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Events
Register for Virtual Teen-Led Grief Support Groups
Registration for our 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.
Healing With Horses Is Back!
Our fall program with the wonderful folks of the Kentucky Horse Park Education Department was such a success, we're bringing the program back for Sunday afternoon, May 18. The experience with the horses is a great way for families to connect, try something new, and to gain confidence as they bond with our equine friends. This popular free program is limited to 15 families per session, so encourage folks to sign up soon.
Free Online Training For Caregivers Supporting Children Who Are Grieving
Growing Through Grief is a 75-minute workshop sponsored by Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and facilitated by clinicians from the Trauma and Grief Center/Lucine Center for Trauma and Grief. The workshop is designed to help caregivers support their children who are experiencing grief due to the loss of a significant person in their life. The workshop is being offered on several dates May-August, with some sessions held in English and others in Spanish. Learn more & register here!
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News
KCGCF Wins AKA Award
The KCGCF The KCGCF was so honored to receive the Outstanding Organization Award from the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Beta Gamma Omega Chapter as part of the Coretta Scott King Spirit of Ivy Awards in the spring of 2025. The Sorors of AKA have been faithful volunteers with the KCGCF, and two of their members serve as facilitators for our Fayette County school groups.
New Partnership with UK Departments Launches 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, launched in September 2024.
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.
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!
