Grieving Families Need You

I’m sending you this important call to action because we need your help.

We ask you to please share this GoFundMe campaign with others who know how much Full Circle means to you via Facebook, Twitter, or Email. We know this is a lofty goal so we need the support of your friends, families, co-workers, and neighbors to raise this $15,000 by July 22nd.

We had to cancel two of our Hands On Healing Family groups in 2019 due to lack of funding, turning away 24 families – over 70 people who needed grief support services. Many of the foundations who have previously funded this program have changed their funding priorities and no longer support these types of family mental health services. 

We have grants pending for funding in 2020, but we have a very high demand for this group now. We currently have 11 families signed up for our fall group, and many more pending registrations. These families have lost mothers, fathers, spouses/partners, grandparents, children, and siblings. Because of these waiting families, we are determined to be able to offer this Hands On Healing group in the fall but we need your help to make this happen.

More About Hands On Healing Family Groups...

Full Circle is the only organization in Richmond to provide professionally-led bereavement counseling groups for extended families dealing with the death of a loved one. 

Our goals are to help grieving individuals:

·Strengthen Families: increase communication between family members
·Learn Coping Skills: learn healthy ways to deal with traumatic events and their long grief journey
·Reduce Isolation: build support networks within and outside of the family
·Heal through Creative Expression: use creative expression to strengthen communication and process feelings

Meeting weekly for 8 weeks, the Hands On Healing  Family group is structured around an age-appropriate curriculum, open discussion, peer support, and creative expression through art, crafts, music, journaling, and play.  Led by a professional counselor specializing in grief and loss, the group sessions are made up of community time with refreshments, a family activity to increase communication between the family members, and then counseling groups (usually 4 children’s groups and 1 adult group). 

The children’s group activities are designed to release stress and anxiety, express emotions, teach positive coping skills, and explore ways to remember loved ones.  Topics include telling the story of loss, identifying feelings, discussing challenges of losing a loved one, celebrating and honoring a loved one’s life, and looking forward. The parent/primary caregiver group meets concurrently to discuss topics such as healing from grief, talking to your children about the loss, seeking out community resources, asking for support, and dealing with other challenges associated with loss. 

How You Can Help...

We need to raise $15,000 to cover the direct costs of offering this group. We are dedicated to raising these funds because we do not want to leave these families without this professional support.  If Full Circle is not available for these families, there is no other option in Richmond that offers grief support for families free of charge.


Again, we ask you to please share this GoFundMe campaign with others who know how much Full Circle means to you via Facebook, Twitter, or Email. We know this is a lofty goal so we need the support of your friends, families, co-workers, and neighbors to raise this $15,000.

Please donate today to support these grieving members of our community and consider donating in memory or in honor of your loved one today!



Sincerely,
Allyson England Drake, M.Ed., CT
Founder and Executive Director

To learn more about Full Circle click here .