BC Council for Families

When parents and community workers have a difficult time communicating with adolescents on a daily basis, helping them through grief can be extra difficult. The youth grief support website RD4U reaches out to youth when they need help most with direct, online resources.

Youth can explore their emotions and find a healthy outlet to express their feelings through the site. Grieving over the loss of a loved one can take many forms, from public displays to quiet, personal meditations. The structure of the website allows youth to choose how they use the site to deal with their loss.

Privately, youth can read stories from other youth in grief and find suggestions of ways they can honour a loved one. The site also offers opportunities for sharing, from message boards where trained staff answer questions to poetry contests and photo galleries.

The RD4U site is based around youth-led involvement and allows youth to decide how and when to grieve over a loved one. Online grief supports may not be the entire solution to assisting in grief, but do offer an outlet to those unable to turn to an adult. RD4U is a project of Cruse Bereavement Care in the United Kingdom, and is available free everywhere.