The Light Beyond

Hands Together, Heart to Art children's summer camp in Chicago, IL

My name is Susan Urasky, I'm the camp registrar for Hands Together, Heart to Art run out of the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, a non-profit organization.

I wanted the Light Beyond's readers to know about Hands Together, Heart to Art which is a summer camp in Chicago, IL that celebrates the healing power of creative play. It is an arts initiative for children ages 7-14 who have experienced the death of a parent. This is a two week day camp with the low tuition cost of only $50 and scholarships are available. The campers take part in music, dance, and drama classes daily along with grief counseling to help facilitate their healing process. For more information, please visit www.hthta.org or call the program at 312.922.2110 ext 303. Thank you, Susan Urasky.

Advice for grieving children

Some helpful words by the Child Bereavement Trust:

What is OK

• To cry and feel low and depressed
• To feel angry, embarrassed and not want to talk about your feelings
• To copy some of the activities your loved one had before they died, but you need to retain your own life too
• 'Live in the past' for a while. It can help you to keep alive the memory of your parent, your brother or sister, for example, but try not to let life pass you by
• Have fun and enjoy life, to laugh again and forget for a while, forgive yourself for the fights and arguments and nasty things you might have said to your loved one who died
• Go on living

What's not OK

• To use drugs or excessive alcohol to dull your senses. This can only act as an escape and hide the pain, not helping to heal it, and it will then take longer to accept the hurt
• Act out your frustration with reckless driving or skipping school
• Do things with your anger that can hurt other people because you are hurting yourself
• Experiment casually with sex, just to get close to someone
• Hide your feelings and not talk about what is bothering you
• Act as the scapegoat or bad guy to appear tough

Any thoughts or experiences? Please post them here!

Children and teens: growing up with grief

I've come across a few interesting articles lately about 'grief camps' or 'bereavement camps' and how they can help children and teens cope better with their loss. I hope that some of you might find them useful too...

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/lifestyles/509438,4_5_JO15_GRIEFCAMP_S1.article

http://blog.mlive.com/kalamazoo_gazette_extra/2007/08/journey_through_grief_art_camp.html

http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/08/11/10145672.html

Helping children cope with grief

The UK-based charity Winston's Wish is a resource which provides help for grieving children and their families. It helps bereaved children and young people rebuild their lives after a family death, and offers practical support and guidance to families, professionals and anyone concerned about a grieving child. If you are in the sad situation of struggling to console a grieving child - often whilst trying to deal with your own grief at the same time - I do recommend its work highly.

"At the beginning we couldn't see how to get through.  Now we know we can - we laugh, we cry, we find ways to live and remember." Isn't this how it is for all of us, in every loss?