How would you know if your community was grief literate?
In 2018, the Public Health sub-group of the International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement asked themselves this question. From their reflection they developed and defined the concept: Grief Literacy.
Grief Literacy is the capacity to access, process and use knowledge about the experience of loss to better support people who are grieving in our communities. While grief is universal, Grief Literacy will be unique to each community. Grief literacy is a fundamental component of societies that value compassion, community, and mutual support. Broad acceptance and further development of Grief Literacy depends on open communication, identifying challenges and obstacles to promote awareness, and inspiring action aimed at creating more compassionate communities around us.
The idea of Grief Literacy has spread around the world – Grief Literacy belongs to everyone!
Grief Literacy asks us all to reflect on: How would we know if our social worlds were grief literate? Our understandings of Grief Literacy and our abilities to transform these understandings into action will be developed and deepened through the conference, Grief Literacy: From Theory to Action.
The goals of this conference are to:
- Provide a conceptual overview of Grief Literacy;
- Showcase examples of Grief Literacy from around the world;
- Provide tools for participants to move ‘from theory to action’ in their own communities.
Grief Literacy: From Theory to Action is being held at Dalhousie University on Saturday September 30, 2023. In Canada, September 30 is the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation: “The day honours the children who never returned home and Survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities. Public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process.”
The National Day of Truth and Reconciliation is a day of ACTION. Together, at this conference, we will honour the grief of Indigenous peoples in Canada and imagine together how Grief Literacy can be developed and supported in all our communities.
September 30 is also Orange Shirt Day: “an Indigenous-led grassroots commemorative day intended to raise awareness of the individual, family and community inter-generational impacts of residential schools, and to promote the concept of ‘Every Child Matters.’” The orange shirt is a symbol of the stripping away of culture, freedom and self-esteem experienced by Indigenous children over generations.
We encourage all participants to read about Orange Shirt Day and wear orange to honour the thousands of Survivors of residential schools
Registration
Click here for Registration.
This conference is part of Good Grief, Nova Scotia!, a province-wide week of grief-related activities.
Note: Registration fees will include the one-day conference, two coffee breaks, and a light lunch. If possible, please bring your own coffee cups and water bottles.
Getting to the Conference
The Conference will be held at the Collaborative Health Education Building (CHEB, Room 170) at Dalhousie University (5793 University Avenue). Click on the "Explore Map" on the right for specific directions, parking locations, and information on Halifax Transit routes.
Parking is FREE in Halifax on Saturdays!
Click here for Speakers and Agenda
Read before you come!
If you are interested, there are many resources about Grief Literacy that you could read before the Conference:
- Cadell, Breen, Kawashima, Joy, Rothe, Chow, & Macdonald (2020). Grief in the time of COVID-19. Medium.com
- Cadell, Joy, Cherblanc, & Macdonald (2021). As COVID-19 restrictions lift, grief literacy can help us support those around us. The Conversation
- Brett, M (2021). Supporting those grieving requires ‘literacy’, scholar suggests. McGill University Health e-News.
- Breen, Kawashima, Cadell, Joy, Rothe, Chow, & Macdonald (2022). Grief literacy: A call to action for Compassionate Communities. Death Studies, 46(2), 425-433
In conjunction with:
The Public Health Work Group from The International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement
The International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement (IWG) is an organization of clinicians, researchers, educators, theorists, and practitioners involved in disciplines related to thanatology. It was founded in 1974 by pioneers in the field.
IWG members and invited guests meet in person every 18-24 months to engage in intensive work groups with topics designated by attendees. Some groups choose process-oriented engagement and others set goals around producing papers for publication or distribution. Woven into the meeting are opportunities for exploring local cultural aspects at the site of the meeting, social time together, and lively interchange on relevant topics.
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