Addressing & Acknowledging Grief of Justice-Involved Youth

A Curriculum Toolkit from the Roadmap for Change Podcast

Increase understanding and awareness of how grief can impact youth experiences of the juvenile justice system. Take away practical action steps to apply to individual daily work.

Plan for a Session

Browse our topical toolkits below. We’ll be publishing more throughout 2026. Subscribe to the CTRJJ email list to be notified when new toolkits are available.

Addressing & Acknowledging Grief of Justice-Involved Youth

Increase understanding and awareness of how grief can impact youth experiences of the juvenile justice system. Take away practical action steps to apply to individual daily work.

Trauma in the Body: A Biopsychosocial Approach

Coming soon

Crisis Intervention: Supporting Neurodivergent Youth

Coming soon

A Bus and a Budget: Equitable Education in Juvenile Justice

Coming soon

About the Toolkit

The Roadmap for Change podcast was created to connect folks with stories highlighting the pressing need for transformation of the juvenile justice system. Through the voices of youth and their families, we explored the changes they believe will support healing and growth. Alongside, experts shared insights on trauma-informed practices, along with strategies to implement them.

Many of our listeners highlighted the desire to use the podcast and its accompanying videos in their education and professional development spaces. In response, we’ve created this toolkit with a flexible curriculum and additional resources.

This toolkit works well as a follow-up to a more technical training on mental health, grief, and/or trauma for direct care and court staff in order to apply technical concepts to the individual situations of staff experiences

  • We recommend the facilitator have at least one previous session of trauma training, previous experience leading a discussion seminar, and/or time to read through the supplemental research materials in order to confidently facilitate this curriculum.

  • Depending on the time you have available for your session, follow the recommended Curriculum Guides, or mix and match the components that fit your group best based on policies and initiatives specific to your region, to prepare your lesson: 

    1. Listen to the episode and take notes based on the provided guidelines and concepts.

    2. Choose from the reference notes and activities to follow the suggested workshop structures for your knowledge level.

    3. Delete any unwanted slides from the deck linked below to easily guide your discussion.

    4. For the shorter sessions, send participants the episode and/or the transcript to review before arriving at the discussion, and for all session lengths, send the opening reflection question in advance.

    5. Reach out to us directly with any questions as you prepare! Contact us.

  • We are continually looking to improve our resources. We would greatly appreciate if you could complete a short survey after each session you lead using this toolkit. This data will also help in our grant reporting and applications to ensure more folks have access to trauma-informed resources and training in years to come.

  • Roadmap for Change is a production of the Center for Trauma Recovery and Juvenile Justice — a training and technical assistance center within the National Child Traumatic Stress Network funded by SAMHSA.