June was a watershed month for progress on grief literacy and support in Canada.  The Canadian Grief Alliance (CGA) launched Canada’s national, bilingual grief website – AboutGrief.ca  | LeDeuil.ca  and also released its much-anticipated Next Steps Action Plan: A Strategic Approach to Grief Literacy and Grief Support in Canada, with investment from Health Canada. AboutGrief.ca and LeDeuil.ca fill a national gap in access to an array of information and resources about death and non-death grief. In addition to articles and hundreds of videos, the sites host: A Grief Assistant that responds to questions in real time and helps visitors navigate the site. Windmail, the e-version of Windphones, that enables visitors to send last words, life updates and other private messages to those they are grieving. 400+ listings of programs and services. 300+ resources. The Next Steps Action Plan is the result of 12 months of consultations and a national survey of 4,000 respondents. Over 300 informants were engaged in meetings across Canada. The report calls for national leadership, collaboration, and concrete actions to bring Canada in line with other countries that #MakeGriefAPriority. The 5 key recommendations call for a national grief strategy that includes: supporting public awareness campaigns; adopting a public health approach to grief that aligns services to need; expanding education and training for professionals and volunteers; enabling robust data collection and research; and establishing the Canadian Centre for Grief to coordinate national policy and program response, work with other levels of government.  Read the full report and news release below. Next Steps Action Plan Survey The Canadian Grief Alliance is convened by the Canadian Virtual Hospice and includes 170 national and regional organizations dedicated to improving grief literacy and support in Canada.