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ATTENDANCE POLICY

We expect participants in the Academy's cohort-based courses to attend all course sessions. These are interactive courses where sessions build on each other. Attending and contributing consistently will improve your experience and that of your peers.

Participants who attend all sessions will receive a certificate of completion. Those who miss no more than one session may receive a certificate of completion, at the Academy's discretion

DESCRIPTION

Understanding Grief and Loss: Supporting Bereaved Community Members is a six-session course that introduces current research about grief, loss, and resilience, along with helpful strategies for supporting bereaved people. Together, participants will learn culturally responsive and person-centered strategies for supporting people who are grieving. We will also explore how personal experiences of loss can impact our work with bereaved community members.

Capacity in this course is limited to 30 learners to promote interaction and engagement among participants and instructors.  

This course is a prerequisite for advanced workshops on Principles of Grief Support that will be offered in April 2024.

WHAT TO EXPECT

This virtual course will include presentations, videos, discussions, and role plays. This is a highly interactive course, with time for questions throughout. In order to build community, we strongly encourage participants to join sessions on camera and stay on camera.

COURSE OUTLINE

• Session I: Introductions, Common Myths About Grief and Loss
• Session II: Getting the Lay of the Land – Current Research About Grief
• Session III: Prolonged Grief Disorder and Identifying When a Bereaved Person Needs a Higher Level of Support
• Session IV: The Nuts and Bolts of Providing Support to Bereaved People
• Session V: Special Topics in Grief: Grief in Children, Complicated Spiritual Grief, Grief in BIPOC Communities
• Session VI: Supporting the Community, Supporting Ourselves: Grief Support Groups, Bereaved Employees and Colleagues, and Our Own Grief

LEARNING PATH

Learners who complete Understanding Grief and Loss are eligible for the Academy’s advanced skills-based certificate course, Principles of Grief Support.

ELIGIBILITY

This course is for any staff of NYC non-profit community-based organizations or government agencies who deliver social services in New York City. Learners who complete this course will be eligible to apply for an advanced workshop series on Principles of Grief Counseling in 2024.

To be considered for this course, applicants must commit to attending at least 4/6 scheduled sessions and receive approval from their supervisor to attend.

SPECIAL NOTE

Due to the universal nature of grief, we expect that many, if not all course participants, will have experienced loss. Those considering this course should know that our focus will be on learning to support community members who are grieving. While we welcome reflections on how learners' personal experience of grief impacts their view of grieving and may contribute to the challenges of supporting others, we will not be able to provide personal grief support to learners in this course.

This course may not be a good fit for individuals who have suffered recent or traumatic losses, and is not a good fit for those experiencing acute distress or seeking personal therapeutic support. If you have any questions about whether this course would be appropriate for you, please contact [email protected].