Uplift Center for Grieving Children

The holidays can be particularly difficult when you are grieving a loved one. Our holiday tip sheet offers suggestions for self-care, communication, and creating new rituals.

#ThankfulThursday gratitude to The Barra Foundation, which awarded Uplift a total of $50,000 in 2020 as part of their Recovery and Response Efforts initiative. In considering how to address the needs of the sector, Barra Board and staff agreed to fund with the aim of addressing the dual pandemics we are facing: the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color and racial injustice. Uplift is so grateful to the Barra Foundation for enriching all aspects of our programs, and we honor their commitment to organizations that further racial and social justice.

Celebrate Kwanzaa with the The African American Museum in Philadelphia this weekend at Franklin Square on December 26 and 27 from 1:30pm - 5:00pm. Enjoy live music, crafts, and live poetry and storytelling.

#UpliftAtHome: Katherine DiPierro is Uplift’s Development and Communications Associate. In this video from our Uplift At Home series, Katherine reads Frederick by Caldecott Honor-winning children’s book author and illustrator Leo Lionni.

Video documenting Walter Wallace, Jr.’s killing has sparked conversation about the necessity of videos of community violence. According to Dr. Howard Stevenson, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania whose research focuses on the effects of racial trauma and stress on childhood development, watching police shoot someone who looks like you and perceiving that the person was killed unnecessarily can inspire a fight-or-flight stress response.

In commemoration of Children’s Grief Awareness Month, Uplift will share activities developed by clinicians that are designed to bring calm for kids and their caregivers alike every Thursday. Today, we’re sharing a video by Meghan Szafran, Uplift's Director of School and Community Services. In this video, Meghan, together with her daughter Abby, show viewers how to make a worry box as a way of coping with loss and change.

November is Children’s Grief Awareness Month, and this year the NAGC National Alliance for Grieving Children has launched GriefTalk, an initiative aimed at encouraging honest discussions of death and grief with children and teens. Click through to view their free toolkit Talking To Children about Death and Dying. https://childrengrieve.org/2-unca/grieftalk-resource-guides

It’s #ElectionDay2020 in the United States! If you can exercise your right to vote, today is your deadline for casting a vote. It’s also not too late to create an election safety plan. This checklist from Anti-Racism Daily offers advice on self-care as well as community care, including political and logistical organization to help your neighbors be safe.

#MondayMotivation via novelist and journalist Gabriel García Márquez: "Each man is master of his own death, and all that we can do when the time comes is to help him die without fear of pain."

From Modern Loss: sometimes grief feels like a roller coaster, and other times it feel like a haunted house: bizarre; incredibly complex; and involving boogeymen.

Happening this weekend: The Movement 4 Black & Brown Lives in Montgomery County is calling for a countywide peaceful protest/rally at the Norristown Courthouse to denounce white-supremacy and unite with the intention to dismantle systemic racism. They are asking partners across various fields, sectors, and expertise to commit to the work of dismantling this philosophy within the respective spaces they occupy.

There are two opportunities to give and receive winter clothing essentials this weekend in West Philly. Faculty from William C. Bryant Promise Academy are accepting donations of non-perishable foods, school supplies, winter coats, gloves and scarves, baby supplies, shoes, and other clothes. Food and clothes collection will take place on the following days and times: Friday, October 30 9:30 AM - 5:00 PM... 522 Hazel Ave. Saturday, October 31 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM Bryant Promise Academy parking lot (61st St., between Hazel Ave. and Cedar Ave.) On Sunday, November 1, City Wide Mutual Aid will distribute winter clothing and essentials at Malcolm X Park (5100 Pine St.) from 12:00 PM - 2:00 P.M. To contribute to this and future supply runs for mutual aid distributions, funds may be sent to: Venmo: @Jenna-Brower (last four digits 2349) CashApp: $CityWideMutualAid PayPal: [email protected]

#ThankfulThursday appreciation to Uplift's own YPB, shown last night at our second Virtual Quizzo Night. We were able to raise $250 thanks to player registrations and donations. Thank you to all who joined us for Quizzo fun!

Dr. Tashel Bordere is an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Science at Mizzou. Her research focuses on grief and loss among African American youth, who often experience what she’s identified as suffocated grief. What I have found in my research and with a lot of different populations who are marginalized in particular, is that not only is the grief experience unacknowledged, but they're often penalties that accompany normal grief expressions, says Dr. Bordere.