Over 2021 – 2022 Woodcraft Folk has received funding from the Coop #Iwill bereavement fund to support creation of a resource that will help youth workers, group leaders and young people navigate the often unknown experience of grief and bereavement.
We have worked with volunteer group leaders and young people within our organisation as well as working closely with youth workers and young people from our partner organisation The Kite Trust (TKT). The Kite Trust are a youth organisation based in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough who support young people from the LGBT+ community.
Throughout this project we have also worked really closely with Cass Humphries-Massey, a Thanatologist, who is somebody who researches and works with grief and bereavement.
Cass HM is the founder of Navigating the Wilderness, a practice in which they tend the wilds of grief. Cass has helped our team of youth workers from both organisations understand the subject better and supported us to develop the ideas of our young members into a meaningful and useful resource. Cass has helped our team of youth workers from both organisations understand the subject better and supported us to develop the ideas of our young members into a meaningful and useful resource.
what we have done
Authorship of this toolkit sits between a number of authors engaged in a process of
co-production from initial conception to publication. We have met with young people across London, Cambridge and Peterborough who have participated in workshops and consultations to develop artwork and content for the toolkit. They have shared their own experiences of bereavement and of supporting others.
Some authors have chosen to be named, and some have chosen to remain anonymous. We want to thank all of the authors of this toolkit, including all of our young people, volunteers, and members of each organisation involved.
We believe young people, and all people, can benefit from openly, creatively and compassionately sharing spaces to navigate grief. We hope you notice ripples of support stemming from the work contained within this toolkit. We believe this work can reach far beyond the pages we have co-produced and authored here, and we encourage anybody with ideas, connections and resources available for this work to get in touch.
Find version 1 of the toolkit below
