Camps & Programs
Several summer camp programs in Massachusetts and beyond have been developed for children, teens, and families grieving the loss of a family member. Most offer free or discounted programs. The programs listed below are not affiliated with The Children’s Room but may interest your family.
Camp Angel Wings
Southcoast VNA Assonet, MA
(800) 698-6877
Southcoast VNA will host its annual Camp Angel Wings, a two-day bereavement camp experience for children and teens grieving the loss of a loved one.
Camp Dragonfly
Androscoggin Home Healthcare + Hospice
Poland, ME
207-777-7740
A day-long grief camp for children and their family members who have lost a loved one or are anticipating a death. The day includes music, art, activities, coping skills and a healthy dose of sharing.
For 2024 Summer Camp, contact Amy Dulac, Bereavement Coordinator, at (207) 795-9468
2024 Camp Date: June 2024
Camp Erin Boston
Heartplay | Good Shepherd Community Care
Middleborough, MA
Contact Jennifer Wiles (jwiles@mah.harvard.edu, 508-309-5107).
Camp Erin is a free weekend bereavement camp for youth who are grieving the death of a significant person in their lives. Children and teens ages 6 to 17 attend a weekend camp experience that combines grief education and emotional support with fun, traditional camp activities.
2024 Camp Date: June 2024, July 14, August 17, October 2024
Camp Erin New York City
The COPE Foundation
Preston Park, PA
(914) 552-6919, afuchs@copefoundation.com
Camp Erin is a free weekend bereavement camp for children and teens ages 6-17 who are grieving the death of someone close to them. It is a fun, traditional camp with grief education, peer bonding, and emotional support led by grief support professionals and trained volunteers.
2024 Camp Date: August 23-25
Camp Erin Albany
The Community Hospice
Speculator, NY
(518) 724-0200
Camp Erin is a free weekend bereavement camp for children and teens ages 6-17 who are grieving the death of someone close to them. It is a fun, traditional camp with grief education, peer bonding, and emotional support led by grief support professionals and trained volunteers.
2024 Camp Date: September 20-22
Camp Good Grief
East End Hospice
Center Moriches, NY
631.288.8400
https://www.eehcampgoodgrief.org/
A therapeutic bereavement day camp for children, ages 4-17, who have experienced a loss.
2024 Camp Date: Registration opens April 15
Camp Good Mourning!
Center Moriches, NY
631.772.9115, Info.CampGoodMourning@gmail.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/CampGoodMourning/
Camp Good Mourning! is a Long Island-based 501c3 nonprofit organization that provides FREE bereavement camp programs for Long Island children, ages 7 – 17, who are coping with the loss of a parent and/or sibling.
Spring & Fall 2024 Camp: Website Link
Camp Kangaroo
Seasons Hospice Foundation, AccentCare Hospice
Sharon, MA
847-692-1000
Camp Kangaroo is a bereavement camp experience offered free of charge to children in the community who have suffered the death of a loved one. Participants receive grief education and emotional support combined with fun camp activities.
**Camp Kangaroo will not hold camps in Massachusetts for Summer 2024, but is planning to return in 2025. Camps will be held in other states.
Camp Kesem
Boston, MA, Newton, MA, Cambridge, MA, Providence, RI, and Hanover, NH
253-736-3821
Camp Kesem is a nationwide community driven by passionate college student leaders that supports children through and beyond their parent’s cancer (including bereavement support). Camp Kesem serves children who have lost a parent to cancer, have a parent undergoing cancer treatment, or whose parent is a cancer survivor. NOTE: Camp Kesem does not serve children and teens who have been affected by a sibling’s cancer.
Summer 2024 MA camps: Sign up here
Summer 2024 NH camp: Sign up here
Summer 2024 RI Camp: Sign up here
Search Camps for 2024 by location for all states
Camp Kita
Belgrade, ME
Camp Kita is a summer bereavement camp located in Maine. Open to children ages 8-17 who are survivors of a loved one’s suicide. Camp Kita provides all of the quintessential experiences of a rural summer camp. In addition, the camp provides clinical professionals who lead small peer support sessions and offer 24/7 trauma support. The camp is tuition-free for all campers.
2024 Camp Date: August 12-17
Camp Stepping Stones
Care Dimensions Hospice
Beverly, MA
855-774-5100
A one-day family retreat for children aged 4 to 18 and their families who have experienced the death of someone important, a space for parents/caregivers and kids to connect with other grieving families, to
honor and remember those who have died, and have some fun. Camp Stepping Stones is free for all participants, and limited to residents of Massachusetts.
2024 Camp Date: September 14
Camp Sunshine
Casco, ME
(207) 655-3800
info@campsunshine.org| sfeyler@campsunshine.org
Camp Sunshine provides retreats combining respite, recreation, and support while enabling hope and promoting joy for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families through the various stages of a child’s illness. Camp Sunshine’s program is offered year-round and is designed to serve the entire family in a retreat model. The program is free of charge to families and includes on-site medical support. A bereavement session is also offered for families who have experienced the death of a child from a supported illness. Camps are offered by type of illness.
Circle Camps for Grieving Children
Circle of Tapawingo
Sweden, ME
920-988-8759, info@circlecamps.org
Circle of Tapawingo is a free, week-long overnight camp program for girls between the ages of nine and sixteen who have experienced the death of a parent. Our mission is to offer our campers the adventures and fun of living and playing together at a beautiful, traditional overnight camp in Maine while offering them a supportive place to share their grief.
2024 Camp Date: August 19-24
Comfort Zone Camp*
Sandwich, MA
(804) 377-3430, info@comfortzonecamp.org
Comfort Zone Camp is a nonprofit bereavement organization that transforms the lives of children who have experienced the death of a parent, sibling, or primary caregiver. Our free programs include trust-building activities and age-based support groups that break the emotional isolation grief often brings. Comfort Zone’s programs are offered to children ages 7-17 and their families for the family programs, plus we offer young adult programs for 18-25-year-olds. Specific death loss camps include suicide loss, overdose loss, and COVID loss.
General Camp Date: May 31 – Jun 2, 2024(MA)
Suicide Loss Camp Date: May 17th-19th (Johnsonburg, NJ) & Sep 20th-22nd (Ortonville, MI)
Overdose Loss Camp Date: Sep 13th- Sep 15th (Fishkill, NY)
Sign up here
Experience Camps: Maine
Camps Manitou in Oakland, ME
(833) 226-7385, gayle@experiencecamps.org.
Experience Camps is a national, no-cost program for grieving children who have experienced the death of a parent, sibling, or primary caregiver. Our one-week, overnight summer camp programs help to reframe the experience of grief and empower kids to develop invaluable coping skills that enable them to move forward with their lives. Through compassion, connection, and play, Experience Camps empower grieving children to embody a life full of hope and possibility. For boys entering grades 4-12 and girls entering grades 4-10.
Maine (Girls) Camp Somerset Location Smithfield, ME
Camp Dates 2024: August 19th – 24th
Maine (Boys) Camp Manitou Location Oakland, ME
Experience Camps: Massachusetts – Weekend Family Camp
Sandwich, MA at Camp Burgess (Northwest Cape Cod)
Family Camps are free weekend programs for a family in which a child has experienced the death of a parent or primary caregiver and their immediate family. Family Camp creates a memorable and fun experience for three days and two nights. Family members can connect around their grief as a family unit and bond with other families who “get it” about grief.
Camp Dates 2024: Saturday, August 31 – Monday, September 2, 2024 (Labor Day weekend)
Fleur de Lis Camp: Circle Week
Fitzwilliam, NH
603-585-7751, claudia@fleurdeliscamp.org
Fleur de Lis Camp’s Circle Week integrates traditional overnight camp activities and fun with the opportunity to do some “grief work” in a safe and caring setting under the guidance of an experienced Grief Team, surrounded by supportive peers. The program is entirely free to campers ages 8 (summer before 3rd grade) to 15 (summer before 10th grade), and free transportation will be provided from one location in MA and one in NH.
Camp Date: August 19-23
Rett’s Roost: Open to Healing Retreat
Ogunquit, ME
Rett’s Roost ‘Open to Healing’ bereavement retreats are for families that have lost their child to cancer or similar chronic illness. We share our children’s stories and give strategies for moving forward in grief while at the same time being sensitive to the fact that everyone’s process and timeline is different. Empathy is a word you would use to describe these retreats. ‘Forever Healing’ Grief Retreats are for bereaved parents only and take place over a weekend. These are helpful to those who lost an only child or whose surviving children are over 18. While we cannot always accept families back to our family retreats due to a lack of space and funds, this is a good way for parents that met previously to come together again. Connection is a word you could use to describe these retreats.
2024: Retreat Info
Retreat Forever Healing Parent Retreat location Saco, ME: April 12th @4:30pm – April 14th @3:30pm Sign up here
Retreat Open to Healing Family Grief Retreat Location North Andover, MA: June 29th- July 3rd Sign up here
Retreat Positviely Healing Family Retreat W/ Camp Casco Location Saco, ME: July 21st @3:30pm- July 25th @10:30am Sign up here
TAPS National Military Survivor Seminar and Good Grief Camps for Survivors
Danvers, MA
800.959.TAPS (8277), youthprograms@taps.org
The TAPS (Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors) Good Grief Camp for children and teens provides support and comfort for children and teens facing the loss of a loved one in military service who died by suicide. The safe and supportive atmosphere offers opportunities to learn coping skills, establish and identify support systems, and create awareness that they are not alone in the grief of their loved ones. Children and teens meet others of their own age to share and learn. Each Good Grief Camp participant has a military mentor who serves as a companion throughout the weekend, providing them with special one-on-one attention and showing them that the military has not forgotten about them. Other summer camps are offered across the US.
2024: General Info
2024: Camp Dates
The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp
Ashford, CT
(860) 429.3444, admissions@holeinthewallgang.org
For families who have lost a child aged 0 – 18 to serious illness, The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp offers a residential bereavement program. The program includes three weekends over the course of 12 months (spring and fall 2023 and spring 2024), where families will find connection and a community of support among others who understand their experiences of loss. Families share in Camp activities, participate in group sessions facilitated by a trained bereavement specialist, and a gathering each evening to remember and celebrate the children who have died.
Outward Bound Programs – Expeditions for Grieving Teens
A HEROIC JOURNEY FOR GRIEVING TEENS & YOUNG ADULTS for teens, ages 14 to 18, coping with the loss of a loved one. An opportunity to experience specially crafted outdoor wilderness expeditions with a profound healing component for teens, ages 14 to 18, coping with losing a loved one.
Outward Bound Grieving Teens courses implement personal growth methodologies and a simple support model that honors the griever. The grief work that is purposefully woven into every aspect of the curriculum is not intended to provide therapy but rather to facilitate an environment where young people can connect, build relationships, and share in a relevant healing experience with real-world outcomes.
2024: Camp Info
Wildflower: Support for summer camp experiences to grieving children
(781) 861-1413, dgardner@wildflowerforkids.org
Wildflower provides the gift of summer camp and enrichment opportunities to children between the ages of 5 and 18 who have lost a parent. Our unique program provides individually tailored support for grieving families. Wildflower provides emotional and logistical support to the surviving parent, and the opportunity for at-risk children to receive the incredible experiences that summer camp brings.
**Only accepting applications for Summer 2024
