Integrating Evidence-Based Grief-informed Strategies & Activities for System-Involved Youth & Families

Jessica Porté

Training Description

1 in 12 children are impacted by the death of a sibling or parent by the time they are 18 years old. Proper grief-informed education, support, and resources are known to greatly reduce the impact of stressors related to loss and support healthy development (CBEM,2022). Since grief processing for system-involved youth and teens differs from adults, they may benefit from alternative options in expressions, storytelling, and healthy coping strategy development. This training will focus on utilizing activities rooted in evidence that are appropriate for system-involved youth that have experienced grief and loss.

Learning Objectives

● Participants will be able to identify and apply two strategies that consider development, a grief framework, and a child-centered approach.

● Participants will be able to identify and distinguish between five factors that can impact a system-involved youth’s bereavement.

● Participants will be able to integrate four areas that impact grief and loss experience in system-involved youth.

Agenda

10:00-10:15am  Introduction and Objectives

10:15-10:20am  Assess attendees. What do they want from the group and what are the desired outcomes?

10:20-11:10am  Overview of Childhood Bereavement. Why is it different? What are the considerations needed in interventions.

11:10-11:35am  What is grief? Emotional, Physical, Social, Behavioral - Activities

11:35-11:55am  Let’s try it! Break Out Room - Grief activity and facilitation - 10 minutes in facilitation in the breakout room, 10 minutes in larger group discussion together

11:55am-12:15pm  Grief-informed Care - Increasing coping skills and connection. Introducing activities

12:15-12:35pm  Let’s try it! Break Out Room - Grief activity and facilitation - 10 minutes in facilitation in the breakout room, 10 minutes in larger group discussion together

12:35-12:45pm  Overall Questions & Answers

12:45-1:00pm  Wrap-up & Closing

Meet Our Trainer

Jessica Porte is a consultant and grief educator with over 13 years of experience in the nonprofit sector. As the founder of Wayfinder Family Co., she focuses on person-centered change management and adaptive leadership. Jessica has been a driving force in supporting children, families, and communities dealing with grief, substance use disorders, foster care, and impactful losses. Her expertise includes program development, leadership, change management, and crisis response. With a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Masters in Leadership, Jessica utilizes science-based strategies and human design thinking to equip individuals and communities with tools to navigate the multifaceted impacts of loss. She is certified in Psychological First Aid and a Lego® Serious Play® facilitator. Active in organizations such as the National Alliance for Children Grieving and the Coalition for Grieving Students, Jessica also volunteers for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

This course meets the qualifications for (3) BBS CE hours for LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, and LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences & is provided by Fred Finch Youth Center, CAMFT Provider #045295.