The Future of Grief Camps: Themes and Standards in a Changing World

There are so many ways we are seeing shifts in how we support youth and families experiencing grief, from shifting camp models to creating more accessibility throughout a program. While there is so much power in how diverse bereavement camps have become, it can also feel important to come back together as a field to collectively share our foundation for these camps and how we plan to move forward as a field.

Join us for a panel discussion where professionals from the bereavement and camp fields come together to highlight important themes and standards for bereavement camps today and looking forward. Topics such as expanding the definition of wellbeing to actively working on creating equitable and inclusive camp spaces. The panel will share their thoughts around these important themes and more. We will also address the updated Bereavement Camp Standards of Practice as a practical tool for the bereavement and camp fields.

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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:

• Investigate key themes in the bereavement camp field where shifts are being seen.
• Inform bereavement professionals of the free Bereavement Camp Standards of Practice resource to help inform bereavement camp standards across the field.
• Appraise minimum practices and standards to ensure a safer bereavement camp experience for participants.

Speaker Bios:

Kiri Meyer (Moderator and Panelist) is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Wisconsin, a Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC), and a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-200). Kiri has spent over a decade helping to support individuals and families of all ages through individual/family counseling and camp-based programs. Kiri supports camp and other non-profit programs by acting as a Mental Health Professional throughout the camp program or as needed for other programs. She has conducted trainings in the areas of trauma and bereavement throughout her professional career and is now part of the Eluna Camp Erin team helping to support professionals in the Camp Erin network.

Dr. Tina Barrett (Panelist) is the Executive Director/Co-founder of Tamarack Grief Resource Center in Montana.  Since 1994, Barrett has specialized in family systems, strength-oriented and outdoor-based support following grief and trauma. Her doctoral research illuminated benefits of youth bereavement camps. Over the past 30 years, Barrett has focused on best practices of nature-based support with trauma survivors and family-systems. She has designed and directed various models of grief camps for youth, teens, women, families, and professionals in Montana and six other states including A Camp to Remember which she launched in 1997. She served on the Board of Directors for the National Alliance for Children’s Grief (NACG), and currently serves on the Leadership Team of Project Tomorrow Montana and the Advisory Board for Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors. Barrett received the Community Educator Award from Association for Death Educators and Counselors (ADEC) in 2019.

John Hamilton, MA, (Panelist) is a strategic leader in the camp and out-of-school time (OST) space. He currently serves as Chief Strategy Officer for the Alliance for Camp Health. John has a deep understanding of mental, emotional, and social health (MESH +) of youth and national program expansion. Prior to ACH he served as the national director for Camp HOPE America. John has an MA in Leadership and Cultural Justice, is the cofounder of the Outdoor Wellbeing Lab, and is a former executive director of a camp near Lake Tahoe.

Katie Hartley, LPC, has been a Licensed Professional Counselor since 1989 and has worked with children and youth her entire career. Her practice has included work with many populations, emphasizing developmental theory and non-verbal interactions utilizing the creative arts. Katie served as an adjunct professor at Drexel as well as internship supervisor for many years. She has worked in private practice, with school districts, developmental centers and created an arts center for therapeutic work. Katie’s current role at Penn Medicine is as a children’s bereavement coordinator and clinical director for Camp Erin (a weekend camp for grieving youth). She continues to use the creative arts and has completed MBSR training and uses mindfulness and meditation within her work often.

Brianne “Brie” Overton, FT, LPC, NCC, (Panelist) is the Chief Clinical Officer of Experience Camps, a national nonprofit that provides no-fee, clinically informed programs for kids who have experienced the death of a parent, sibling or primary caregiver – as well as resources and advocacy so all grieving children can live a life rich with possibility. Brie received her MA in Thanatology from Hood College, her M.Ed in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from University of Missouri – St. Louis, and is a doctoral candidate in counseling at the University of Missouri – St. Louis. She has spent 16 years in the field of thanatology providing grief education, support, counseling, death education, suicide prevention and intervention, and consultation.

Jason Stout, for more than two decades, has been helping youth and adults find their inner strength, form meaningful connections, and experience personal transformation through adventure challenge and time in nature. His passion for this work is rooted in the losses of his sister, grandmother, and father — all before Jason was 15 years old. He struggled to deal with these losses as a teen and adult, but he found purpose and healing after completing a 78-day Winter Wilderness Leadership Expedition.   In honor of his dad and sister, Jason created a national wilderness program for at-risk and grieving teens, which was featured in Backpacker Magazine, The Denver Post, and the Associated Press. Jason is founder of Stoutreach LLC where he provides training, consultation, and facilitation to outdoor education, wilderness therapy, and gap year programs.  In addition, he serves as an advisor to TAPS where he manages, develops, and facilitates a variety of programming including mindfulness and healing in nature for youth and adult military survivors.  Previously he served Judi’s House as Outreach and Education Manager and Outward Bound as the National Outreach Director.

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