Sharieff's Project for Grieving Parents & Children

My name is Yejide Muhammad (formerly Robin Hester) and my son, Sharieff, passed away in December of 2021 at age 27 due to complications from COVID-19 after a lifelong battle with Multiple Congenital Anomalies, including scoliosis and underdeveloped lungs.

Sharieff was the love of my life. I had three boys, and Sharieff was in the middle, much smaller than his brothers and cognitively well behind his peers, but you'd never know he had a problem in the world by the way he carried himself. While he never appeared to be older than 10 or 11 due to his small stature and near constant childlike silliness, Sharieff was wise beyond his years when it came to charming and inspiring those around him.

In spite of his chronic challenges, being in and out of the hospital three times a week, needing a ventilator 24/7 and having to push his own oxygen tank, Sharieff was friendly with everyone he met and seemed not to notice (or care) that he was different. He lit up a room, and he touched so many lives I'm sure there are people out there I haven't even met that he had an impact on.

It is in my late son's name and honor that I've started Sharieff's Project, a non-profit in Pawtucket, R.I., to serve my community and celebrate his legacy. As a licensed therapist in Rhode Island and Massachusetts for over 30 years, I am well aware of the need for ongoing therapy, healing support and mental health services, especially in the BIPOC community. I continue to provide counseling through my own private practice, Ye's Center for Healing and Development, at the Black Lives Matter building in Pawtucket.

Through special programming and group sessions, Sharieff's Project fills a local void and provides co-parenting sessions for parents who are divorced or separated or have children with disabilities or chronic illnesses. In addition to helping adults cope with day to day challenges, loss and grief, Sharieff's Project provides Healing By Expression sessions for children who are grieving or have experienced family trauma.

Your donation will help fund the much needed and ongoing expert services provided by hired clinicians, therapists and staff as well as any props or supplies needed to routinely implement the sessions.

It costs approximately $150-$200 to hold one 90-minute group session for parents or children. With your help, we will be able to maintain current efforts while adding new 5-6-week group series opportunities as funds become available.

Anything helps - if you've experienced loss or unfortunately know the pain of watching someone struggle with substance abuse, racial trauma, or being a single parent, you know just having somewhere to go each week to be heard and seen can make a world of difference. Funds raised here will allow me to hire additional seasoned session leaders and maximize the group experiences and life changing activities we are able to offer a community in dire need.

Everyone at Sharieff's Project is dedicated to our mission: providing group counseling, engagement activities and a relevant network of support for mothers, fathers and children who are challenged in today's world, who've experienced trauma, who've lost someone they loved and have no one to talk to about it.

If you are able to make a contribution to help Sharieff's Project continue to help others, I would sincerely appreciate it. Inspired by my son, my heartbeat, my Sharieff, I am here to do the work every day. I ask for your help with funding because I believe everyone can make a meaningful difference, even for people we've never met.

Thank you for learning more about Sharieff's Project.