Who Are We?

We are a charity that provides relief to those are in need by reason of bereavement through death, family breakdown, separation, or divorce, through the provision of training and resources to deliver Grief Peer Support Programmes for children and teenagers.

Why Grief Support?

Bereavement affects a person’s emotional, spiritual, physical and mental health and well-being. When they don’t have anyone to talk through their feelings they will often be overwhelmed with a range of emotions.

Our Programmes

Growing Through programmes are peer support group curriculum’s that are biblically based. They are targeted, evidence-based programmes of intervention and prevention, to provide help for children to cope with their grief now, in the early stages, in order to prevent problems stemming from unresolved grief in their future.

Resources

During the upheaval of a deeply emotional time of loss in our lives, we can have a lot of questions or worries that we want to search out answers for. Growing Through may not provide all the answers to those questions but, we hope we can give you some guidance to help you navigate your journey of grief through our informational resources provided here.

The History of Growing Through

Growing Through was founded in 1995 in Birmingham, England by Dale and Jewell Erickson. Over the years, with the input of many qualified and creative people, they have developed biblically based peer support programmes for children and teenagers who have been bereaved through death or family breakdown.

The children’s curriculum, for ages 6-11 yrs., is based on the story of Joseph (Genesis 37-47).  The teenage curriculum, for ages 12-18yrs, is based on the story of David (1 and 2 Samuel), and how he expressed his emotions in the Psalms.  Both ninety-minute programmes address a different topic over a period of thirteen weeks. They have been evaluated and refined over the years to provide a simple, interactive, fun way for lay people to facilitate grief support groups in their community through churches, schools, or organisations.

The programmes are targeted, specific, evidenced-based curriculums of intervention and prevention. By helping children / teenagers learn ways to cope with their grief now, problems stemming from unresolved grief are prevented in the future. Above all, the aim is to communicate to young people that God has not abandoned them, and that He is there to help them through life’s difficulties.

In 2015, Jewell and Dale migrated back to the United States to oversee its international development. At that point, Mary Gault, a volunteer based in Northern Ireland, took oversite of the UK work.  In 2017, the charity was relocated from England to Northern Ireland, and in November, 2018, it was reregistered and relaunched with a new board of trustees.

As the charity has evolved, many groups have been established within communities throughout the UK and internationally. Currently there are key people in Africa, India, the UK and the USA who can help you or your group start a programme in your community. Contact us for details.