Lincoln Park observes Children’s Grief Awareness Day

For the fourth consecutive year, Lincoln Park marked Children’s Grief Awareness Day to show support to the grieving youth around us.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Children’s Grief Awareness Day was created by the Highmark Caring Place to help others understand the impact of death on children and adolescents and their need for support.

This year, Lincoln Park showed support with a Children’s Grief Awareness Day table in the lunch room. Students who are part of the Youth Ambassador team — a program dedicated specifically to youth mental health here in Beaver County —handed out resources and spoke to their peers about how to both give and receive support regarding the loss of a loved one. Students and staff alike showed support by wearing the color blue.

“We started my first year here at the school in 2015,” said Lincoln Park Guidance Counselor Henry Ford. “This is a cause that I especially care about and has led me to become a certified grief and loss specialist within the field of professional counseling.”

Ford said one out of 20 children will experience the death of a parent before they graduate from high school, while one out of every five children will face the death of someone close to them.

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. That’s why the day is recognized on the third Thursday in November — the Thursday before the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving.

“A message I always deliver to youth is that you don’t need to be a counselor to simply be a friend to someone, and to adults, that you do not need to be a specialist to simply be there for a child. In schools, this is a day where we help equip students with the tools to be effective listeners and supporters to their peers.”

Ford has volunteered as a group facilitator at the Highmark Caring Place in Warrendale, and he said the Pittsburgh-based organization continues to be a fantastic resource for families and schools in the area, with locations in Pittsburgh, Warrendale, Erie and Harrisburg.

Children’s Grief Awareness Day has grown immensely since 2008 and is now recognized all over the world. The day connects people via a wide social media presence as well. Students took selfie photos with an enlarged Hope the Butterfly, a Caring companion, and were encouraged to post their photos on social media using #CGADHope.

“I always tell students, ‘This is the one day of the year where your school counselor is encouraging you to be on social media,’” he said.

Learn more about Children’s Grief Awareness Day by visiting www.ChildrensGriefAwarenessDay.org