Eluna Community Conversation: The Pandemic’s Impact on Grief

On March 2, 2023 Eluna is proud to have hosted another installment of our Community Conversations: The Pandemic’s Impact on Grief. Moderated by award winning broadcast reporter, Kavitha Cardoza, our esteemed panelists explored COVID’s impact on grieving families, addressed the stigma of COVID loss, and provided support strategies for families who have experienced loss during this extraordinary time. Meet the panelists below.

Panelist Resources:

• The Philly HopeLine is a program of the Uplift Center for Grieving Children. It is a free and confidential helpline for grief and emotional support staffed by our Master’s degree-level clinicans. The Philly HopeLine is open to all youth and caregivers in the Philadelphia region.
• Uplift Center for Grieving Children also offers virtual Family Grief Support Groups and Queer and Trans Youth Grief and Loss Groups.
• Tuesday’s Children meets individuals and families of service members where they are on their grief journey following a loss due to military service, mass violence, or acts of terrorism
• COVID Collaborative has assembled a diverse and comprehensive team of leading experts in health, education, and the economy to develop consensus recommendations and engage with state and local leaders across America – ensuring that our efforts are truly from the nation, for the nation.
• The Alliance of Black Social Workers, Inc. (ABSW) is the Philadelphia chapter of the National Association of Black Social Workers, Inc.(NABSW). It is a membership organization dedicated to the betterment of the lives of people of African descent in the Philadelphia area and beyond.
• Founded by panelist, Lamya Broussard, C.O.M.E. Coming out More Equipped Consulting Services is committed to providing wellness support to advocates on the front line against police brutality and the unstoppable & unjustified police brutality in the black community, especially for black males.
• Education Writers Association’s (EWA) mission is to strengthen the community of education writers and improve the quality of education coverage to better inform the public. Caught between eroding business models and an accelerating news cycle, today’s reporters, editors, and other media professionals need a community of colleagues to help them tell stories that make a difference. EWA is that community.
• Kavitha Cardoza is a frequent contributor to NPR covering important topics such as children, education, and poverty. You can tune into Kavitha’s NPR stories here.

COVID Grief Resources:

• The Eluna Resource Center and Eluna’s Bereavement Team developed this comprehensive COVID Grief resource to explore traditional grief protective factors, how they have been impacted by the COVID pandemic, and strategies while facing grief due to a COVID-related death.
• Aftershocks of the pandemic have surfaced in the form of hurtful comments and behaviors towards children grieving the death of a loved one to COVID. This article provides strategies to prevent stigma and respond to hurtful comments and behaviors.
• The Dougy Center has put together this library of COVID resources to support individuals & families bereaved by COVID.
• The National Alliance for Children’s Grief also has several useful resources to support COVID grief.
• For more COVID Grief Resource, visit Eluna’s COVID Resources Hub.

Panelists:

Lamya Broussard, LSW, MSS, MLSP
Certified Trauma Informed Senior Clinician @Uplift Center for Grieving Children

After more than a decade in the field, Lamya is honored to have worked with and to continue providing therapeutic healing support to marginalized communities including youth in foster care, Black & Brown Immigrants, and LGBTQIA+ homeless youth. She has been a member of the Alliance of Black Social Workers since 2010 and is the Founder of Coming Out More Equipped Consulting Services, which engages with other community-based organizations. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Tuskegee University and a Masters in Social Services and Law & Social Policy from Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work & Social Research. As a School & Community Services Senior Clinician, Lamya facilitates weekly grief groups to students in Philadelphia schools and has also co-developed and implemented Uplift’s curriculum and activities for Justice Involved Youth. Additionally, she’s represented Uplift on The Dougy Center’s Grief Out Loud podcast, radio stations, and various national platforms.

Kathryn Ellard
Covid-19 Response Program Manager @Tuesday’s Children

Kathryn Ellard is a public health professional and yoga therapist. She has worked with hospitals, non-profits, and government agencies both domestic and abroad. Her role at Tuesday’s Children provides resources and capacity building for a variety of sectors that interface with the 290,000 children and families that have lost a parent or caregiver to Covid-19. The goal of this program is to increase the knowledge of long-term healing and address the needs of those impacted by trauma and loss. Kathryn has also served as the Assistant Director for the DOE Situation Room, worked abroad in a in at a special needs school in Morocco and in community health in Haiti. She has also conducted program planning for the Ryan White Program in San Antonio and developed childhood health and wellness programs in Brooklyn. Kathryn earned her MS in Global Heath from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia and her BA in Speech Language Pathology/Audiology at Loyola College in Baltimore.

Catherine E. Jaynes, PhD.
Senior Director, External Affairs @COVID Collaborative & Senior Advisor @ Steady State Impact

Catherine supports Steady State Impact’s work on strategy, program development, execution, and evaluation. She also leads the COVID Collaborative’s initiative to support COVID Bereaved Children. She most recently was a Partner at Cicero Group, leading their social impact practice and currently advises at Stead State Impact. As the Founding Director of the Presidential Leadership Scholars and the Director of Research and Evaluation at the George W. Bush Institute, Catherine developed and executed national and international programs as well as led the measurement and evaluation of the Institute’s programs. Catherine’s expertise extended beyond evaluation and included hands-on research of measurement strategies and policy development. This builds upon the work Catherine did as Chief of Staff to the State Superintendent of Education for the District of Columbia, Senior Researchers for the National Academies of Science and Deputy Assistant Secretary for the US Department of Education.

Moderator:

Kavitha Cardoza is a Washington D.C.-based journalist who has covered children, education, and poverty for more than two decades. She is the public editor of the Education Writers Association, coordinates programming for members, and provides individualized reporting and writing help to journalists. Kavitha is a frequent contributor to NPR, The Hechinger Report and previously worked as a correspondent for Education Week/PBS Newshour. Kavitha was a 2021-2022 Spencer fellow for education reporting at Columbia University. She has received more than two dozen awards for her reporting, including from the Public Radio News Directors Incorporated. Her documentary series ‘Breaking Ground’ aired on more than 150 public radio stations. Kavitha has taught journalism courses at GWU, Berkeley, American University, and the University of Illinois. She has master’s degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Manipal Institute of Communication in India.