CLIMB is a program founded by the Children's TreeHouse Foundation to aid in facilitating communication between parent and child when the parent has cancer. It is also created to help children realize their emotions and feelings are okay and normalize those feelings through activites and group discussions. Dr. Elbow, DSW,LCSW, facilitates the group.

Whether a trauma happens in a family, a community or a country, children respond differently and need different supports to heal and adapt. Fortunately, the Web offers a wide world of resources, and Connect for Kids has collected some of the best.

About 1.3 million new cases of cancer were reported in 2003. While there are no firm figures on how many of those diagnosed were the parents of minor children, there's no doubt that each year many kids must face the news that a parent or guardian has cancer.
Letitia Star reports on a program that tries to help.

Readers shared their thoughts on a variety of Connect for Kids' topics over the past few months. From ?help with healing? to ?visions of sugarplums,? there are lots of issues that parents, educators, policymakers and advocates are thinking about.

Some parents divorce. Some lose their jobs. Others fall ill, struggle with alcoholism or drug addiction. Some even die. But their children need to keep on with their lives, and that means going to school. How prepared are teachers to deal respectfully with children struggling with loss? Rob Capriccioso shares his view on the need to educate the educators.

With the second anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks upon us, the memories of that day and subsequent events continue to exert their power. Connect for Kids former Editor Susan Phillips believes we have a long way to go to recognize the depth of that power, especially for our children.

Concluding there is no way to predict which individual students will commit lethal attacks in schools, this National Research Council review says profiling would wrongly identify harmless adolescents as potentially dangerous and it would miss some of the few youths who actually commit the offenses. Prevention efforts should focus on keeping firearms out of the hands of unsupervised adolescents and out of schools.

Losing loved ones is hard on kids, and the road to healing can offer lots of detours. At Camp El Tesoro de la Vida in Texas, kids who have lost parents, siblings or friends gather for a summer of fun in a supportive environment.

In a recent conversation with Connect for Kids Editor Susan Phillips, Goodman urged the benefits of listening and watching for clues as to how kids are coping—and recommended some ways to ease children's fears.

Even with the healing passage of time, children can have trouble handling the emotions of fear, anger and grief in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The continuing national war on terrorism raises the emotional stakes. Connect for Kids has compiled resources to help.