This year, November 17th is Children’s Grief Awareness Day. The purpose of this day is to help raise awareness about the impact of death on children, to provide information that can aid others in supporting grieving children, and to share resources. This awareness day is timely, as the holiday season can be a particularly difficult time for many who have lost someone close to them. This can be especially hard for children to navigate, as they may face unique challenges while grieving during this time (not to mention most of their peers are filled with excitement about the season’s festivities) and often don’t have the ability to talk about or process it in the way that teens or adults do. Letting children know that they can talk to you about their loss and the feelings they’re having can really help reduce long-term negative outcomes in their life and development.

This month our #mymTips on Twitter are about coping with grief and loss, with a new tip posted each day at noon, so head to @mindyourmind_ca for some more helpful information on this topic!

Listed below are some free resources that may be helpful for youth who are grieving or those supporting them. You can also visit our Where to Call page for resources in Canada that provide crisis or other chat support.

Youth Grief - a website with content by grieving youth for grieving youth

Teenage Grief Sucks - a teen-run website that's starting conversations about teenage grief

Dougy Center - an organization that supports grieving children and families

Helpful and Unhelpful Comments - infographic with tips for what to say to someone grieving

Grief During the Holidays - a list of articles and resources for children grieving during holiday season

KidsGrief.ca - a website by the Canadian Virtual Hospice for talking to kids and teens about serious illness, dying and death

Rainbows Canada - programs for youth and children grieving any life-altering loss, not just death

Kids Breathing Exercise Cards - a pdf from the Bereavement Ontario Network