Evaluation & Dissemination of a Bereavement Support Intervention for LGBTQIA+ Youth

Evaluation & Dissemination of a Bereavement Support Intervention for LGBTQIA+ Youth

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and gender non-conforming youth, are impacted by high rates of traumatic loss, as well as by the experience of suffocated and disenfranchised grief, much of it caused by the stigma, shaming and violence directed at LGBT people. These youth can also have unique bereavement concerns, distinct from their heterosexual and cisgender peers, given the ways that the developmental trajectory of LGBT adolescents can intersect with the processes of mourning and grief.

The Hetrick-Martin Institute (HMI) is one of the nation’s oldest and largest LGBT youth-serving organizations, providing primarily Black and Latino youth with mental health services and an array of youth development programs. In response to the numbers of bereaved youth seeking counseling services at HMI, and the regularity with which our community mourns the loss of young people, many of whom die by violence and suicide, the Institute has developed a curriculum-driven group intervention to support bereaved youth, focused on resilience, coping with loss, and finding connections with LGBT ancestors. The curriculum teaches youth about LGBT history and collective responses to loss and trauma, so that youth can learn how to transform pain through creative expression, social action, and community celebrations. The intervention, titled “Survivance and Queer Youth,” is grounded in Shawn Ginwright’s concept of “Healing-Centered Engagement” which is a strength-based approach, and views those exposed to trauma as active agents in the creation of their own healing. Healing-Centered Engagement advances a collective view of healing, and re-centers culture, healthy identity, and a sense of belonging as central features in well-being.

Staff from HMI will present on the implementation and dissemination of this community-based bereavement support program, and will share results from our program evaluation which includes quantitative data from seven (7) youth centers located across the country, and qualitative data about the Facilitator Training.

members only iconThis playback is available to active NACG members only.

Members must be logged into the member portal to access the playback. Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

 

Continuing Education (CE) credits are not available for webinar playbacks.
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals, school professionals
Instructional Level: Basic – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way
Format: Live Interactive Webinar

 

Objectives:

After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

  • Recognize and articulate the types of non-death losses experienced by LGBT youth, and the reasons for higher rates of bereavement and early death among this population.
  • Identify and understand the psychosocial phenomenon of disenfranchised grief and suffocated grief among LGBTQ youth communities.
  • Articulate best practices for counseling and supporting bereaved LGBTQ youth and adolescents using approaches drawn from Healing-Centered Engagement

 

Speaker Bio:

Zola Bruce is a dynamic social worker, educator, writer, and interdisciplinary artist whose work centers on experiential learning, leadership development, creative program design, healing, and community-based education. Originally from Dallas, Texas, Zola relocated to New York to attend Sarah Lawrence College, where they studied psychology and sculpture. Their global perspective was further shaped by a semester abroad in Kingston, Jamaica, with The School for International Training, focusing on Gender and Development.

Zola earned their Master of Science in Social Work from Columbia University in 2001 and spent over a decade advancing youth development initiatives across New York City. Their work with organizations such as the Center for Family Life, McBurney YMCA, the LGBTQ Center, and The Center for Anti-Violence Education emphasized therapeutic programming for youth and families, with a strong commitment to social justice and healing.

Internationally, Zola founded Unified for Global Healing, a nonprofit dedicated to grassroots community health initiatives in Haiti, Ghana, and India. Through the use of art as a universal language, they fostered cross-cultural dialogue and connection beyond barriers of language, class, and culture. They also led youth programming in Kyoto, Japan, as part of World Learning’s Arts & Culture initiative.

Blending their passions for art, activism, and social work, Zola served as Associate Director of Communications & Impact at The Center for Anti-Violence Education and continues to consult and speak at activist events. Currently, they serve as Manager of Bereavement and Mental Health Services at the Hetrick-Martin Institute and teach as an Adjunct Professor at Hunter College.

Zola resides in Brooklyn, where they remain deeply engaged in creative and community-centered work.

Creative Pathways Through Grief and Loss: Culturally Affirming Approaches with Black Children and Families

This workshop explores the use of creative therapies—art, music, storytelling, and movement—in therapeutic work with Black clients navigating grief and loss. Grounded in cultural humility and historical awareness, the session highlights how culturally affirming practices foster resilience, connection, and healing. Participants will leave with practical strategies and interactive tools to integrate creative, culturally responsive approaches into their work with children, youth, and families who are grieving.

 

Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

 

Target Audience: The event is for mental health professionals, educators, grief counselors, social workers, bereavement support staff, community members, funeral professionals, and volunteers – anyone who works with or supports children and families who are bereaved.
Instructional Level: Basic – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way
Format: Live Interactive Webinar

 

After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

  • Explore creative therapies (art, music, storytelling, movement) in grief work
  • Understand unique grief responses in Black communities
  • Learn culturally affirming strategies for therapeutic work
  • Foster resilience and connection through practice

 

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Brianne (Brie) L. Overton, FT, LPC-S, NCC, is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Illinois and Missouri. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy in Education in Counseling and Master of Education in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from the University of Missouri–St. Louis, and her MA in Thanatology from Hood College. She is the author of My Grief Comfort Book – Creative Activities to Help Kids Cope with Loss and Keep Memories Alive. Her current research explores the grief gap and its impact on BIPOC, young adults navigating terminal illness and changes to their life trajectory, as well as supporting bereaved family members after loss. Dr. Overton has extensive experience working in nonprofit settings, supporting grieving youth and families who have experienced the death of a parent, sibling, or primary caregiver by providing resources, advocacy, and education. She previously served as Chief Clinical Officer for Experience Camps, a national nonprofit that offers no-fee, clinically informed programs for children who have experienced death-related losses. In addition to educating and supervising master’s level clinicians, she has spent 18 years in thanatology, offering grief counseling, death education, suicide prevention and intervention, and consultation.

 

New York Life Foundation logo

Supported by the philanthropic investment
of the New York Life Foundation.

In Today’s World: Cultivating Collective Intercultural Wellbeing and a Sense of Belonging in the Community

In today’s multiple pandemics of oppression, mass trauma, forced migration, COVID-19, and climate change, there is sustained traumatic stress with corresponding opportunities to heal. Historic, collective, and intergenerational trauma have spread dis-ease throughout human nature. Humanity has experienced more and more fragmentation, collective violence, and isolation.

In this workshop attendees will begin to understand the effects of collective loss due to war, persecution, and terrorism, its impact on children and families, as well as healing through the re-establishment of belonging. “Humans sitting within trauma from war, persecution, and terrorism tell us over and over again how much the systems of oppression need to change for healing to occur. In fact, they state that the first step in healing is not so much about revealing the darkest traumatic memories. The greatest healing, they report, is having a sense of belonging in the community.” (St. Thomas, Sheffield and Johnson. (2024) Collective Trauma and Human Suffering.)

Participants will learn the growing pains and evolution of a 25 year old bereavement and intercultural program. We will share a documentary film on collective loss produced by the Intercultural Advisory Council at the Center for Grieving Children in Maine. This documentary shares the added complexities of cross cultural definitions of collective loss, grief, as well as acculturative stress. We will explore inhibitors of cross-cultural communication and the five essentials of collective healing towards belonging.

members only iconThis playback is available to active NACG members only.

Members must be logged into the member portal to access the playback. Not currently a member? Become a NACG member today! Your membership will provide access to free monthly webinars with CEs on current topics to support you in your work, discounts on educational events, access to all webinar playbacks, and more. To learn more and become a member to access this webinar for no additional cost, visit HERE →

 

Continuing Education (CE) credits are not available for webinar playbacks.
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals
Instructional Level: Basic – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way.
Format: Live Interactive Webinar

 

Objectives:

After attending this webinar, participants will be able to:

  • Identify at least three strategies in bringing belonging to intercultural settings.
  • Identify the top three inhibitors to cross-cultural communication.
  • Learn the five essentials to collective healing.
  • Explore and identify at least one initiative in implementing collective healing into their organization.
  • Identify at least two added barriers to healing when resettling from war and persecution.

 

Speaker Bios:

Marie Sheffield, MA, LCPC, is a clinical counselor, art therapist, co-author and interculturalist, working in the field of mass trauma, intercultural communication and collective healing. In addition to being an adjunct professor at University of Southern Maine, she has spent two decades enhancing and implementing a collective healing and intercultural model with those resettling from war and persecution. Additionally, over the course of ten years, Marie was one of two mental health consultants for America’s Camp, a six day overnight camp supporting children who lost a parent(s) on 9.11, or in the course of duty. At the Center for Grieving Children, while developing intercultural and diversity training curriculum, she established an Intercultural Advisory Council producing documentary films and community conversations across differences. Marie also completed a fellowship with the Intercultural Communication Institute. Since then, Marie has become a senior facilitator of Personal Leadership (plseminars.com) and incorporates this model in all of her work. As co-founder of Bridge to Belong Consulting (bridge2belong.com), her training and consultations are focused on bringing skills of collective healing support into the healthcare, education and community systems.

 

Justine Mugabo, BS, is the Intercultural Program Coordinator at the Center for Grieving Children. She works with facilitators in social and educational institutions to provide collective healing support and growth for children resettling from war and persecution. She states that her passion is to “help people in achieving their dreams and goals.” According to Justine, “Our goal at the Center is to help children and families to find hope and love and increase belonging in order to express feelings safely relative to the grief and loss. Such building of community resilience is a resource to persevere in the World.”

Justine is a Board Member for In Her Presence, an immigrant owned non-profit supporting asylum seeking women in navigating pathways forward. She collaborates in developing policy, programming, and resources and provides direct support. She also spends her time on the board of Double Hope Children, an immigrant owned non-profit working to support the needs of children resettling from war and persecution.

Before resettling into the United States herself, Justine worked in customer service management with the Mobile Telephone Network of Rwanda. With her lived experience, training and leadership position Justine has developed effective skills in intercultural communication, collective healing support and knowledge.

 

New York Life Foundation logo

Supported by the philanthropic investment
of the New York Life Foundation.