Community Grief

Community Grief (also known as Collective Grief) is when a group of people experience a death or loss that impacts them communally and broadly. Community grief can be experienced at our local community level, as a region, as a country, or we can be impacted as a global community.

Community grief can occur after a community has experienced a death of a well known member of their community, following natural disasters, accidents such as the Humboldt bus accident, or mass loss of lives such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

We do not need to know the person individually to experience community grief. We experience community grief because we feel a connection to the person(s) who have died. They may have been a community member who was part of our daily commute for years, a celebrity whose story resonates with you, or we may grieve for those closely impacted who are grieving their loved ones.

We never have to be alone in our grief, and gathering in community can be one way to honour our grief as a community. On this page you will find videos of community members talking about their experiences of community grief.

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Community Grief-Related Blog

Image of a female mallard duck on a body of water with ducklings around her.

Left Out: Enfranchising Children’s Grief and Loss

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By: Jessica Milette, MSW, RSW All human beings have the capacity to grieve: people with intellectual disabilities, those living with…

Community Grief Toolkit [Downloadable!]

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This toolkit also reflects on how we support grief in the community. The tools to come together and honour our collective experiences and how to build the resources for further support.

Collective Grief

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When the death of a person affects many members in a community, city, country, or across the world, people will experience collective grief.

These are some things that can help people through the experience of collective grief across a community.

What Can Help with Early Traumatic Grief?

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When your child dies you are thrown into a nightmare. None of this is expected to be easy.
Even after several months, it still isn’t. There have been some things that have helped us during
our grief. Maybe they will help you, too.

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Community Grief-Related Videos

ALL PANDEMIC VIDEOS
  • ALL PANDEMIC VIDEOS

Kristal – Professional Experience and Work

Kristal – Professional Experience and Work

Kristal discusses being a peer support worker, working on a one on one level with community members to help them with their goals related to substance abuse. She supports those in the community dealing with loss and grief. She speaks to everyone's experience with loss and grief being very individual.

Christian – Grieving the whole person

Christian – Grieving the whole person

Christian talks about how we choose remember people when there has been a loss to drug poisoning

Kristal – Drug Poisoning During Pandemic Stigma

Kristal – Drug Poisoning During Pandemic Stigma

Kristal discusses how the pandemic has created additional stigma surrounding those who use drugs. She discusses how it seems like some losses are treated as more deserving of being mourned than others. Many people have had to grieve privately instead of publically within a community. She touches on the state of the public health system during the pandemic.

Michele – Normalizing conversations around death dying grief and loss

Michele – Normalizing conversations around death dying grief and loss

Michele discusses grief literacy, the importance of talking and that dying is a part of life

Sarah K – Supporting someone in grief

Sarah K – Supporting someone in grief

Sarah gives her thoughts on how many things there are you can do to support someone in grief and how to be proactive

Donna – “Grief in conversation”

Donna – “Grief in conversation”

Donna discusses language and talking about grief.

Nicole – Using Art and Creativity to Express Grief

Nicole – Using Art and Creativity to Express Grief

Nicole discusses the work she does to allow access to creative outlets such as art hives and gardening.

Christian – My process in grieving

Christian – My process in grieving

Christian explains his grieving process and how it's important to let people in, the power of community, and having a team that makes him feel loved and cared for

Kim – Facebook and connecting

Kim – Facebook and connecting

Kim - discussses our need to connect and how Facebook was useful after her Mum's death

Keith – “Disenfranchised Grief”

Keith – “Disenfranchised Grief”

Keith describes disenfranchised grief.