The Children’s Room is the region’s largest child bereavement organization.
We serve over 700 people across our programs annually. Services include peer-based grief support groups for families with children and teens aged 3½-18, offered at our Arlington center, as well as in schools and community centers; programs exclusively designed to meet the unique needs of grieving teens; educational series for grieving parents and caregivers; monthly arts-based family nights; and private consultations.
We know that in Massachusetts, one in fifteen children will experience the death of a parent or sibling by age 18 – this translates to 93,000 bereaved children across the Commonwealth. This is one child in every classroom or two children on every school bus. (Judi’s House/JAG Institute in Denver, CO, Childhood Bereavement Estimation Model, 2020)
The answer is as unique as the families’ need.
Typically, families come towards within the first year since their person died and stay with us 2-3 years. Since we offer a range of programming, including phone consultations, often families will participate in multiple programs at The Children’s Room.
We work with families whose person died for a variety of reasons.
The majority of our families have had a parent/spouse/co-parent die, but we also work with families whose child/sibling died. The most common cause of death is cancer or other medical issues, but we also see families whose person died from an overdose, suicide, accidents, SUID (Sudden Unexpected Infant Death), or homicide.
All of our services are free of charge.
We know that a death is often accompanied by financial hardship and we do not want to add to that burden. Grieving families have enough to deal with, without making cost a barrier. Because we offer a peer support model, we are not eligible for health insurance reimbursements.
Over 80% of our income comes from individuals.
The Children’s Rooms does not charge fees for program participation: 98% of our annual budget is raised from private philanthropy; 20% from foundation and corporate funders and 80% from individual donations. We have created a donor circle where over 125 families have made a 5-year major gift commitment. If you are moved to make a gift to support our work, you can here and we thank you in advance.
That answer depends on where you are.
We offer you a number of ways to take a small or bigger step. You can sign up for our newsletters or follow us on Facebook if you want to become more acquainted with our work as an initial step. Or you may be ready to have a conversation with a member of our programming staff. We are here to help you.
