According to A Haven, one in five children will experience the death of someone close to them before they graduate high school. That means grief is already in your classroom, your neighborhood, and your faith/athletic/artistic community, whether you can see it or not. Many well-meaning people surrounding that grieving child have no idea how to show up.

In this final episode of our A Haven mini-series, Lisa sits down with Carrie Silver, Clinical Director of A Haven, a free child and family grief center in Exton, Pennsylvania, to talk about the village it takes to truly support a grieving child.

Carrie walks us through what teachers and school counselors can do right now for the grieving student in their building, why pushing for counseling too soon can actually backfire, and how grief groups at school give children something a 1:1 setting cannot fully replicate — the relief of knowing they are not the only one, they have a supportive community to lean on. We also talk about what grief looks like across different types of loss including suicide, violence, and anticipatory grief, and how to hold space for each with care.

For friends, neighbors, and community members, Carrie shares something beautifully practical: you never need permission to remember someone's person. A text. A calendar reminder set in advance. A message that says, "baseball season started and I thought of your dad." These small, consistent acts of remembrance are what grieving families carry with them long after the casseroles and cards stop coming.

Whether you're a parent, a teacher, a friend, or simply someone who loves a grieving family and wants to show up well, this episode will give you the language, the posture, and the courage to do it.

Check out the other episodes in this series:

Episode 45 - It's Okay to Say Died: How to Talk to Children About Death at Any Age

Episode 49 - The Whole Family Grieves: Supporting Every Child in the House, Even When They Grieve Differently

Connect with A Haven: ahaven.org | Instagram: @ahaven.chesterco | LinkedIn & Facebook: A Haven | Email: Carrie Silver, Clinical Director carrie@ahaven.org

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Special thanks to:

Podcast Editor Jacqueline van Bierk of Pink Star Music

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