The Circle of Care Online Resource Toolkit

To help foster well-prepared circles of care in all communities, the Circle of Care has collected practical resources from national experts on children’s experience of loss, grief, and the effects of substance use disorders (SUD) on families.

Life in a substance-affected family can be painful and isolating for children and teens, and the experience of loss and grief adds many more layers of fear, distress, and complexity. Connection with even one understanding, compassionate adult in the family or community can make all the difference. Professional, volunteer, neighbor, family member—it might be anyone who takes the time to listen, learn, understand, and respond in safe and effective ways.

The collections of web-based resources you can access through this site are organized in four main categories:

• A sampling of resources in three age-specific collections
• Three collections offering deeper insights into the lives and support of children who struggle with grief in substance-affected families
• Three ways of expanding the reach of our efforts
• Information about children's books on grief and related topics, organized in four age ranges 

We have linked to individual resources developed by 18 extraordinary organizations, including the Centre on Addiction and Mental Health, the Child Mind Institute, the Coalition to Support Grieving Students, the Dougy Center, the Elizabeth Hospice, the Eluna Network, Families Rising, the Good Grief Network, GriefSucks.com, the Highmark Caring Place, Judi's House/Jag Institute, the National Alliance for Children's Grief,  the National Association for Children of Addiction, the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement, the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, Prevention First/Youth and Caregivers Resource Center, Psychology Today, the Sesame Workshop, and Wayfinder Family Co.  We highly recommend that you also take some time to explore the many free resources available on the websites of these organizations.  

The resources linked to in this Toolkit are solely the products and property of the organizations that have posted them, and those organizations bear no responsibility for the content of this toolkit or this website.

Three New Resources from the Circle of Care

The Circle of Care was a one-year intensive project dedicated to finding, developing, and making available a wide variety of expert resources for and about children and youth who have experienced loss and grief in substance-affected families. As our year (July, 2024-June, 2025) came to a close, we developed three original manual-length documents to supplement and celebrate the wealth of resources we had collected. They are:

• Circle of Care: An Interactive Guide of Activities and Interventions for Caregivers and Professionals Supporting Children and Families Grieving a Substance Use Loss and Death. Developed by our Training Consultant and lead subject-matter expert, Jessica A. Porte, MA, this 131-page guide is a collection of grief-informed, trauma-informed, and recovery-oriented activities designed to support the unique needs of children and families affected by substance-related loss.
• My Circle, My Colors: A Book for Coloring and Healing. Also developed by Jessica Porte, this gentle, insightful 66-page coloring workbook offers kids comforting and vitally important ideas and practices in small, manageable bites, each one accompanied by ample opportunity to express themselves through drawing, coloring, and/or jotting down a few words. My Circle, My Colors is engaging, imaginative, and non-threatening.
• Supporting Children through Loss and Grief in Substance-Affected Families: The Story of the Circle of Care. Developed by the subject-matter experts on the Circle of Care Team, this story documents the overwhelming challenges that inspired the creation of the Circle of Care, the partnerships that sustained us, the resources we developed and the concepts and practices they brought to the field, how to find and use these resources, and ideas for individuals, organizations, communities, advocates, and policy makers who want to implement or expand on these efforts for the well-being of children and families in their own communities, areas, or states.

We begin our toolkit offerings with these three new resources, followed by the original series of collections listed above.