SAY Grief Services offers peer support groups for children, youth, and families healing after a death of a loved one.
SAY Grief Services is proud to have received a grant which has allowed us to expand our services into several Sonoma County schools. The New York Life Foundation grant will allow us to provide in-school support to youth experiencing grief related to the death of a loved one. SAY will implement grief support groups on 5 campuses for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 academic school years. In addition to grief groups for youth, educational support regarding grief will be provided to parents and caregivers. School staff will also receive training and education on how to identify and support a grieving student. These services will be provided at no cost to the individual school sites or districts.
With funding awarded by Impact100 Sonoma, SAY Grief Services responded to community need after the wildfires to support kids in Sonoma Valley schools affected most by the fires. We continue to establish the need of the youth in Sonoma Valley and will offer more grief support groups coming soon.
Our groups are age-specific and customized to the unique emotional and developmental needs of each participant. With the support of professional mental health facilitators youth are able to express their grief in their own time, and in a way that is uniquely their own. Our therapeutic use of expressive arts provides the essential tools for rich, honest communication and participants are encouraged to share their unique stories and memories while deepening their common connections with peers.
