ABILENE, Texas — Losing someone important can be difficult for anyone, but children may face unique challenges as they learn to process grief.
Children may face unique challenges as they learn to process grief (KTXS/Briannagh Dennehy).
Club Courage, a program through Hendrick Hospice Care, gives children a structured setting to process that loss alongside others facing similar experiences.
“Club Courage is a program that’s provided by Hendrick Hospice. It is free to the community,” Lindsey Guerrero, assistant director of Club Courage, said. “It is a six-week grief education and peer support group that’s open to kids from kindergarten through 12th grade who’ve experienced some sort of loss related to death, divorce, separation, deployment, or any other kind of loss that has separated them from a special person.”
The program also recognizes the role caregivers play in a child’s grieving process (KTXS/Briannagh Dennehy).
Rather than asking children to navigate grief solely through conversation, the program incorporates activities intended to help them recognize and express what they are feeling.
“Every exercise that we lead our kids through is meant to be something that they can recreate at home,” she said. “We do exercises that require artistic expression and movement.”
The program also recognizes the role caregivers play in a child’s grieving process.
“Caregivers, or anyone who’s important to the child, are invited to be a part of the adult support group,” Guerrero said. “They’ll not only be providing support to each other, but they’ll also be learning a little bit about the curriculum that we’re teaching to the kids.”
Club Courage meets on Tuesdays from 6:30 to 8 p.m. from Oct. 13 through Nov. 17 (KTXS/Briannagh Dennehy).
Club Courage meets on Tuesdays from 6:30 to 8 p.m. from Oct. 13 through Nov. 17 at the Davis Bereavement Center at Hendrick Hospice Care Center. The application deadline is Sept. 30.