Finding purpose is what most people seek. My purpose, through Love Never Ends, is to assist bereaved parents in getting help and finding healing in their loss. When I was starting on my grief journey, just after I lost Mark, there were other parents who had lost a child who were willing to help me, and gave me someone to talk to, and who understood what I was going through. Love Never Ends is creating this safe place for parents to come and join a peer support group, find relevant resources, or sign up for a workshop (coming soon).
The primary method to help parents is providing peer support groups. The peer support group allows parents who have lost a child to help other parents who have lost a child, by providing a safe place to be heard and understood. A great deal of healing can come from just being able to talk about your child and your grief without feeling uncomfortable, judged, or sorry. In a peer support group there is compassion, understanding, and empathy. We have seen this in the local Love Never Ends peer support groups we've hosted for the last fifteen months. We've been able to fine tune the agenda of the group, and we are looking to expand peer support groups to other communities.
The next step is to take the peer support groups online. That is the most efficient way to reach more people who are looking for this type of group. Because of the pandemic, people are more accustomed to being on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and other online video conferencing platforms to meet, work and be educated. Our first online peer support group will meet on September 27th. We plan to keep the number of participants at twelve or under, and we will determine the number of groups we form based on the response to participate. We hope online peer support groups will be a help to you!