West Michigan has experienced tragedy of late. We try to rationalize a senseless series of shootings that stunned an entire region. We are a community grieving losses -- a community that is healing.
Grand Rapids is fortunate to have the largest and busiest affiliate of Gilda's Club in the nation offering free grief support to those living with the loss of a loved one. Once focused primarily on persons living with cancer and those who surround them, the organization now offers their services of grief support for any type of loss.
"We are comprehensive," says Development Manager Joanne Roehm, "not just for someone diagnosed with cancer."
The three-year grief support pilot program for children primarily funded by the Steelcase Foundation and practiced in five community centers and several schools was recently added to Gilda's Club core service programs.
"There is no set form," says Roehm. "It's meeting the person at the door and providing the services to meet their needs."
Grief support services are facilitated by MSWs with continued education and available to all -- not just children -- for free. With the increased numbers in support groups at Gilda's Club, they felt there was an additional need in the community for grief programming, and it couldn't have come at a better time.
Want to learn more about Gilda's Club? Get involved and be a do-gooder…
• Visit the latest affiliate in Lowell
Source: Joanne Roehm, Gilda's Club
Writer: Jennifer Wilson, Do Good Editor
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