Helping Young People Process the Crisis in Ukraine
You will want to tailor resources and your responses to young people’s questions based on their understanding and maturity, but here are some links which may help you as you explain to children and young people what is happening and help them process and pray for the crisis. Please get in touch if you know of other resources for us to add to this list.
The Kitchen Table Project blog post – has some helpful pointers and links to other resources, some of which are mentioned below.
Parenting for Faith article – on helping children process what they read in the news, particularly if they are anxious about it.
Faith in Kids – a short blog article, ‘Dad, will this turn into World War 3’, with suggestions for talking about war with different age groups.
CVE Scotland’s Mental Health Resources page has links to sites which focus on emotional wellbeing and exploring dealing with anxiety. For example Ten Must Know Bible Stories resources using Daniel and the Lions Den and Prayer Spaces in Schools’ activities such as Bottle of Tears and Prayer Wall response. Also Scripture Union England and Wales’ The Lost Sun (for 5-8 year olds) is written to help children
Youth for Christ has various articles and resources addressing war and conflict, anxiety and fear, such as ‘Christian Responses to Issues Surrounding Conflict‘, ‘Divergent Christian Teachings on Conflict‘ and ‘Evil and Suffering: A Christian Response‘ video.
CVE Scotland Assembly/lesson plan on Anxiety and Fear (uses small group discussion as well as ‘from-the-front’ presentation – this was written around 7 years ago after terror attacks and could easily be used for the current conflicts in the world.
Prayers
Muddy Church’s prayer cards – to help primary-aged children pray for the conflict using every day prompts (link goes to a facebook page since the resources are not yet accessible on their website).
Prayer Spaces in Schools suggestions on praying for Ukraine (facebook post link) and a collection from Prayer Spaces in Schools on their prayer activities around the issue (also a facebook post link).
Prayer Spaces in Schools Pray for Ukraine activity resource (link takes you directly to their webpage).
24-7 has written a prayer, more suitable for Secondary age.
Many churches and Christian organisations have written prayers which you could discuss with your child and pray through, such as the Methodist Church, Church of Scotland, the Anglican Church, The United Reform Church, Vineyard Churches and SEND International.
CARE’s blog by Ross Hendry, ‘Ukraine: How Can We Respond to the Tragedy?‘ is useful for older teens and young adults.