Every Story Matters: Honoring Identity, Culture, and Lived Experience in Grief Support
Join us for a full day dedicated to helping grieving children and families feel seen, supported, and understood. Whether you work in healthcare, mental health support, a school setting, or simply care about supporting kids through grief, this event is for you.
Across three sessions, you will explore how who we are and the identities we carry influence how we grieve and how we support others experiencing grief. A special community panel with leaders from local cultural organizations will bring these topics home to Lincoln. You'll leave with practical tools, new insights, and skills for providing compassionate, inclusive care.
Come ready to learn, connect, and grow alongside others, because every story matters and no one has to grieve alone.
Generous philanthropic support for this event is provided by the New York Life Foundation and the Lincoln Community Foundation.
Featured Speakers & Sessions
Vic Armstrong, (he/him), Vice President for Health Equity & Engagement; American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
Perception is Everything: Implicit and Explicit Bias in Supporting Children
How we perceive children – and the assumptions we make about them – can profoundly shape the way we understand, respond to, and support them in grief. This thought-provoking session will explore the ways implicit and explicit bias influence our perceptions of grieving children and families, and how those perceptions can affect the support we provide.
Drawing on research and examples related to Black, Hispanic/Latino, AAPI, and other communities, Vic will examine how culture, identity, and social context can shape assumptions about how children grieve, communicate, behave, and cope. Participants will be invited to consider how their own perceptions and biases may influence their interactions with grieving children and to reflect on what it takes to create more inclusive, equitable, and compassionate spaces for grief support.
The presentation will emphasize research and practical reflection, helping participants recognize bias, challenge assumptions, and approach each child’s grief experience with greater curiosity, cultural humility, and openness.
Cristina Chipriano, (she/her/ella), L.C.S.W.-S., F.T., Director of Training & Program Equity, Dougy Center
Understanding and Supporting the Latino/x Bereaved Community
Grief does not occur in a cultural vacuum. For Latino/x children and families, cultural traditions, beliefs, values, family relationships, and community can shape how grief is understood, experienced and expressed. At this same time, there is no single Latino/x experience of grief; each family brings its own cultural identity, history, beliefs, and lived experience to their grief.
This presentation will explore cultural factors that may influence grief and mourning practices within the Latino/x community, including both the strengths and challenges that can shape the bereavement experience. Participants will consider how culture, family, spirituality, and community may influence the ways children and families make meaning of loss and seek support. The presentation will also invite reflection on how participants' own assumptions, cultural perspectives and practices may influence the support they provide.
Participants will gain practical strategies for providing culturally responsive and compassionate grief support that honors the diversity, resilience, relationships, and individual experiences of the Latino/x children and families while avoiding assumptions about what grief "should" look like within the cultural community.
