Events

When Grief Strikes! 2024 Bowling Fundraiser

Come join us on Sunday, September 22, 2024 from 1-4 pm for connection, bowling, food, and fun! All proceeds support the grief support and education work the Kentucky Center for Grieving Children and Families does with youth in Kentucky. The event will be hosted at Southland Lanes, 205 Southland Drive, Lexington. If you can't attend, we also invite you to purchase tickets to allow a program family or child to participate in the event for free. Buy your tickets here!

Interested in SPONSORSHIP of the Fundraiser Event? Link here to Sponsorship levels and order forms

Registration for the spring 2024 Peer Healing group is now open! Peer Healing is a teen-led grief support group for teens 13-18 that meets once a week on Wednesday nights for 8 weeks. Games, conversation, and connection will help teens who have experienced a death loss find a healing space and skills that will help them as they navigate their new normal. Learn more about our Peer Healing groups here.

Fall Camp Days from Bluegrass Care Navigators

Registration is now open for two grief camp days being offered in September and October (one in Versailles and one in Red Fox, KY). For more information, call

859-492-0812 or register here.

News

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KCGCF Receives FCPS Golden Apple Award

The KCGCF was honored to receive a 2024 Golden Apple Award given by Fayette County Public Schools. Golden Apple Awards are presented to "high-performance community partners that provide an exceptional commitment of time, energy, and expertise to individual schools or the Fayette County district through mentorships and varied programs and initiatives." Since 2021, the KCGCF has served more than 20 school sites within FCPS with semester-long grief support groups. We are so proud of the incredible work our school group facilitators have done with students from elementary through high school and grateful for the partnership with the district.

KCGCF Receives New York Life Foundation and KY Association of Health Plan Grants To Serve Scott County Schools

Scott County Schools announced a new pilot program to tackle one of Kentucky’s most significant but least understood and least addressed public health issues for children and adolescents: bereavement. State data modeling shows that one in nine Kentucky children will lose a parent or sibling by the age of 18, with 25% of parental bereavements caused by overdose. This represents more than 40,000 Kentucky children, enough to fill Rupp Arena nearly twice over. Scott County Schools is now teaming up with Kentucky Center for Grieving Children and Families (KCGCF) for a unique initiative thanks to generous grants from the Kentucky Association of Health Plans (KAHP) and the New York Life Foundation's (NYLF) Grief Reach Program, which will enable students to access school-based grief support services.

New Partnership with UK Departments To Launch Peer Grief Support on Campus

The KCGCF is delighted to announce a new partnership with UK's Department of Community and Leadership Development and the Center for Support and Intervention to launch a pilot aimed at creating peer support mechanisms for students with loss on UK's campus. The project will include identifying and working with current students who would like to help serve as peer leaders with the grief support groups. The project, led by Dr. Nicole Breazeale and Stephanie Love from UK, will launch campus groups in September 2024.

KCGCF Advocates in Frankfort For More Supports for Grieving Children and Teens

The KCGCF was honored to be able to present testimony to the Kentucky House Interim Joint Committee on Families and Children. KCGCF staff, FCPS staff, and a bereaved teen all presented on the impacts of death loss for children and teens and gave a call to action to build more supports statewide. Watch the testimony here. We were also glad to have WKYT cover the testimony and create their own news piece here.

KCGCF Partners with UK Athletics for Unique Support Group

The KCGCF is honored to have partnered with UK Athletics and UK Football this fall to run The Perfect Fit Peer Support Group! UK Athlete JJ Weaver saw the need for himself and his fellow players for a safe space to talk about their losses and how they cope. KCGCF Clinical Program Manager Emily Johnson Rommelman led the group weekly. CBS Inside Football did an incredible feature on the program. Watch the video here!