Children helping children: creating resources together to talk about grief
Alexandra Wray, Heather Gibson, Samantha Barlow, Victoria Hillier, Ellen KingsleyBackground:
In the UK, a child is bereaved of a parent every 20 minutes. Despite the prevalence of childhood bereavement, children and young people (CYP) often face isolation, confusion, and silence in response to their grief. Societal discomfort with death, combined with adults’ hesitancy to discuss it openly, leaves many CYP unsupported.
Objectives:
This community-led study aimed to extend the impact of the Forest Project by co-producing bereavement resources with bereaved CYP for bereaved CYP, centring their perspectives to foster death literacy and peer-informed support.
Design and methods:
Three creative participatory workshops were conducted with 46 children (aged 6 to 16) who had previously engaged in the Forest Project. Activities included comic strip storytelling, drawing, symbolic imagery (e.g. leaves for emotional expression), and creating vignettes and advice bubbles for peers and caregivers. The workshops were designed to capture CYP lived experiences and inform the co-creation of a bereavement resource in a format of their choosing.
Results:
CYP emphasised the importance of honest, age-appropriate conversations about death, describing inclusion in funerals and memorials as essential to their grieving. CYP highlighted creative outlets, peer support, humour, trusted adults, and continuity in routine as key coping strategies. They advocated for accessible, relatable resources, such as animations and booklets, which acknowledge real emotions and normalise grief. The Forest Project itself was repeatedly described as a vital space for connection, safety, and voice. An animated bereavement resource and booklet were co-produced, incorporating CYP artwork, words, and lived experiences.
Conclusions:
This project highlights the role of co-production and creative practice in cultivating death literacy, empowering CYP to articulate their experience of grief and support others, and reshaping how bereavement is addressed in families, schools, and communities. In doing so, it contributes to the literature by demonstrating how children's lived experiences can inform both the design of bereavement support resources and wider approaches to practice and policy.