‘No Child Will Grieve Alone’ at Valerie’s House Pensacola by Dakota Parks
I
n the State of Florida, 1 in 8 children will experience the death of a parent or sibling by the age of 25. For a grief-stricken family, learning to process, cope and live with loss is no easy feat. When a death in the family occurs, parents and caregivers must often navigate their own personal mourning, while providing emotional support to their children as well. In Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties, grief will impact more than 8,000 children before the age of 25, according to the 2020 JAG Institute of Childhood Bereavement index. Bereavement resources for grieving children and families often fall between the cracks, as there are no regular grief support groups currently operating in the Northwest Florida region. Valerie’s House Pensacola is looking to change that, as the nonprofit opens its first chapter in the Panhandle.
Established in 2016 in Fort Myers, Valerie’s House operates as a family-focused hub that offers peer-to-peer support groups for children to connect with others who are also grieving. Children participate in a variety of art, journaling and music activities during weekly support groups, while parents and caregivers meet separately to learn about supporting both their children’s grief and their own. Since its inception in 2016, Valerie’s House has expanded to include chapters in Fort Myers, Naples, Port Charlotte and Pensacola. For Pensacola Advisory Chair, Crista Brandt, who spearheaded the Pensacola chapter, the topic hits close to home. Both the founder of Valerie’s House, Angela Melvin, and Brandt lost their mothers when they were young girls. Brandt lost her mother to cancer when she was 11 years old, and as an adult, she
found herself drawn to helping support grieving children. Brandt explained that she didn’t have access to a grief support group when she was young, and she quickly became passionate about making grief resources more accessible. “When I was in high school, I didn’t know anyone that had lost a loved one or that was going through what I was going through. That alienation makes it really difficult to process grief in a way that is healthy,” Brandt explained. “Peer-to-peer support groups help children share and connect with other kids their age that are dealing with some of the same emotions and confusion. Grief is individual and it’s a lifelong journey. Everyone grieves differently and there isn’t a timeframe to getting over it. Grief ebbs and flows and arises at different points in our lives like graduation or marriage, when we’re missing that person on our special days.” The Pensacola-based support group meets biweekly on Tuesday nights at the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwest Florida center located at 1320 Creighton Road, which has opened its doors to Valerie’s House. On group nights, the group is led by a volunteer facilitator and a “group MAY '21
25