In June, staff members from The Children’s Room (TCR) attended the 2015 National Alliance For Grieving Children Symposium in Portland, Oregon.

Held annually, this conference brings together professionals from across the United States and Canada who work in the field of grief support. TCR staff has been a regular contributor at this gathering, the largest of its kind in the country.

At this year’s symposium, Associate Program Directors Laurie Moskowitz-Corrois and Colleen Shannon presented a workshop about TCR’s Monthly Family Night. Through an interactive, activity-based learning and discussion session, Laurie and Colleen shared their expertise and their experience with incorporating expressive arts activities into the healing process of grieving families.

Education Director Deborah Rivlin and Clinical Director Nancy Frumer Styron presented on Parenting While Grieving, TCR’s educational and support series for parents or guardians who are raising children who had a parent die. During their lecture and discussion session at the symposium, Deborah and Nancy shared TCR’s distinctive, eight-week model for helping parents and caregivers develop strategies for dealing with the challenges of parenting while navigating their own grief.

TCR staff received overwhelmingly positive feedback from their peers about both presentations. Conference-goers said that tremendous needs in their own grief support communities could be filled by following TCR’s Family Night and Parenting While Grieving models, and there was significant interest in adopting similar programming at their own organizations. This and other conference experiences affirmed that The Children’s Room is a leader in its field.