Soaring Spirits Public Health Initiative
Building Grief-Literate Communities
Death and grief touch every community, every workplace, and every family. Yet many of the people and organizations we encounter during some of life’s most difficult moments have never been given the tools or training to confidently respond to grief.
Soaring Spirits International’s Public Health Initiative is working to change that.
We partner with civic agencies, private corporations, first responders, healthcare organizations, educational institutions, human resources professionals, and other community partners across the United States to increase grief literacy and build confidence around conversations about death and grief.
Our goal is practical: to create communities in which people know what to do, what to say, and how to provide meaningful support when someone is grieving.
Why Widowhood Is a Public Health Concern
The death of a spouse or partner impacts far more than one individual.
Widowed people interact with healthcare systems, employers, financial institutions, first responders, schools, government agencies, community organizations, and countless other professionals as they navigate both grief and the practical realities that follow a death.
The quality of those interactions matters.
Effective support can help widowed people remain connected to their families, workplaces, and communities. Poorly informed interactions can create additional barriers at a time when people are already carrying an extraordinary cognitive, emotional, and practical load.
We believe communities have an important role to play in making it possible for widowed people to access the information, understanding, resources, and human connection they need to fully reengage with life and their communities.
Grief Literacy Changes the Way We Respond
Grief literacy is the knowledge and practical ability to understand grief, communicate about death, and respond to grieving people with confidence and compassion.
SSI develops research-informed training and practical tools that help professionals and community members move from wanting to help to knowing how to help.
Depending on the needs of our partners, our work may include:
- Grief Literacy Training
- Compassionate Death Notification
- Managing Secondary and Cumulative Trauma Exposure
- Supporting Grief Following a Suicide Death
- Compassionate and Professional Victim and Family Interaction
- Customized training for professionals who regularly serve grieving or widowed people
- Train-the-Trainer programs that build lasting grief literacy capacity within organizations and communities
Our programs combine education with practical tools that participants can immediately apply in their professional and community roles.
Working Across Communities
Building grief-literate communities requires collaboration.
SSI works with first responders and civic agencies, healthcare systems, corporations and employers, educational institutions, human resources professionals, nonprofit organizations, and community leaders to strengthen the systems people encounter after a death.
The application may look different in a police department than it does in a hospital, workplace, university, or financial institution. The goal remains the same: give people the confidence and tools to respond to grief well.
From Awareness to Action
Grief is a human experience, but knowing how to respond to it is a learned skill.
Through the Public Health Initiative, Soaring Spirits is helping organizations turn compassion into action. This dedicated effort is helping to create more informed professionals, healthier workplaces, stronger community systems, and better support for people navigating life after the death of someone they love.
Together, we can change the way our communities understand, talk about, and respond to grief. Join us in building a more grief-literate world.
