Allowing a child to grieve at their own pace and helping maintain healthy relationships can be an important part of a child's adjustment to his or her loss.
Source: Dr. Bruce D. Perry, MD., Ph.D.
BEREAVEMENT PROGRAM
Presently, Gary’s Circle of Friends offers school-based bereavement support groups in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The groups are led by licensed therapists and offered three times per school year during school hours. Each session will cover a different aspect of the grief process. Groups are held once a week for 45 minutes and consist of a variety of activities including imaginative play and artistic expression. Students are encouraged to express their grief in creative, healthy ways, and to learn coping skills that will help them deal with the loss of their loved one. The nine weeks are intended to provide students with a safe and culturally sensitive environment in which to foster self-expression and get in touch with suppressed emotions to begin the healing process. By going through the grief process with others, participants will come to understand that they are not alone and see how others deal with grief.
Gary’s Circle of Friends hopes that individuals who participate will continue to forge relationships after the group ends and to understand that being able to share their feelings about loss will help them manage their grief in a more productive, healthy way.
Contact Us to request further information.
Benefits to School-Based Support:
There are few organizations that specialize in bereavement services for children in Los Angeles. The benefits of Gary’s Circle of Friends are that it targets children, is a free service, and helps children identify coping mechanisms. The groups are provided on their school campus reducing the barrier of transportation issues, increasing school attendance, improving academic performance, and maintaining their connection to their school environment where they feel safe.
EDUCATIONAL TRAINING
GGF provides training by a licensed therapist about grief and loss to help school personnel and parents/guardians understand a child’s perspective of grief and loss and what they need from adults around them. The outline consists of educational materials and information about what is grief and loss for a child, normal vs. maladaptive responses to grief, signs that a child is struggling with grief, risk factors that increase grief responses, and how adults can help them with grief and loss. By understanding a grieving child, there is early detection for intervention that can enhance a child’s quality of life and improve his or her well-being, academic performance, school attendance, family relationships, and self-esteem.
Contact Us for an educational training.
COMMUNITY RESOURCES & EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS
Our foundation assists the community and the families we work with on finding appropriate referrals to mental health clinics or other supportive services to further address their needs that are more than dealing with the loss of a loved one.
How You Can Help
Donate to the
Gary A. Garcia Foundation
Our foundation is dedicated to giving support to grieving children and their families who are emotionally and sometimes financially overwhelmed. If you would like to learn more about supporting our cause, please click the link below.
Research Shows Foundation Services Help Kids
The impact of free bereavement services provided by Gary's Cricle of Friends was recently studied with positive results.
