Supporting grieving children is crucial as they navigate the complex emotions and challenges that come with loss. Providing a safe space for children to express their feelings and fears can help them cope and heal. Tools for care providers, such as grief counseling techniques tailored to children’s developmental stages, storybooks addressing loss, and art therapy activities, can facilitate meaningful conversations and aid in their understanding of death and the grieving process. These resources empower caregivers to offer sensitive and effective support, fostering resilience and emotional well-being in grieving children during their journey towards healing and acceptance.

There are a number of these resources available online to help grieving children. The Eluna Network has an online Library of Childhood Grief Resources, covering topics such as how to talk to kids about death, what kinds of grief responses to expect, as well as activities, books and tools, all free to download and print.

The National Center for Grieving Children & Families provides a FREE Teachers’ Guide to Talking About Death, which includes an overview of the stages children go through in their understanding of death, and classroom suggestions to help children deal with death.

And the Fernside Center for Grieving Children provides FREE “How to Help” booklets for a number of grief situations, including how to help a child process the suicide of a friend or family member.

There are also several online camps and programs, including “Camp Erin”, which provides FREE grief support to youth and their families, as well as young adults, grieving the death of a significant person in their lives. The programming includes monthly grief support groups and quarterly specialty grief expression events, incorporating a mixture of live Zoom meetings, recorded videos and guided independent family activities. The programming is free of charge for all participants. Led by bereavement professionals, the program helps children tell their story in a safe environment; process grief in healthy ways; meet other youth and families with shared experiences; build a tool-box of coping skills; as well as honor and memorialize their loved ones.

You can request more information about the Camp Erin program, via a form on their webpage, as well as view a list of other online program offerings.

You can find more resources related to child development and mental health by selecting the “child development” and/or “mental health” category tabs on our “Social Service Utilization Library” page.