Jeremy's Circle Competitors

The mission of The Compassionate Friends: When a child dies, at any age, the family suffers intense pain and may feel hopeless and isolated. The Compassionate Friends provides highly personal comfort, hope, and support to every family experiencing the death of a son or a daughter, a brother or a sister, or a grandchild, and helps others better assist the grieving family. The Compassionate Friends was founded over 40 years ago when a chaplain at the Warwickshire Hospital in England brought together two sets of grieving parents and realized that the support they gave each other was better than anything he, as a chaplain, could ever say or provide. Meeting around a kitchen table, the Lawleys and the Hendersons were joined by a bereaved mother and the chaplain, Simon Stephens, and The Society of the Compassionate Friends was born. The Compassionate Friends jumped across the ocean and was established in the United States and incorporated in 1978 in Illinois. Each chapter, along with the supporting National Office, is committed to helping every bereaved parent, sibling, or grandparent who may walk through our doors or contact us. Today TCF has nearly 600 chapters serving all 50 states plus Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and Guam, that offer friendship, understanding, and hope to bereaved parents, siblings, grandparents, and other family members during the natural grieving process after a child has died. Around the world more than 30 countries have a Compassionate Friends presence, encircling the globe with support so desperately needed when the worst has happened.

Dougy Center provides support in a safe place where children, teens, young adults, and their families who are grieving can share their experiences before and after a death. We provide support and training locally, nationally and internationally to individuals and organizations seeking to assist children in grief. We are supported solely through private support from individuals, foundations and companies. The Dougy Center does not charge a fee for its services.

AfterTalk, www.aftertalk.com, was created to help people through one of life’s most difficult times with comfort, solace, and support. AfterTalk gives those who grieve the opportunity to continue to express their thoughts and feelings, their joys and frustrations, to a deceased spouse, parent, sibling, child, relative, or friend in complete, secure privacy. AfterTalk also invites them into a community of people who have suffered a profound loss and want to share ideas and experiences with others. AfterTalk is non-denominational and available free to all. The heart of AfterTalk is its Private Conversations program, a secure, private place for the grieving to employ therapeutic writing to maintain a virtual “conversation” with the deceased love one. AfterTalk’s founders believe that grief could be alleviated by “continuing a conversation” with those who have passed, sharing one’s daily experiences, thoughts, feelings, joys, frustrations and memories as they had during their time together. When one partner in a relationship passes, whether it be a spouse, child, parent, relative, or friend, there is so much left unsaid. Still in place are the regular habits of exchange, whether it be drive time chatting with a spouse or scheduled phone calls to a parent or sibling. AfterTalk gives the grieving the opportunity to simulate part of that connectedness while the healing process progresses. Doing so can serve as a bridge to recovery from loss. AfterTalk Forums are intended to bring together people who have experienced a specific loss, like “Mothers Who Have Lost a Child,” or “For Widows and Widowers: Romance and the Recently Bereaved,” or “For Those Who Have Lost a Parent.” There are also general and timely forums like “Financial Planning After a Loss,” and “Grieving During the Holiday Season.” Members maintain their anonymity when taking part in the forums.