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About HOPE

About HOPE

Hope For Bereaved from maren guse on Vimeo.

HOPE FOR BEREAVED provides support and hope to thousands of grieving children, adults and families each year by offering one-to-one counseling, 10 support groups, telephone helpline, HOPELine newsletter and community education free-of-charge to the bereaved.  Families, friends and professionals turn to HOPE for training, guidance and resources. HOPE's services and resources are used locally, nationally and internationally.

HOPE is a 501-C(3) organization.  Our financial support is derived entirely from individual contributions, sale of resources, newsletter subscriptions, grants, and special events. HOPE does not receive annual funding from any source. Last year, HOPE touched the lives of 15,000 people of all ages in our community and beyond.

Therese Schoeneck founded HOPE FOR BEREAVED, Inc. in 1978 after the death of her daughter, Mary, in a car accident. At the time, Central New York did not have a support group available for parents dealing with the death of a child. Determined that something positive would come from Mary's death, she formed a bereaved parents’ support group. Eventually, her efforts blossomed into the creation of Hope for Bereaved, Inc.--a not-for-profit community organization that is dedicated to providing its programs and services free-of-charge to grieving children, adults and families in our community. HOPE also offers grief workshops for daycare providers and on-site bereavement support for employers dealing with grief in the workplace.

Future GOALS

Expand Outreach to Children & Teens

One of our major goals for 2009-2010 is to expand HOPE’s outreach services and programs for grieving children & teens.  To accomplish this we are seeking seed money to fund the establishment of a program for grieving children and teens.  This is a critical need.  It requires a youth coordinator/counselor who would reach out to all schools throughout central New York.  

The second youth goal is to establish the Center of HOPE for Grieving Children & Teens.  HOPE has a dedicated location within the current HOPE Center that would be transformed to a complex for the youth.  It would provide the youth & teen support group a much needed meeting space.  This Youth Wing could hold up to 30 youth and would include a library/media corner and office space for the youth coordinator, as well as counseling space. 

Butterflies of HOPE

Art Projects by Children & Teens

Three schools responded to HOPE’s invitation to create “Butterfly Art” for our Celebration of HOPE. Each student donated their artwork “in memory of a loved one who died”. The “Butterfly Art Project” will become part of our outreach to students and enable HOPE to raise awareness to the support groups, resources and services that HOPE provides to our community’s youth. This creates an opportunity for students to understand their grief.

This program is part of our expanded outreach to Schools which includes our newly designed Grief Resources Kit.

If you have tears of sorrow
We will share them.
If you have words of anger or guilt
We will hear them.
If you have moments of confusion
We will help you through them

 

We are here to LISTEN, offer suggestions for coping, and as our name implies -- to offer HOPE. 
We will walk on with you on your journey from grief to HOPE.


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