OUR TREEHOUSE
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Mission Statement
Our TreeHouse believes no child should grieve alone. We are here to provide a loving, healing community to support the healing process. We do this through two support groups: Family Night - which serves children 5 - 12 years old and their caregivers - and Teen Night - which serves teens 13 - 18 years old. We also provide support to schools and businesses after the death of a student, teacher or col-worker. We are here as a grief resource to our community.
About This Cause
We serve any child in Whatcom County that has experienced the death of someone significant in their life, most typically a parent/guardian or a sibling. The estimates for how many people lose a parent or sibling before the age of 18 varies between one in seven and one in twenty. Even using the conservative one in twenty estimate, there are over 2,000 children in Whatcom County who are grieving the death of a parent or sibling. If we use an average of four people per family, we have over 500 families grieving a loss. The National Alliance for Grieving Children in conjunction with the New York Life Foundation surveyed children under 18-years-old who were grieving the loss of a parent and found the following: • 75% say the pervading emotion they currently feel is sadness, with feeling angry, alone, overwhelmed and worried being top other emotions; • 52% said that talking to their friends about the death of their family member is hard; • 47% said that since the death of their family members they try not to make things any harder for their parent/guardian; • 45% said they have more trouble concentrating on school work; • 41% said that they have acted in ways that they knew might not be good for them, either physically, mentally or emotionally. Children and teens that are supported through grief, that are given tools and resources, tend to move through grief in a healthier way. Play is the work of childhood grief so at our Family Night, children are free to play in one of four different rooms that have been set-up for a variety of activities: one room has a memory art project, a creative way to commemorate or remember the person who died; one room has a punching bag; one room has Legos and a sand tray; and the fourth room has puppets and dress up clothes. Since parents/guardians are required to stay on site while the children are in program, we have an adult support group, as well. Adults often come to Family Night because they feel their child needs the support. Not only do they find support through their grief journey, they find support for the trials they encounter when parenting grieving children. At Teen Night, two Facilitators guide the teens in an opening circle and an optional art project. Last year we provided a Parenting Series for parents who were anticipating a death or had a recent death. The focus of the Parenting Series is to provide support and guidance for parenting a grieving child. We are the contracted agency to support the Bellingham Public Schools during the summer after the death of a student or teacher. Last June and again this Fall after school resumed, we provided support to Bellingham High School’s staff and students after the death of one of their teachers. All of the programs at Our TreeHouse are offered at no cost to the families.