Volunteer Children's Bereavement Support Volunteer

What will you be doing?

We are a children's bereavement support charity based in Kent called Holding On Letting Go. You would be placed to work alongside a bereaved child aged 6-17 years and give them coping strategies for their grief (training will be provided).  We hold 7 bereavement support weekends a year (one of these is for families affected by Suicide/traumatic death and the other is for parents and their children who have been affected by Stillbirth/Neonatal death). We ask all new volunteers to commit to at least three non-residential weekends. Our weekends are mostly held in Sittingbourne but we do have two in Sevenoaks and one in Broadstairs each year. We pay mileage, provide free training and provide food and refreshments. We ask all volunteers to have a background of working with children.

What are we looking for?

We ask volunteers to have a working background of either working with children, counselling skills, nursing skills or bereavement. 

What difference will you make?

Our referrals for children have doubled over the last year, the more experienced volunteers we have to work with a bereaved child the less time the children are on our waiting list.  You will see the difference you make to a child from how they are when they enter the building on arrival (which can be quiet, anxious and hesitant) to how they are when they leave at the end of the day which is usually happy, talking about their special person who died and asking if they can come back again!