Fact Sheet
(Note: A printable PDF version of this Fact Sheet is available as part of the Children's Grief Awareness Day Toolkit.)
What is Children's Grief Awareness Day?
- Children's Grief Awareness Day is observed the third Thursday in November (the Thursday before the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving) every year. In 2013, it is November 21.
- Children's Grief Awareness Day is a day focused on bringing to mind the children all around us who have experienced the death of a loved one—children who typically feel very alone in the journey of grief they travel.
- Children's Grief Awareness Day is an opportunity to let grieving children know that they aren't forgotten in the midst of their grief.
How can I participate in Children's Grief Awareness Day?
There are many possible ways to participate in Children's Grief Awareness Day but the easiest ways are:
- Wear blue on that day and let people know why you're wearing blue.
- Visit the Children's Grief Awareness Day Facebook page and join in the conversation while you're there.
- Join the Holding on to HOPE campaign at any time of the year to show grieving children that there really is hope that it won't always hurt so badly.
- If you'd like to take the next step in raising awareness, read about more ideas.
Why raise awareness for grieving kids and teens?
- There are more grieving children than most of us realize—one out of 20 children will experience the death of a parent before they graduate from high school while one out of every seven children will face the death of someone close to them.
- Many people don't realize that it takes most children much longer to deal with their grief than we expect and that the amount of inner turmoil, invisible to most, is much more intense than we have any idea of.
- We raise awareness so that people will realize that even if there aren't any outward signs of inner turmoil, those storms can still be raging inside a grieving child's heart.
- We raise awareness so that people will understand that a grieving child can't just "get over it"—not in any set time period and not by any act of their own will—and that there's no reason that they should just "get over it."
- We raise awareness in order to help people learn ways they might help a grieving child they happen to know, now or in the future.
