Helping Youth Following a School Shooting

This week, we have again witnessed the devastation that occurs all too often as part of the aftermath of a violent school shooting.  There is no doubt, regardless of your context, that there have been conversations in your circle of influence this week about the events in Parkland, FL.    Amazingly, I have been blown away at the interviews with youth that lived through this tragedy.  Their words have been both and inspiration and a challenge to me to make a difference in helping prevent these sort of events from occurring.   Our thoughts and prayers are with all that were affected by this tragedy, and may our thoughts and prayers lead to action to prevent future occurrences.

Even in the midst of these tough situation, as youth workers, we are called to ministry alongside the youth in our churches and sometimes beyond.  With that in mind, we, at SCMYP, wanted to offer a few resources from trusted colleagues and friends to help you help your youth deal with and wrestle with the impact of this terrible tragedy.  To that end, there are several links below that you might find helpful:

Responding to a Shooting:  3 Approaches For Youth Workers – an overview of possible responses from the youth worker’s perspective shared from Youth Worker Collective.

Discipleship in the Midst of Tragedy:  Discipleship Ministries has a video focused on engaging unchurched in the community during times of tragedy.  It was developed during the Hurricane in Houston last year, but can apply to a range of tragedies.

Another Tragedy…Beginning the Day After:  A brief blog post with a reminder of where to turn in the midst of these unfathomable tragedies from Walt Mueller at CPYU