National Children’s Grief Awareness Day

National Children’s Grief Awareness Day is observed every year on the Thursday before Thanksgiving. This time of year is a particularly appropriate time to support grieving children because the holiday season is often an especially difficult time after a death. Children’s Grief Awareness Day seeks to bring attention to the fact that often support can make all the difference in the life of a grieving child. This year Children’s Grief Awareness Day will be observed on Thursday, November 19, 2015. This day provides us the opportunity to recognize and support the millions of grieving children across the nation- the thousands of grieving children in our own communities- and the grieving children we know and see in our daily lives.

Before they graduate from high school, one child out of every 20 will have a parent die-and that number doesn’t include those who experience the death of a brother or sister, a close grandparent, aunt or uncle, or a friend.

Children who have had someone die can feel the loss forever. They eventually go back to 

 school. They might pick some activities back up. They certainly look “normal”…and yet there’s still that hole inside.

Why should we raise awareness for grieving kids and teens? 

·         Most people don’t realize that it takes most children much longer to deal with their grief than we expect and that the amount of inner turmoil, invisible to most, is much more intense than we have any idea.

·         We raise awareness so that people will realize that even if there aren’t any outward signs of inner turmoil, those storms can still be raging inside a grieving child’s heart.

·         We raise awareness so that people will understand that a grieving child can’t just “get over it”- not in any set time period and not by any act of their own will-and that there’s no reason that they should just “get over it.”

·         We raise awareness in order to help people learn ways they might help a grieving child they happen to know, now or in the future.  

How to show your support: 

·         Write a message of support on a “Hope the Blue Butterfly” picture provided by Healing House and display it in a central location.  “Hope” can be downloaded at healing-house.org.

·         Take a picture with your family, friends, or coworkers dressed in blue and post it on the Healing House Facebook page.

·         Make National Children’s Grief Awareness Day, Thursday, November 19, a blue jean or blue shirt day as an outward sign of your support.

Healing House; Hope for Grieving Children, located in downtown Lafayette, provides grief support groups for children age 4-17 that have experienced the death of a parent or a sibling. Healing House is the only non-profit children’s grief center within a 150 mile radius.  For more information about Children’s Grief Awareness Day, or grief support services provided by Healing House, please visit our website at www.healing-house.org.