Announcing our Charity of the Year Partnership – Grief Encounter South-West

We are delighted to announce that this year across the whole Family Adventures Group (Ocean Adventurers, Space Adventurers and Little Adventures Nurseries) we will be partnering and supporting an incredible, important local charity which is very close to our teams’ hearts – Grief Encounter South-West.

Last week we visited the Grief Encounter centre in Bristol and learn more about the amazing work that Grief Encounter do to support children suffering from bereavement of a parent or sibling right here locally in the South-West.

Every 13 minutes in the UK a child experiences the death of a parent or sibling. 1 child in every classroom in the UK will be bereaved of a parent during childhood. 66% of deaths are not from a long-term illness but instead factors such as sudden death, accidents, suicide, unknown reasons. This means children often must process huge shock as well as grief.

67% of children do not talk about their fears or anxieties to peers or teachers following the death of a parent or sibling. It can be an incredibly lonely and isolating experience for any child to have to go through without professional support. Currently the government does not recognise bereaved children as a vulnerable group, and as such, there is no funding available to organisations providing vital support to children experiencing close family bereavement despite it impacting over 44,000 children a year and 1 in 4 under 20s who take their own lives have experienced bereavement.

As you can imagine there is a huge demand for help with childhood bereavement without statutory funding. Grief Encounter’s vision is that no child should have to face grief alone. This is a vision we fully support and want to help make a reality.

Grief Encounter provides free and professional support to children, young people and their families affected by family bereavement. It is a self-referral service accessible to all children and families going through bereavement of a parent or sibling. Grief Encounter offers range of specialist services are available to suit the needs of each individual and their family, including one-to-one counselling, creative and play therapies, facilitated family group workshops, youth workshops, family fun days and tailor-made family support services.

So how will we be working together? Our Little Adventures Worle Nursery team have already raised an incredible amount of nearly £4,000 through a Forget Me Not walk recently in memory of our team member and friend, Lily Sedley-Jones. We will be running many more fundraising events, supporting awareness during National Bereavement Week, promoting the support and help available to families from this amazing charity in our centres and providing important grief resources and support within our nurseries.

If your child or family could benefit from the important services that Grief Encounter offers here in the South-West you can contact their Helpline on 0808 802 0111 or email grieftalk@griefencounter.org.uk

Grief Encounter’s charity number is 1175837. To donate or find out more information on this amazing charity supporting children right here in the South-West visit their website: www.griefencounter.org.uk