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by Darcy Walker Krause, JD, LSW
Executive Director

A few weeks ago, we had a group of 15 students from Mifflin Elementary – a school a few blocks away – visit The Center to learn about what we do.  After one of their classmates experienced the shooting death of her father, the class decided to study violence, and as one of the children explained, death is a result of violence so they wanted to learn about what we do.  Prior to coming to visit us, the class took a poll and found that 58% of the students had experienced the death of a loved one to violence.  Having shared my story of losing my mom at 15 as my reason for working at The Center, one of the children raised his hand and asked me, “You lost your mom at 15. So when does grief end?”  Pausing a moment, I said, “It doesn’t. But what we do here is help grieving children and teens feel supported, learn how to express their feelings, identify supportive adults in their lives that they can talk to, and promote coping skills so that when the next ‘grief burst’ happens, they can pull on their inner ability to get through that time.  Grief is a journey.”  The Center for Grieving Children is a companion in that grief journey.

As we come to the end of our program year, the summer gives us time to reflect on the successes and challenges of the prior year and to take these lessons forward into next year’s programming.  Beginning this process of reflection, I am overwhelmed by the sheer impact of this past year for The Center.  This last year, The Center’s work with grieving youth has made a tremendous impact on the individual and community level.

On the individual level, more than 350 children and caregivers participated in grief groups offered in East Falls, West Philadelphia, South Philadelphia and in schools across the City of Philadelphia.

On the community level, The Center has provided trainings to more than 250 front-line professionals who work with grieving children and families daily, as well as several parent workshops at schools where The Center ran grief groups.  The Center has also engaged in crisis response work with Philadelphia area public and charter schools and community centers, where a student or community member died.

Looking towards next year, we are still working to expand our reach further into the city – to support the most vulnerable, grieving youth in their communities.  For these kids, violence is a daily part of life and loss is all too common.  The Center can help scaffold the support for these children, fostering their own resiliency and inner strength.  We are also expanding our age ranges – creating both a younger elementary group for children ages 4-6 and a young adult program for adults ages 18-25.

Whether you’re a family, volunteer, financial supporter, teacher, mental health professional, or interested community member, we hope that you take the time to learn more about what we’re doing to help Philadelphia’s grieving youth.

by Cara Magrogan Sacks, LSW, CT, CTS
Director of Community-Based Programming

After nearly 20 years of providing bereavement support to Philadelphia’s children and families, a new branch of The Center’s services has grown. Our new Community-Based Program has expanded The Center’s reach to the city’s most vulnerable children grieving the losses of those closest to them. While children used to have to travel to The Center to attend our support groups, we are now able to bring our groups to them.

None of us grieves in isolation, and children are no exception–their grief is heavily influenced by those around them. For this reason it is ideal for families to come to our Center-Based locations to receive support together. Each of our Center-Based groups offers a concurrent parent/caregiver group for adults to receive their own grief support as well as support and guidance around raising a grieving child. There are many children, however, who we knew weren’t making it to The Center due to a variety of barriers such as lack of access to safe transportation or not having an available or willing parent or guardian to participate. We know these children are very high-risk. The losses they experience are often violent and traumatic and may be only one death among many the child has been bereaved by in their short life. They are mostly living in very impoverished sections of the city with high rates of violence and substance abuse and often with limited adult support. It was for these children that we created our Community-Based Programs to safely bring The Center’s support to grieving children in their own communities during the school day.

Our free eight-week groups, facilitated by a masters-level clinician, are offered to schools in partnership with the school guidance counselor or social worker. By participating in the group process with The Center staff, school clinicians are able to increase their comfort and skill level working with grieving students while at the same time providing a familiar friendly face that allows their students to feel more comfortable participating. Although our time together is relatively short, a supportive and grief-friendly adult presence remains for the students long after the eight weeks has ended. We have been amazed by the openness and dedication of the school staff during a very challenging time for the Philadelphia school district.

Over the inaugural year of the Community-Based Program, we were able to run groups in 25 Philadelphia schools including public, charter, and parochial, and to provide support to an astounding 199 children. This feat could not have been accomplished without the dedication and passion of the wonderful schools we have worked with. We wish to thank them for opening their doors to us and look forward to expanding our reach to even more of our city’s schools during the school year to come!

By Lauren DeMarco, LSW
Director of Center Based Programming

When I started at the Center this summer, I could not have imagined what a fulfilling and meaningful first year it would be for me at the Center for Grieving Children! With my first program year coming to an end, I am able to reflect on the success, challenges, and remarkable people I have met throughout the year. This program year could not have transpired without the children, teens, caregivers, and volunteers’ dedication to each group meeting ready to support and nurture each other.  I admire the courage and strength displayed in each group by the group members’ willingness to share their feelings, emotions, and thoughts with each other.  Every group was unique and offered the opportunity for members to grow and to learn on their grief journey in a safe and comfortable space.

Our Center-Based groups met every other week from the beginning of September to the end of May offering both children and caregiver groups. The children played games, created artwork and participated in a variety of activities providing different modalities to express their grief, while the caregivers received support in their own group about raising a grieving child. The nine Center-Based groups allowed for 95 children and 71 families to receive support though the Center. One of the nine groups expanded our reach by offering a group for children ages 4-6 at our East Falls location.  Identifying the need to support this group, we will be expanding the group next program year in September.

In recognizing the barriers to hosting groups exclusively at our main East Falls location, we continued our partnership with Tindley Temple Church in South Philadelphia and added a new partnership with CHOP Karabots Pediatric Care Center in West Philadelphia. These partnerships allowed us to host an additional five Center-Based groups to the four Center-Based Groups at East Falls reaching 43 families in the South, West and Southwest Philadelphia areas. We were humbled by the generosity of CHOP Karabots Pediatric Care Center and Tindley Temple Church for allowing us to utilize their facilities free of charge and making the groups more accessible and convenient for families to participate on a regular basis.

The peer grief support groups could not have been possible without the dedication of the 26 volunteer group facilitators and the 3 graduate school interns from University of Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr College and Philadelphia University. We also have volunteers assist with attending health fairs, preparing for special events, and assisting in the office. To ensure our volunteers were ready for the program year, we offered two volunteer trainings with one in September and one in January. To see more about our volunteers, we highlighted a group a week for Thank You Thursday on our Facebook page starting in March. We are grateful for their support over this year and the groups could not have happened without them! Currently, we are accepting volunteer group facilitator applications to start volunteering in September and the application can be found here on our website.

I am appreciative for each group member allowing The Center for Grieving Children to be a part of their grief journey.  Each grief journey is as unique as the individual with different feelings, experiences and thoughts; therefore, the peer support allows for group members to learn and grow with each other. Without their trust and belief in the program, we would be unable to have a program year after year at The Center and I am appreciative of their support. We look forward to meeting with families over the summer with our series of Summer Family Fun Nights in June, July and August with different activities around the city. With the next program year around the corner, I am looking forward to meeting new families and inviting returning families back to the Center.