibling, friend, or other family member died. This can lead many people, including children and teens, to avoid any topic that connects to their loss. Everyday questions such as: How come your grandparents always pick you up after school? How old is your mother? How many siblings do you have? can leave grievers feeling confused about what to say and worried that answering honestly will make other people uncomfortable. Grieving people brace for the automatic, "I'm sorry," that often follows when they disclose that someone in their life died.
When asked why they don't like that response, children and teens had this to say:

"How am I supposed to respond? It's okay? I mean, really, it's not okay."

"Um, it's not their fault, why are they apologizing?"

"It's just so awkward. It's like a total conversation stopper."

"So many people say it, even people I've never talked to before, it feels kind of fake."

"I know they mean well, but it just gets old."

Does this mean definitively that you should never say, "I'm sorry" to someone who is grieving? No, it's just helpful to consider the relationship you have with the person and the context of the conversation when choosing what to say. Ask yourself the question, "Is what I'm about to say going to connect or disconnect the conversation?" Sometimes "I'm sorry," can act as an interruption. This may happen when a person shares about a death as part of a bigger story they are telling. When "I'm sorry," is interjected, it can stop the flow of conversation, and leave the teller with the awkward task of saying something like "It's okay, it was a long time ago." On the other hand, if a friend calls to tell you that someone died, that's a time when an authentic, heartfelt, "I'm sorry" can serve as a connection. Even in that situation though, keep in mind that the person on the other end of the line has likely heard those words many times over, so it can be good to try and think of something different to say. A few possibilities include: "I'm so sad to hear this," "I'm so sorry you have to go through this," and "How heartbreaking." Another option is just to repeat back what the person tells you, "Your dad died last night." This gives them the opportunity to say more and direct the conversation.

When it comes to children and teens, one of the only alternatives they've offered is, "That totally sucks." Of course, if that's language you're not comfortable with, you might come up with something else that acknowledges the reality of the loss without verging into what the teens call, "sympathy overload." Many teens appreciate when people can remain matter of fact when talking about the death. They can grow very uncomfortable if they sense people feel sorry for them.

In the end, there's no perfect thing to say or not say. Just keep in mind that grieving people are navigating conversations, big and small, throughout the day that have the potential to highlight their loss. Conveying a sense of calm and ease when someone does tell you about a death goes a long way to dismantle the awkwardness and discomfort they are used to encountering. From that foundation, you can choose which words to say, based on your connection with that person and the context of the conversation. Try writing down a few alternative phrases that work for you. This will make it easier to access them the next time you want to communicate that you care to someone who is grieving.

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Dougy Center for Grieving Children & Families | Portland, OR

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When children and teens at The Dougy Center are asked, "What's something you wish people would stop saying?", they break out in a chorus of "I'm sorry!" What do you say when you find out someone died? What words do you write in a sympathy card or email?

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Jenny Lisk is an award-winning author and widowed mom who is dedicated to helping widowed parents increase their family’s well-being. Her book, Future Widow, and her show, The Widowed Parent Podcast, bring much-needed resources to widowed parents, helping them feel less lost and alone.

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A few weeks ago, we put together the first half of a book list about death and grief. Today, we're finally getting around to posting the second half.

Some of these books we've read, while others are on our 'want to read' list. Although there are many self-help/advice/informative type books out there written specifically to help people get through grief, you will not find any on our list. The vast majority of the books we've listed are memoirs or novels, but if you are looking for a book specifically focused on helping you get through grief you should check out the comments section of our first post, 32 Books About Death and Grief, because many people left recommendations.

1. The Disappearance: A Primer of Loss by Genevieve Jorgensen

What do you do, how do you live, when both of your daughters are killed on the same afternoon? On April 30, 1980, Geneviève Jurgensen found herself facing that question when she lost her four- and seven-year-old daughters to a drunk driver. Here she presents her search for an answer. Read our post on 'The Disappearance' here.

2. The Accidental Tourist: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle) by Anne Tyler

Macon Leary is a travel writer who hates both travel and anything out of the ordinary. He is grounded by loneliness and an unwillingness to compromise his creature comforts when he meets Muriel, a deliciously peculiar dog-obedience trainer who up-ends Macon's insular world-and thrusts him headlong into a remarkable engagement with life.

3. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

When we first meet 14-year-old Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. This was before milk carton photos and public service announcements, she tells us; back in 1973, when Susie mysteriously disappeared, people still believed these things didn't happen. In the sweet, untroubled voice of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death and her own adjustment to the strange new place she finds herself. It looks a lot like her school playground, with the good kind of swing sets. With love, longing, and a growing understanding, Susie watches her family as they cope with their grief, her father embarks on a search for the killer, her sister undertakes a feat of amazing daring, her little brother builds a fort in her honor and begin the difficult process of healing. In the hands of a brilliant novelist, this story of seemingly unbearable tragedy is transformed into a suspenseful and touching story about family, memory, love, heaven, and living.

4. My Sister's Keeper: A Novel (Wsp Readers Club) by Jodi Picoult

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate-a life and a role that she has never challenged...until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister-and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.

5. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten. Read our post on 'The Fault in Our Stars' here.

6. Men We Reaped: A Memoir

Jesmyn's memoir shines a light on the community she comes from, in the small town of DeLisle, Mississippi, a place of quiet beauty and fierce attachment. Here, in the space of four years, she lost five young men dear to her, including her beloved brother-lost to drugs, accidents, murder, and suicide. Their deaths were seemingly unconnected, yet their lives had been connected, by identity and place, and as Jesmyn dealt with these losses, she came to a staggering truth: These young men died because of who they were and the place they were from, because certain disadvantages breed a certain kind of bad luck. Because they lived with a history of racism and economic struggle. The agonizing reality commanded Jesmyn to write, at last, their true stories and her own.

7. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

A classic work of American literature that has not stopped changing minds and lives since it burst onto the literary scene, The Things They Carried is a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling.

8. A Very Easy Death (Pantheon Modern Writers Series) by Simone De Beauvoir

A Very Easy Death has long been considered one of Simone de Beauvoir's masterpieces. The profoundly moving, day-by-day recounting of her mother's death "shows the power of compassion when it is allied with acute intelligence.

9. Blue Nights by Joan Didion

From one of our most powerful writers, a work of stunning frankness about losing a daughter. Richly textured with memories from her own childhood and married life with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and daughter, Quintana Roo, this new book by Joan Didion is an intensely personal and moving account of her thoughts, fears, and doubts regarding having children, illness and growing old. As she reflects on her daughter's life and on her role as a parent, Didion grapples with the candid questions that all parents face, and contemplates her age, something she finds hard to acknowledge, much less accept.

10. The Pure Lover: A Memoir of Grief by David Plante

The Pure Lover is David Plante's elegy to his beloved Nikos Stangos, their forty-year life together, and its tragic end. Written in vivid fragments that, like the pieces of a mosaic, come together into a glimmering whole, it shows us both the wild nature of grief and the intimate conversation that is love.

11. Nothing Was the Same by Kay Redfield Jamison

Kay Redfield Jamison, award-winning professor and writer, changed the way we think about moods and madness. Now Jamison uses her characteristic honesty, wit and eloquence to look back at her relationship with her husband, Richard Wyatt, a renowned scientist who died of cancer. Nothing was the Same is a penetrating psychological study of grief viewed from deep inside the experience itself.

12. Epilogue: A Memoir by Will Boast

Having already lost his mother and only brother, twenty-four-year-old Will Boast finds himself absolutely alone when his father dies of alcoholism. Numbly settling the matters of his father's estate, Boast is deep inside his grief when he stumbles upon documents revealing a secret his father had intended to keep: He'd had another family before Will's―a wife and two sons in England.
This revelation leads to a flood of new questions. Did his father abandon this first family, or was he pushed away? Still reeling from loss, Boast is forced to reconsider the fundamental truths of his childhood and to look for traces of the man his father might truly have been. Setting out in search of his half brothers, he attempts to reconcile their family history with his own, testing each childhood memory under the weight of his father's secret. Moving between the Midwest and England, from scenes of his youth to the tentative discovery of his new family, Boast writes with visceral beauty about grief, memory, and his slow and tender journey to a new kind of love.

13. Death's Door: Modern Dying and the Ways We Grieve by Sandra M. Gilbert

Prominent critic, poet, and memoirist Sandra M. Gilbert explores our relationship to death though literature, history, poetry, and societal practices. Does death change-and if it does, how has it changed in the last century? And how have our experiences and expressions of grief changed? Did the traumas of Hiroshima and the Holocaust transform our thinking about mortality? More recently, did the catastrophe of 9/11 alter our modes of mourning? And are there at the same time aspects of grief that barely change from age to age? Seneca wrote, "Anyone can stop a man's life but no one his death; a thousand doors open on to it." This inevitability has left varying marks on all human cultures. Exploring expressions of faith, burial customs, photographs, poems, and memoirs, acclaimed author Sandra M. Gilbert brings to the topic of death the critical skill that won her fame for The Madwoman in the Attic and other books, as she examines both the changelessness of grief and the changing customs that mark contemporary mourning.

14. Patrimony: A True Story by Philip Roth

Patrimony, a true story, touches the emotions as strongly as anything Philip Roth has ever written. Roth watches as his eighty-six-year-old father-famous for his vigor, charm, and his repertoire of Newark recollections-battles with the brain tumor that will kill him. The son, full of love, anxiety, and dread, accompanies his father through each fearful stage of his final ordeal, and, as he does so, discloses the survivalist tenacity that has distinguished his father's long, stubborn engagement with life.

15. After Visiting Friends: A Son's Story by Michael Hainey

"Family? Secrets? Sometimes I think they are the same thing." So writes Michael Hainey in this unforgettable story of a son's search to discover the decades-old truth about his father's mysterious death. Hainey was a boy of six when his father, a bright and shining star in the glamorous, hard-living world of 1960s Chicago newspapers, died under mysterious circumstances. His tragic absence left behind not only a young widow and two small sons but questions about family and truth that would obsess Michael for decades. Years later, Michael undertakes a risky journey to uncover the true story about what happened to his father. Prodding reluctant relatives and working through a network of his father's old colleagues, Michael begins to reconcile the father he lost with the one he comes to know. At the heart of his quest is his mother, a woman of courage and tenacity-and a steely determination to press on with her life. A universal story of love and loss and the resilience of family in the face of hardship, After Visiting Friends is the account of a son who goes searching for his father, and in the journey discovers new love and admiration for his mother. Read our post on 'After Visiting Friends' here.

16. Final Payments by Mary Gordon

When Isabel Moore's father dies, she finds herself, at the age of thirty, suddenly freed from eleven years of uninterrupted care for a helpless man. With all the patterns of her life suddenly rendered meaningless, she turns to childhood friends for support, gets a job, and becomes involved with two very different men. But just as her future begins to emerge, her past throws up a daunting challenge. A moving story of self-reinvention, Final Payments is a timeless exploration of the nature of friendship, desire, guilt, and love.

17. First Love by James Patterson

Axi Moore is a "good girl": She studies hard, stays out of the spotlight, and doesn't tell anyone that what she really wants is to run away from it all. The only person she can tell is her best friend, Robinson-who she also happens to be madly in love with. When Axi impulsively invites Robinson to come with her on an unplanned cross-country road trip, she breaks the rules for the first time in her life. But the adventure quickly turns from carefree to out-of-control... A remarkably moving tale with its origins in James Patterson's own past, First Love is testament to the power of first love-and how it can change the rest of your life.

18. As I Lay Dying: The Corrected Text by William Faulkner

As I Lay Dying is Faulkner's harrowing account of the Bundren family's odyssey across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Narrated in turn by each of the family members-including Addie herself-as well as others the novel ranges in mood, from dark comedy to the deepest pathos. Considered one of the most influential novels in American fiction in structure, style, and drama, As I Lay Dying is a true 20th-century classic.

19. A Complicated Kindness: A Novel by Miriam Toews

In this stunning coming-of-age novel, award-winner Miriam Toews balances grief and hope in the voice of a witty, beleaguered teenager whose family is shattered by fundamentalist Christianity. "Half of our family, the better-looking half, is missing," Nomi Nickel tells us at the beginning of A Complicated Kindness. Left alone with her sad, peculiar father, her days are spent piecing together why her mother and sister have disappeared and contemplating her inevitable career at Happy Family Farms, a chicken slaughterhouse on the outskirts of East Village. Not the East Village in New York City where Nomi would prefer to live, but an oppressive town founded by Mennonites on the cold, flat plains of Manitoba, Canada.

20. The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Bantam Classics) by Leo Tolstoy

Hailed as one of the world's supreme masterpieces on the subject of death and dying, The Death of Ivan Ilyich is the story of a worldly careerist, a high court judge who has never given the inevitability of his death so much as a passing thought. But one day death announces itself to him, and to his shocked surprise he is brought face to face with his own mortality. How, Tolstoy asks, does an unreflective man confront his one and only moment of truth?

21. Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace by Anne Lamott

In Small Victories, Lamott offers a new message of hope that celebrates the triumph of light over the darkness in our lives. Our victories over hardship and pain may seem small, she writes, but they change us-our perceptions, our perspectives, and our lives. Lamott writes of forgiveness, restoration, and transformation, how we can turn toward love even in the most hopeless situations, how we find the joy in getting lost and our amazement in finally being found.

22. The Summer of the Great-Grandmother (Crosswicks Journal, Book 2) by Madeline L'Engle

A loving daughter has promised her mother that she will never put her in a "nursing home" when the old lady is no longer able to live alone. But after her ninetieth birthday, when she arrives in Connecticut to spend the summer with her daughter's family, it becomes quickly apparent that atherosclerosis it taking its toll: the onoce-gentle Southern woman will not be able to make the trip home. This is the dilemma Madeleine L'Engle describes in this non-fiction book about the problems, crises, fustrations, and guilt engendered by her mother's rapid slide into senility.

23. Out Stealing Horses: A Novel by Per Petterson

Trond's friend Jon often appeared at his doorstep with an adventure in mind for the two of them. But this morning was different. What began as a joy ride on "borrowed" horses ends with Jon falling into a strange trance of grief. Trond soon learns what befell Jon earlier that day-an incident that marks the beginning of a series of vital losses for both boys.

24. A Scattering by Christopher Reid

Lucinda Gane, Christopher Reid's wife, died in October 2005. A Scattering is his tribute to her and consists of four poetic sequences, the first written during her illness, and the other three at intervals after her death.

25. A Widow for One Year by John Irving

Ruth Cole is a complex, often self-contradictory character-a "difficult" woman. By no means is she conventionally "nice," but she will never be forgotten. Ruth's story is told in three parts, each focusing on a crucial time in her life. When we first meet her-on Long Island, in the summer of 1958-Ruth is only four. The second window into Ruth's life opens in the fall of 1990, when Ruth is an unmarried woman whose personal life is not nearly as successful as her literary career. She distrusts her judgment in men, for good reason. A Widow for One Year closes in the autumn of 1995, when Ruth Cole is a forty-one-year-old widow and mother. She's about to fall in love for the first time.

26. Tell The Wolves I'm Home: A Novel by Carol Rifka Brunt

In this striking literary debut, Carol Rifka Brunt unfolds a moving story of love, grief, and renewal as two lonely people become the unlikeliest of friends and find that sometimes you don't know you've lost someone until you've found them.

27. Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading by Nina Sankovitch

Catalyzed by the loss of her sister, a mother of four spends one year savoring a greatbook every day, from Thomas Pynchon to Nora Ephron and beyond. In the tradition of Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project and Joan Dideon's A Year of Magical Thinking, Nina Sankovitch's soul-baring and literary-minded memoir is a chronicle of loss,hope, and redemption. Nina ultimately turns to reading as therapy andthrough her journey illuminates the power of books to help us reclaim our lives.

28. A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks

There was a time when the world was sweeter....when the women in Beaufort, North Carolina, wore dresses, and the men donned hats.... Every April, when the wind smells of both the sea and lilacs, Landon Carter remembers 1958, his last year at Beaufort High. Landon had dated a girl or two, and even once sworn that he'd been in love. Certainly the last person he thought he'd fall for was Jamie, the shy, almost ethereal daughter of the town's Baptist minister....Jamie, who was destined to show him the depths of the human heart-and the joy and pain of living.

29. A Death in the Family (Penguin Classics) by James Agee

Published in 1957, two years after its author's death at the age of forty-five, A Death in the Family remains a near-perfect work of art, an autobiographical novel that contains one of the most evocative depictions of loss and grief ever written. As Jay Follet hurries back to his home in Knoxville, Tennessee, he is killed in a car accident - a tragedy that destroys not only a life, but also the domestic happiness and contentment of a young family. A novel of great courage, lyric force, and powerful emotion, A Death in the Family is a masterpiece of American literature.

30. Night (Night) by Elie Wiesel

Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Wiesel, Elie's wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author's original intent. And in a substantive new preface, Elie reflects on the enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to ensuring that the world never forgets man's capacity for inhumanity to man.

31. Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral by Kris Radish

For Katherine Givens and the four women about to become her best friends, the adventure begins with a UPS package. Inside is a pair of red sneakers filled with ashes and a note that will forever change their lives. Katherine's oldest and dearest friend, the irrepressible Annie Freeman, left one final request-a traveling funeral-and she wants the most important women in her life as "pallbearers." From Sonoma to Manhattan, Katherine, Laura, Rebecca, Jill, and Marie will carry Annie's ashes to the special places in her life. At every stop there's a surprise encounter and a small miracle waiting, and as they whoop it up across the country, attracting interest wherever they go, they share their deepest secrets-tales of broken hearts and second chances, missed opportunities and new beginnings. And as they grieve over what they've lost, they discover how much is still possible if only they can unravel the secret Annie left them....

32. A Lesson Before Dying (Oprah's Book Club) by Ernest J. Gaines

A Lesson Before Dying, is set in a small Cajun community in the late 1940s. Jefferson, a young black man, is an unwitting party to a liquor store shoot out in which three men are killed; the only survivor, he is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Grant Wiggins, who left his hometown for the university, has returned to the plantation school to teach. As he struggles with his decision whether to stay or escape to another state, his aunt and Jefferson's godmother persuade him to visit Jefferson in his cell and impart his learning and his pride to Jefferson before his death. In the end, the two men forge a bond as they both come to understand the simple heroism of resisting-and defying-the expected.
What do you guys think? Should we start a WYG book club? Go on and subscribe then.

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A few weeks ago, we put together the first half of a book list about death and grief. Today, we're finally getting around to posting the second half. Some of these books we've read, while others are on our 'want to read' list.

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Suicide is a public health issue. Media and online coverage of suicide should be informed by using best practices. Some suicide deaths may be newsworthy. However, the way media cover suicide can influence behavior negatively by contributing to contagion or positively by encouraging help-seeking.

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Suicide is a public health issue. Media and online coverage of suicide should be informed by using best practices. Some suicide deaths may be newsworthy. However, the way media cover suicide can influence behavior negatively by contributing to contagion or positively by encouraging help-seeking.

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Grief Out Loud- A Podcast by Dougy Center

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Grief Out Loud- A Podcast by Dougy Center

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Grief Out Loud Podcast | Listen & Subscribe | Dougy Center

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Produced by Dougy Center, we open up the often avoided conversation of grief. Hear personal stories, get tips, and gain insights from bereavement professionals.

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Death and grief are natural parts of the human experience, but addressing such heavy topics with kids can seem daunting.

There are many ways to dive into this conversation, and one powerful approach is through books. Authors of children's books have tackled how to explain death, the emotions that accompany loss, the grieving process and more in age-appropriate ways.

To aid parents in these discussions, we've rounded up 25 children's books that help kids understand death and grief.

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25 Children's Books That Explain Death And Grief To Kids

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These stories help kids understand and process loss.

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TAPS - Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors

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TAPS - Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors

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Wreaths Across America

Please honor and remember our country's fallen heroes by sponsoring a Remembrance Wreath that will be laid on the graves of our military and veteran loved ones.
Time is running out! Opportunity to purchase wreaths has been extended one more day. Sponsor Wreaths | Volunteer Orders for Arlington National Cemetery is extended until December 8.

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Tragedy Assistance Program For Survivors (TAPS) Is Here For You!

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Wreaths Across America Please honor and remember our country's fallen heroes by sponsoring a Remembrance Wreath that will be laid on the graves of our military and veteran loved ones. Time is running out! Opportunity to purchase wreaths has been extended one more day.

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A heartbreaking doctor's visit. A fate she never saw coming. She'd dig deep for the strength she so desperately needed...
Seattle, 2015. Jenny Lisk was happy with a perfectly normal, busy life. But after the usual bustling week, Friday night turned from downtime into mild alarm when her forty-three-year-old spouse shared that he'd been feeling dizzy. And after ten days of his condition steadily worsening, she still wasn't prepared for the stunning news: He was terminally ill.

Reeling from his diagnosis of an inoperable brain tumor, Jenny suddenly became not only a wife, mother, and career woman, but also a cancer-patient caregiver and parent of grieving children. And her many fears and uncertainties swirled around one relentless question:

Did she have what it takes to help her young family survive?

Through a vulnerable, honest account of preparing for the death of a loved one, Jenny shares tips and information about childhood grief, how to be there for mourning friends, and ways online communities provide essential support. And for those who feel lost and alone, or are grappling with any kind of loss, her deeply personal journey provides a universal beacon of hope.

Future Widow: Losing My Husband, Saving My Family, and Finding My Voice is a brave and raw narrative that doesn't pull any punches on the realities of caregiving and bereavement. If you like captivating stories, authentic inspiration, and understanding the grieving process, then you'll find encouragement in Jenny Lisk's touching memoir.

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Future Widow - Jenny Lisk | Widowed Parent Podcast

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A heartbreaking doctor's visit. A fate she never saw coming. She'd dig deep for the strength she so desperately needed... Seattle, 2015. Jenny Lisk was happy with a perfectly normal, busy life. But after the usual bustling week, Friday night turned from downtime into mild alarm when her forty-three-year-old spouse shared that he'd been feeling dizzy.

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Those who follow us on or who pay extra close attention to our sidebar (over to the right, silly!) may already know about the What's Your Grief Podcast-otherwise known as ' gabbing about grief,' 'chatting about coping,' and ' gossiping with the grief gals.'

On WYG's second birthday, we told you that-among other things-our mission for the next two years is to ensure there's support for all types of grievers. We know the ways in which grievers learn and the things they find helpful differ across the board and, with a world of technology available, it no longer makes sense to limit grief support to talk therapy and the written word.

The What's Your Grief Podcast is our first effort in providing grievers with more diverse options for grief support. The podcast can be found through our page and through Apple Podcasts, , and . Of course you can listen to all our existing episodes below, but-if you're interested in keeping up with the What's Your Grief Podcast- we strongly encourage you subscribe on one of these platforms. We would be infinitely grateful to anyone who writes us a review or rates the podcast while there, because this will help us connect with grievers who are already looking for support through the podcast platform.

If you have questions about the podcast or any of its content, please feel free to comment below or on the episode's individual show notes page. You can also send us an email at whatsyourgrief@gmail.com.

Dating a Widower and Other Topics

Grief in Six Words and Other Topics

Loneliness in Grief and Other Topics

How Attitudes About Death Impact Grief

Understanding the Difference Between Support and Comfort

Parenting While Grieving

Dealing with Valentine's Day After a Death

Expanding Our Understanding of Grief

Thinking About New Year's Resolutions

Your Questions About Holiday Grief Answered

The Guilt of Feeling Better and Living Life After a Loss

The Continuum of Negative Coping

Going Back to School After a Death

Milestones and Weddings After a Death

Locating Grief Support Locally and Beyond

Maintaining Relationships After a Death

Guilt and Regret in Grief

Supporting a Grieving Teenager

Handling Your Loved One's Belongings

12 Ways Grief Makes You Feel Crazy

All About Grief Friends

Continuing Bonds with Deceased Loved Ones

Grief and Special Days

Getting Realistic About Gratitude

Understanding Secondary Loss

Using Your Support System Effectively

Mastering Grief Triggers

Understanding the Five Stages of Grief

Extroverts and Grief

Introverts and Grief

Identifying Your Coping Style

Surviving the Grief of an Overdose

A Grief-Movie Review: Wild

Misconceptions About Grief

SWhen Condolences Go Wrong: What Not to Say to a Griever

Grief and the Holidays
Subscribe.
We post a new article to What's Your Grief about once a week. Subscribe to stay up to date on all our posts.

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What's Your Grief Podcast - A Podcast about Life After Loss

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Our mission is to ensure there's support for all types of grievers. We know that not everyone wants to read about grief... so, enter our new grief podcast.

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The ultimate goal in discussing death with a dying child is to optimize his or her comfort and alleviate any fears. If the child is not ready to discuss death, the most helpful step parents can take is to wait until he or she is ready.

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Compassionate Friends - Child (of any age) loss

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Compassionate Friends - Child (of any age) loss

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Dear Comfort Zone Camp Community,

I am so pleased to share that we are holding in-person camps! In fact, we've safely held seven so far this year! So what's next? We anticipate holding in-person camps with 1:1 matching of kids to adults for the remainder of the year. We also will continue to have the programs we launched during COVID--our virtual and in-person family camps. Both were very successful and will be incorporated into our menu of camp opportunities as we look forward to 2022.

Other Camp News: We have our first ever camp in West Virginia, October 22-24, 2021! Please help up spread the word! We also just held our first camp in Nevada and will be back in Utah this August.

This year, we have a camp in Virginia over the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy. We are working on a special way to honor the impacted families who became so close to us. Comfort Zone was one of the first programs to mobilize and help grieving families after the September 11th attacks. When that tragic event happened to our country, CZC was three years old and based only in Virginia; we knew at that moment that we needed to respond and expand our program to families up north.

Our events are also in full swing. Thanks to all those who participated in our Grief Relief National 5K and took the time to run, walk, and remember their loved ones! We have galas, golf tournaments, and more coming this fall. Make sure to check out our events calendar.

We are so grateful to everyone who has supported us for the past 22 years, especially through the pandemic. Grieving children and their families is our priority, and we remain committed to serving that community and making sure they always have a voice and a place.

Lynne Hughes, Founder & CEO

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Dear Comfort Zone Camp Community, I am so pleased to share that we are holding in-person camps! In fact, we've safely held seven so far this year! So what's next? We anticipate holding in-person camps with 1:1 matching of kids to adults for the remainder of the year.

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Acompáñanos para el arte que puede hacer desde la comodidad de su hogar. Los proyectos utilizarán elementos comunes que se encuentran en su hogar para crear algo maravilloso. La instrucción se dará en español, pero todos son bienvenidos.

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We are grateful for the funding support received from ARCC/Alliance for Research in Chicagoland Communities (Northwestern), Advocacy Grant/Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital and NAGC/National Alliance for Grieving Children.

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The problem with platitudes is there's always this ghost sentence. This second half of the sentence that we don't say out loud but is very, very clearly implied to the grieving person.

So, if you're grieving and I come to you and I say "At least you had them as long as you did," the second half of the sentence there is "... so don't be so sad."

"They would want you to be happy ... so stop feeling so sad."

The grieving person can hear the second half of the sentence even if you don't say it out loud. So a really cool and slightly uncomfortable exercise to do for yourself if you're thinking about things I might say to a grieving friend or family member, if you can add "so don't feel so bad" at the end of what you're thinking of saying, don't say it.

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Speaking Grief | Supporting Grief: What NOT to say

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The problem with platitudes is there's always this ghost sentence. This second half of the sentence that we don't say out loud but is very, very clearly implied to the grieving person. So, if you're grieving and I come to you and I say "At least you had them as long as you did," the second half of the sentence there is "...

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Below are interviews and webinars the Center have hosted with fellow grief and loss experts to support our families and the community. Each aims to highlight the diversity of how grief and loss can present in children and adults and how those supporting someone grieving can help. We will continue to update this page as new webinars happen, so please check back frequently for additional recordings.

Sign up for our newsletter or "like" us on Facebook to be notified of upcoming webinars.

"A Deeper Intercultural Exploration". This webinar will provide attendees with a deeper understanding of the impact on children and families that death or separation of family members has, and/or the collective loss experienced due to war and persecutions. Led by the Center's Intercultural Program Coordinator, Justine Mugabo and Intercultural Peer Support Training Specialist, Marie Sheffield, this webinar explores multi-systemic obstacles faced when seeking asylum in Maine, as well as culturally sensitive strategies to create a healing community.

"Foundations of Reflective Listening". Join Sara Asch, Bereavement Services Coordinator at the Center and Steve Hart, volunteer facilitator in a discussion on the foundations of reflective listening. We will delve into why it is at the core of the Center's peer support model and how it can be a useful tool when working with any form of loss, in many environments and relationships. Those new to reflective listening will gain a toolbox that will help ease conversations with those who are grieving, and all workshop attendees will gain understanding of the practical use of reflective listening, enriched by insights gained through its application at the Center for Grieving Children.

"Supporting Grieving Children at Home and School". The Center for Grieving Children invites parents and educators to join the Center's Assistant Director of Bereavement Services, Mary Bristol, LCSW and Bereavement Services Coordinator, Sara Asch, ET, MA in a discussion on how to support children at home and in school who are experiencing grief, trauma and difficult challenges. Information will be based on Mary and Sara's expertise, as well as the Center's 30+ years of supporting families and children who are experiencing life changing situations.

"Autism 101 and Grief". Join Lisa Morgan, M.Ed. CAS, in a discussion on autism and supporting autistic children and adults who are experiencing grief, trauma, and crisis situations. The Autism Crisis Support Toolkit Lisa has developed is included during this presentation.

"Children & Grief - Beyond the Basics". Center staff members Janice Zurlo, York County Coordinator, Jamie Schwellenbach, Tender Living Care Program Coordinator, and Marie Sheffield, Intercultural Peer Support Training Specialist provide a deeper understanding of the complexities of children's loss within the context of their environment, and the pandemic, and how to support them as they move through grief, loss, and change.

"Burying a Loved One During a Pandemic". Christine Rousselle, DC Correspondent at Catholic News Agency and Julie Ann Johnson, Funeral Director and General Manager at A.T. Hutchins join together for a conversation on the painful realities of planning a funeral and burying a loved one during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the loving support needed to begin the healing process.

Interview with Tory Riden from the Great Reboot with the Center's Executive Director, Anne Heros, discussing the work the Center has always done, and the shift made during these particularly stressful times of social distancing to keep serving grieving families and children; a time when the feeling of grief seems to freeze in place for those struggling. Our history is rich, as are the families and children we serve. However, one thing that always remains is our families and children are not alone on their journey to healing from grief. Please watch this comprehensive interview to learn more about the work we are committed to keep doing.

"Intercultural Perspectives". Led by Claudette Ndayininahaze, the Center's former Intercultural Program Manager and Marie Sheffield, Intercultural Peer Support Training Specialist, this webinar explores the needs of youth and families who have resettled locally from countries experiencing war, persecution and resettlement, and have experienced death of family members and the collective loss of their communities. This session shares culturally sensitive strategies to create a healing community for Intercultural youth and their families who have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and foster the development of belonging and individual and community resiliency.

"Facing Stigma". Center consultant Christine Linnehan, LCPC, BC-DMT, FT presents Restorative Interventions for Fostering Resilience in Children, Teens, and Families after Suicide Loss or Overdose. This webinar focuses on a restorative, trauma and bereavement-informed approach designed to address the impact of stigma on the grieving process and the overall well-being of the bereaved after a suicide or overdose loss. Christine explores practical and creative strategies as well as mind/body practices that can help the bereaved cope with the interplay of trauma and grief reactions; counteract shame and secrecy; and envision a path toward resilience, hope, and posttraumatic growth.

"How to Navigate Stress in Isolation". Our sincere gratitude to former Board President and facilitator Patrick Veroneau, M.S. of Emery Leadership Group for leading this timely webinar on coping with stress and building resiliency during uncertain times.

"Growing Through Grief, Loss and Trauma: How Grieving Families and Children Can Find Healing, Hope, and Resiliency". Our sincere thanks to Lisa Athan, M.A., grief specialist and Founder and Executive Director of Grief Speaks for addressing the multiple layers of loss facing families quarantined at home in her Keynote Presentation for the Center's Spring Bereavement Conference.

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Center For Grieving Children - Community Webinars

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Below are interviews and webinars the Center have hosted with fellow grief and loss experts to support our families and the community. Each aims to highlight the diversity of how grief and loss can present in children and adults and how those supporting someone grieving can help. We...

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Billy's Place is a community in the West Valley of Phoenix that provides comfort and companionship to kids and families experiencing grief-no matter where they are on their journey. Through support groups, special events, and a community of people who 'get it,' they help families rediscover moments of happiness without guilt. They nurture these moments as signs of hope for more promising days ahead.

Groups include family groups for kids who have lost a sibling, parent, or significant person in their lives, Young Adult Groups, a kids-only kicking back night, and a Traumatic Loss group which is those who have lost a loved one due to suicide, drug overdose, or homicide.

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Kai's Journey - A Series for Families Navigating Grief | New York Life Foundation

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Billy's Place is a community in the West Valley of Phoenix that provides comfort and companionship to kids and families experiencing grief-no matter where they are on their journey. Through support groups, special events, and a community of people who 'get it,' they help families rediscover moments of happiness without guilt.

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Every year, countless children experience the death of someone they love. Millions more are affected by a family member's substance use disorder. No child should face these struggles alone. Our unique programs give children the chance to cry, laugh, grow, and heal. Kids meet other kids in similar circumstances, and together, they grow stronger.

SAVE THE DATE

We invite you to celebrate our 20th year of service and honor the exceptional individuals and organizations that help deliver our mission to support children and families impacted by grief or addiction. Learn more to sponsor this event.

2021 TCS New York City Marathon

Do you have what it takes to go the distance? Run the 2021 TCS New York City Marathon with Team Eluna on Sunday, November 7! Let your love for running and desire to help children and families affected by grief or addiction fuel your training and push you through the toughest miles. Learn more to participate.

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Every year, countless children experience the death of someone they love. Millions more are affected by a family member's substance use disorder. No child should face these struggles alone. Our unique programs give children the chance to cry, laugh, grow, and heal. Kids meet other kids in similar circumstances, and together, they grow stronger.

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Brené reminds us that we can only create a genuine empathic connection if we are brave enough to really get in touch with our own emotions.

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Acompáñanos para el arte que puede hacer desde la comodidad de su hogar. Los proyectos utilizarán elementos comunes que se encuentran en su hogar para crear algo maravilloso. La instrucción se dará en español, pero todos son bienvenidos.

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Grief and Trauma in Children provides easy-to-implement, ready-to-use therapy materials to help busy practitioners use grief and trauma interventions in real-world settings. All interventions in the book have been developed and researched with clinicians who faced challenging environments, including devastating natural disasters, and in communities where ongoing violence victimized children directly. Even in these stressful environments, clinicians found the interventions easy to implement, effective in helping children acquire coping skills, and effective in decreasing traumatic symptoms in order to proceed with grieving without impaired functioning.

Grief and Trauma in Children blends cognitive-behavioral therapy methods and narrative practices to present an integrated grief and trauma model that can be delivered individually, to a group of children, or to a family. The book uses the Draw, Discuss, Write, Witness (DDWW) method to help children explore narratives of resilience and build coping capacity, engage in restorative stories about what happened, and reconnect and reengage in meaningful ways that allow the child to enjoy life again and get back on-track developmentally.

Grief and Trauma in Children also provides up-to-date research on childhood bereavement and trauma, a brief description of the theoretical framework of the Grief and Trauma Intervention (GTI) model, a description of session-by-session goals and activities, case examples with ways to address common challenges, and photocopiable tools for clinicians to easily implement the model, such as session agendas, fidelity checklists, handouts for parents, and activity sheets for children.

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Grief and Trauma in Children: An Evidence-Based Treatment Manual

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Grief and Trauma in Children provides easy-to-implement, ready-to-use therapy materials to help busy practitioners use grief and trauma interventions in real-world settings. All interventions in the book have been developed and researched with clinicians who faced challenging environments, including devastating natural disasters, and in communities where ongoing violence victimized children directly.

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Why it matters

Approximately six million children in the U.S. will experience the death of a parent, sibling or primary caregiver by the time they turn 18. Grieving youth are more likely to endure mental health challenges, poor academic performance, and negative long-term physical and financial outcomes than their non-grieving peers. Left unaddressed, childhood grief can undermine a child's future.

However, with the proper interventions and an ecosystem of support around them, grief can lead to remarkable resilience.

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Approximately six million children in the U.S. will experience the death of a parent, sibling or primary caregiver by the time they turn 18. Grieving youth are more likely to endure mental health challenges, poor academic performance, and negative long-term physical and financial outcomes than their non-grieving peers.

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Truth Be Told, Tell the Truth: Talking to Children About Suicide and Violent Deaths

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If you could draw a picture of your person who died, what would it look like? What do you miss about them? If you could talk to them, what would you say? What do you wish they knew about who you are now? Road to Resilience: Memories that Move Us Forward from StoryCorps, in partnership with the New York Life Foundation, leverages the power of stories and storytelling to help children cope with the death of a parent, sibling, or loved one.
Through this project, we partner with bereavement support organizations to provide opportunities for children and their families to preserve memories of their loved ones, share their grief journeys, or simply to record themselves as they are. Partnering organizations benefit from in-depth training from our team and special resources on how to adopt our interview model for the children they serve. We also provide tools, including adapted versions of our Great Questions lists, audio clips, and (coming in 2018) kid-friendly animations and discussion guides.

Featured Stories About Grief

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If you could draw a picture of your person who died, what would it look like? What do you miss about them? If you could talk to them, what would you say? What do you wish they knew about who you are now?

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Siete Sugerencias Para Explicar La Muerte a Los Niños/as/xs

En Englés: Seven Suggestions for Explaining Death to Children

1. Explique la causa inmediata de la muerte de manera simple y honesta: evite los eufemismos o dé una interpretación filosófica o religiosa: "Su padre murió de una enfermedad llamada cáncer", en lugar de "Dios se llevó a su padre porque era un buen hombre" o " Tu papá está visitando el cielo "o" Tu papá murió porque estaba muy enfermo ".

2. Ofrezca consuelo para sus miedos: los niños/as/xs que experiencian la muerte de un ser querido suelen temen por ellos mismos o por la vida de otros miembros de la familia. Hable abierta y honestamente con los niños/as/xs y explique que "la mayoría de la gente vive hasta que son muy viejos".

3. Ofrezca la seguridad de que no tienen la culpa de la muerte: muchas veces los niños/as/xs creen que "causaron" la muerte por mal comportamiento, discusión o deseo de daño. Explique claramente que esto no causa que alguien muera.

4. Use la terminología correcta al explicar lo que le sucede al cuerpo cuando alguien muere: indique claramente que el cuerpo de la persona ha dejado de funcionar, que la persona ha muerto y que no volverá. Explique el proceso de entierro/cremación y deje en claro que la persona no puede sentir ningún dolor.

5. Desarrolle un plan con niños/as/xs: decida y explíqueles quién los cuidará y amará si algo le sucede. "Mami no planea que le pase nada, pero si algo sucede, la tía Jenny estará allí para cuidar de ti".

6. Incluya a los niños/as/xs en los rituales de dolor familiar: explique lo que pueden esperar que suceda durante el ritual y pregúnteles si hay algo especial que les gustaría decir o hacer. Tenga un adulto atento allí para que lo apoye y responda cualquier pregunta que pueda tener.

7. Acepte los sentimientos de los niños/as/xs sobre la muerte: los niños/as/xs típicamente tienen una amplia gama de emociones después de una muerte. Los niños/as/xs expresan su dolor de manera diferente que los adultos. En su desarrollo solo pueden manejar pequeñas cantidades de dolor/pena a la vez; por lo tanto, pueden estar abiertamente tristes un momento y jugar felizmente al siguiente. Este es un comportamiento normal, especialmente para los niños/as/xs más pequeños.

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En Español: Siete Sugerencias para Explicar la Muerte a los Niños/as/xs

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En Englés: Seven Suggestions for Explaining Death to Children 1. Explique la causa inmediata de la muerte de manera simple y honesta: evite los eufemismos o dé una interpretación filosófica o religiosa: "Su padre murió de una enfermedad llamada cáncer", en lugar de "Dios se llevó a su padre porque era un buen hombre" o " Tu papá está visitando el cielo "o" Tu papá murió porque estaba muy enfermo ".

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Performing Arts Summer Camp for Young People Who Have Experienced the Death of a Parent

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Hearts to Art Camp | The Auditorium Theatre

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The Auditorium presents our award-winning summer camp, Hearts to Art! This unique performing arts camp brings together young people between the ages of 7 and 14 who have experienced the death of a parent to encourage the healing power of creative play. Through the exploration and creation of dance, theatre, and music, Hearts to Art inspires communication and collaboration, fosters emotional growth, and provides friendship, compassion and community. Through interaction with young people who have experienced a similar loss, campers understand they are not alone. Small group creative activities are facilitated by professional healing counselors, providing campers a safe time and place to express and share their feelings with peers. Counselors on site throughout the duration of camp to offer support as needed.

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Every day at Camp Kesem is an opportunity for campers to try something new, make great friends, and have fun!

While every Camp Kesem is different, here are some highlights from a typical day.

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Free summer camp for children coping with a parent's cancer

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Every day at Camp Kesem is an opportunity for campers to try something new, make great friends, and have fun! While every Camp Kesem is different, here are some highlights from a typical day.

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Camp bear hugs - a grief camp for kids through Aurora Health at Home

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A day camp for children ages 6-15 who have recently experienced the death of a loved one.

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Youth eligible to participate must be between the ages of 7-17 and have experienced the loss of a parent, sibling, or legal guardian to homicide. Free for participants

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Kids Above All's Camp Sheilah Program, an annual bereavement camp founded by the Sheilah A. Doyle Foundation in 2011, helps children ages 7-17 whose parent, legal guardian or sibling have been victims of homicide on their healing journey.

Campers who attend the three-day event participate in fun activities like rock climbing and zip lining that challenge them to do things that they normally wouldn't do, building resilience and helping them learn how to navigate difficult situations. They also take part in small group discussions and art therapy to help them remember and honor their family member, as well as assist them in working through the trauma they've experienced.

After several years of providing clinical support for the youth who attended camp, in 2020, Kids Above All entered into a formal partnership with the Sheilah A. Doyle Foundation, assuming operational control of Camp Sheilah. Read more about the partnership here.

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Kids Above All's Camp Sheilah Program, an annual bereavement camp founded by the Sheilah A. Doyle Foundation in 2011, helps children ages 7-17 whose parent, legal guardian or sibling have been victims of homicide on their healing journey.

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We partner with Illinois families and communities to help children and youth with special healthcare needs connect to services and resources.