Schools play a vital role today in ensuring that our children are able to learn, grow and develop as human beings. Children spend a majority of their lives in school. And all over the country children are grieving due to divorce, death, illness, deportation, incarceration, deployment of a family member, and so much more.
Grieving children and teens are at risk for poor school performance, absenteeism, mental health issues, addiction, behavior problems and depression.
In October 2020, the American Federation of Teachers released a survey in which 95% of educators say they would like to do more to help grieving students and 91% of educators say they would be interested in participating in bereavement training.
Our education programs offer that training.
We do this by training school administrators, staff, parents, and students themselves, on how to support grieving youth.
You can elect one or more of the following options or choose all four to become an Imagine University grief-informed school:
This workshop is presented in homeroom, health or guidance classes. (Available for grades 3-12)
This training helps students:
This workshop is presented in health or guidance classes.
(Available for grades 3-12)
This training teaches five power tools that are needed to cope with any type of loss. The overall goal is to help students develop an internal locus of control to remind them that, even in times of loss and when they’re feeling powerlessness, they still have power.
Training for student mentors (Available for grades 6-12)
Student mentors are leaders who help create a grief-informed school community by sharing their stories of loss with their fellow students as a part of the grief education described above.
Student mentors receive a two-and-a-half-hour training which gives an in-depth training and discussion of the above learning objectives, provides a one-time grief support group and offers the option of sharing their story during the grief education presentation.
This training provides information on grief and loss along with strategies for how to support grieving students and coworkers. This workshop can be anywhere from an hour to a full day of training.
This training teaches parents how to support their child when they encounter a loss and how to help their child learn coping skills for dealing with loss. This workshop can be an hour and a half to two hours in length.
This comprehensive training equips districts to have a grief and loss specialist in each school building who can oversee the ongoing creation of a grief-informed school and who will be the point of contact in the aftermath of any loss that impacts the school community. This training can be anywhere from a half-day to three full days.
Our friends at The Dougy Center compiled extensive research on the values of becoming a grief-informed district. You can view their findings here.
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