skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Judge temporarily blocks effort to deport Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia student protests; Power of rural organizing reflected in SD carbon pipeline law; Safety at risk as budget cuts hit Indiana Dunes National Park; Barriers to tracking bird flu mount amid federal changes.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

House Democrats won't back the GOP budget bill. Ontario reacts to Trump trade moves by enacting energy export tariffs, and a new report finds mass deportations don t help the labor market.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Immigrant communities are getting advice from advocates as the reach of ICE expands, experts in rural America urge lawmakers to ramp up protections against elder abuse, and a multi-state arts projects seeks to close the urban-rural divide.

Pandemic Funds Brought Grief Care to More Colorado Students

play audio
Play

Monday, March 6, 2023   

A groundbreaking bereavement service is expanding efforts to reach kids where they are: in schools, churches and other community sites.

Emily Napier, community-based care team manager for Judi's House, which has been providing comprehensive grief care for more than two decades, noted one in 14 Colorado youths will experience the death of a mom, dad, sister or brother by age 18.

She said while the experience of grief is unique for each child, everyone needs to be able to talk about how they are feeling without being judged.

"Grief is a universal experience," Napier pointed out. "Grief is a normal, healthy reaction to a loss. So it makes sense to feel sadness, or feel anger, or even worry or confusion. All of those different emotions are normal, and expected, and OK."

In addition to providing grief counseling in-house and in middle schools, Judi's House was able to tap pandemic funding to offer services at elementary schools. One curriculum serves third through fifth grade students, and "Judi's Rainbow" was created to provide therapy tailored to the needs of kindergarten through second grade students.

Napier acknowledged much of the work is about breaking through social stigma associated with death, assuring kids that "dead" and "dying" are not bad words. Middle school-age kids process their grief through journaling, expressing thoughts and feelings verbally, and learning coping skills, and Napier said what works for kindergarten-age children, who grieve just as much as older kids and adults, is much different.

"How do kids at this level really understand and take in the world?" Napier emphasized. "A lot of that is through creative expression. It's through reading children's books that have grief and loss themes in them, and kids being able to see themselves in those characters and feel less alone."

Founded in 2002 by Brian and Brook Griese, Judi's House was named after the former Denver Bronco quarterback's mother, who died when he was 12. Napier noted bereavement services, which are provided at no cost to families, give kids, and adults, a variety of tools they can pull from their coping toolbox.

"So things like 'getting it out;' coping activities that will involve a physical release," Napier explained. "Maybe that's being active in sports, punching a pillow, moving your body. Sometimes grief can feel really overwhelming in our bodies, and so being able to get it out is a way to cope."


get more stories like this via email

more stories
A solar project in Dayton was made possible through a solar-power purchase agreement with IGS Energy, approved by the Dayton City Commission last Wednesday after a four-year evaluation process, including a feasibility study to ensure sufficient power capacity. (Yeivaz/Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

Ohio is seeing a growing number of solar energy projects, including the first utility-scale installation in Dayton, which will help power a key water …


Environment

play sound

By Nina B. Elkadi for Sentient.Broadcast version by Judith Ruiz-Branch for Illinois News Connection reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service …

Environment

play sound

Researchers at Colorado State University have found the state's nearly 23 million acres of forests are currently releasing more carbon dioxide into th…


Polluted, acidic water leaving KD #1 Surface Mine on Lens Creek near Marmet. (Kanawha Forest Coalition)

Environment

play sound

Watchdog groups said the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection seems poised to allow coal company Keystone West Virginia to walk away f…

Social Issues

play sound

A Missouri children's advocate is urging the justice system to focus on healing for youths, noting trauma and broken relationships often drive their …

Conservation experts would like to see more farms use drip or sprinkler systems, which are more efficient than flooding for irrigation. (Deyan Georgiev/Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

By Gabriella Sotelo for Sentient.Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service Collab…

play sound

New research finds Black working women still face rampant discrimination in the Golden State. The California Black Women's Collective Empowerment …

Health and Wellness

play sound

By Nina B. Elkadi for Sentient.Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan for Kentucky News Connection reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021