Thanks to lottery funding, the costs of running our parent/carer support groups will be covered for the next 12 months. 

The National Lottery Community Fund has awarded us just over £19,000; the generous sum will help support an anticipated 110 individuals over the next year, as well as funding our Parent/Carer Facilitator, Dawn Bradley for the next year. 

Our focus is on supporting children across Kent and South-East London through bereavement but includes supporting parents and carers to help them learn about child bereavement and how it’s different to adult bereavement in terms of language, behaviour and emotions. Parents and carers also learn how to support a bereaved child, answer questions or manage extreme behaviours (anger, sadness, overwhelm, or even appearing not to be upset, for example), alongside managing their own grief, feelings and emotions. 

Vitally, our parent and carer group support also brings together the grown-ups, who then create peer support amongst each other, which continues as friendship after their sessions with us.  

We receive no government funding to provide our services which include telephone/video support, home visits, and bereavement support weekends for children aged up to 18, and their family.  
Held at venues across the county, the weekends give children the opportunity to talk about their loved one who has died, share their memories, express their emotions through art and music therapy and meet other bereaved children – this is often the first time they will have met another child going through a similar experience which hugely reduces their feelings of being isolated or ‘the only one this has happened to’. 
 
Parent/carer support 
In addition to the parent/carer group at the bereavement support weekends, there is also one-to-one support available if it’s needed, plus a monthly bereavement café to meet others who are looking after a bereaved child. These welcoming environments are a safe space for expressing difficult emotions and the perceived ‘taboo’ elements of grief. The adults are supported with coping with their own grief and prioritising self-care. 

Our CEO Julie Tobin said: “For a small charity like ours, the funding from The National Lottery Community Fund is a truly significant sum of money. Knowing that our parent/carer services are covered for the next year, including our staff member who makes it all happen, gives us the security to focus on what matters most – helping children and their families through some of the most difficult times of their lives. 

“When a child experiences a death, or a death is expected, the adults in their lives are faced with the often overwhelming challenge of not only managing their child’s grief, but also their own. Knowing how to gently guide a child or young person through their sadness, at a level appropriate for their age and understanding, can be immensely difficult at a time when the right words are so hard to find.  

“We are there for every family, helping a child hold on to the happy memories of their loved one and let go of the painful ones. We are very grateful to The National Lottery Community Fund and all National Lottery players for this incredible support.”  

The £19,242 funding has come from the National Lottery Community Fund – the UK’s largest community funder, made possibly by National Lottery players. 
 
If you know a bereaved child in need of support, make a referral here. 

Or, if you’re an individual or business who would like to help fundraise for HOLG, find out more here.