In honor of Children’s Grief Awareness Month (November), the National Alliance for Grieving Children (NAGC) is proud to host a national webcast on children’s grief on November 8, 2018. Featuring nationally recognized leaders in the field of childhood bereavement, the educational webcast is geared towards professionals in the fields of funeral services, hospice care, health care, education, mental health, child welfare and bereavement support.
The half-day conference will be webcast live from 11:30 a.m. ET to 3:30 p.m. ET from Princeton, NJ, with the support Good Grief.
Hosting a webcast viewing event at your funeral home is an easy and affordable way for you to:
- Educate your community
- Offer innovative training for your staff
- Enhance your local relationships with allied professionals by inviting social workers, hospice care workers, educators and/or mental health professionals.
In an effort to increase awareness around the issue of childhood bereavement, the webcast is offered to individuals and organizations at a low price ($150 per site) with the encouragement that they will host a live webcast viewing event within their own community. This conference offers the opportunity for you to affordably bring together a wide range of people to view the live webcast and afterwards discuss what you learned and how it applies to your community.
This year’s webcast is entitled “Ethically Supporting Youth and Schools After a Community Tragedy”. The webcast will feature three one-hour sessions. Local host sites also have the option of conducting an on-site discussion/reflection on what they learned once the live webcast ends.
The first session will be delivered by Donna L. Schuurman, Ed.D. Drawing on her experience with community responses to both U.S. and international large-scale disasters, Dr. Schuurman will share “lessons observed” following human-initiated and natural disasters. Effective outreach following high profile events involving deaths requires planning and coordination. In this talk she will weave professional experience with research findings on what to include or consider when assisting people in communities impacted by high-profile tragic events.
Dr. Schuurman currently serves as the Senior Director of Advocacy & Training at The Dougy Center for Grieving Children & Families, since 1986. Author of Never the Same: Coming to Terms with the Death of a Parent, Dr. Schuurman is a member of the International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement, and a founding board member of The NAGC. She has trained the NTSB and FBI’s Rapid Deployment teams, as well as medical personnel, NGO staff and caregivers following major disasters around the world.
The second session will feature David J. Schonfeld, MD, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician and a member the American Academy of Pediatrics Disaster Preparedness Advisory Council who served as a Commissioner for both the National Commission on Children and Disasters and the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission in Connecticut. Dr. Schonfeld established and directs the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement at the University of Southern California. Drawing from more than 30 years’ experience responding to school and community crisis events, Dr. Schonfeld will provide examples and answer questions from participants and will highlight free resources for supporting children, families and professionals in the aftermath of crisis and loss.
The third and final session will be presented by Meghan Szafran, MS, CT and Kevin Carter. Currently on staff at The Center for Grieving Children in Philadelphia, PA. Ms. Szafran and Mr. Carter’s session will focus on their center’s successful school-based grief support program which is implemented in over 100 schools each year.
Registration for the NAGC’s 2018 Fall Conference & Webcast on Children's Grief will be open through November 1st. Questions about the Fall Conference and Webcast can be directed to Megan.Lopez@childrengrieve.org. Registration is online at https://childrengrieve.org/education/2018-fall-conference-and-webcast.
Other Resources
Download: Event flyer from the National Alliance of Grieving Children
Learn more about the Funeral Service Foundation's Youth & Funerals initiative