Margaretanns Place Inc

MargaretAnn’s Place - Wisconsin's Center of Hope for Grieving Children is partnering with The Moyer Foundation, a non-profit organization established by Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher Jamie Moyer and his wife, Karen, to bring Camp Erin to Milwaukee area kids and teens. The camp is for children and teens ages 6-17 who have experienced the death of a relative or close friend.

Camp Erin is a traditional, fun weekend camp combined with grief education and emotional support. With 36 camps in 23 states and one in Canada, Camp Erin is the largest bereavement camp in the country, serving more than 2,500 children annually. With the community’s support of the Campaign for Kids, The Moyer Foundation plans to establish as many as 60 camps nationwide- including at least one camp in every Major League Baseball city. 

CAMP ERIN 2011 - to be held August 26 - 28 at Covenant Harbor, Lake Geneva, WI

“Every time we leave MargaretAnn’s Place the kids are so exuberant. It is so nice to see them happy again.” Young widow of two children

Because grief can often cause children and teens to feel isolated and different from their friends, peer support in itself helps children in the grieving process. Knowing they are not alone, weird or crazy for their thoughts and feelings helps children and teens cope in this strange, new world that is missing someone they love.

 

MargaretAnn’s Place offers ongoing peer support/education groups for children and teens (3-18), and their family members in four locations throughout southeastern Wisconsin. Our groups are free of charge, ongoing, and meet every other week from 6:15 – 7:45 dad, brother, sister, primary caregiver or other person close to them. Concurrent groups are held for the parents and caregivers. All families must register for groups before attending.

 

Groups are led by staff and trained volunteer facilitators who help to provide a safe environment for the children and teens to express themselves. All facilitators participate in a comprehensive 15-hour training that teaches them about group facilitation skills and the impact of grief on children, teens and their families. Some facilitators have personal grief experiences and many are mental health professionals.



Groups follow a curriculum based on Dr. Alan Wolfelt’s Reconciliation Needs of Grieving Children focusing on:

 

Accepting the reality of the death
Feeling the feelings associated with the death with safe people and learning healthy coping skills
Memory work
Reinvesting in life.

 

Children are divided by developmental ages into groups for 3-5 year olds, 6-9 year olds, 10-3 year olds, and teens. The groups offer a mix of opportunities for children and teens to share their personal story about their grief, validating their feelings and experiences and helping them to feel less isolated in their grief. These opportunities include sharing as well as a structured activity using art, music, storytelling, poetry, writing, and drama. All participants, regardless of age, are able to use the “I Pass” guideline, which means they get to decide when, and how much they wish to share with the rest of the groudeath of a child or as a primary caregiver to a grieving child. These sessions provide opportunities for mutual support and sharing, as well as education about the unique challenges of parenting grieving children and teens.

Peer support/education groups have proven to be highly successful in helping children learn healthy coping skills, not feel isolated in their grief, and gain a renewed sense of hope. Children are able to remember loved ones, validate feelings, and speak to open ears. For more information or to register for an intake contact Kathy Schaetzke(mailto:[email protected]) .

“It’s hard to go to school every day when people never acknowledge my brothers. MAP lets me cools down when everything gets bottled up inside. It’s a place to put everything when I can’t find a way to express it anywhere else.” Teen – Waukesha West High School

 A death of a student has a profound impact on family, friends, and the entire school community. As children and teens grieve developmentally and will revisit their grief many times throughout their life, it is imperative schools have a plan in place and resources to help grieving students past the immediate crisis at the time of death. MargaretAnn’s Place provides support to school staff and administrators to assist them with meeting the needs of their students through their grief journey.

Peer Support/Education Groups

8-10 week customized Peer Support/Education groups for 4-8 students.

Groups follow a curriculum based on Dr. Alan Wolfelt’s Reconciliation Needs of Grieving Children focusing on:

Groups follow a curriculum based on Dr. Alan Wolfelt’s Reconciliation Needs of Grieving Children focusing on:

 

Accepting the reality of the death
Feeling the feelings associated with the death with safe people and learning healthy coping skills
Memory work
Reinvesting in life.

 

The groups offer a mix of opportunities for children and teens to share their personal story about their grief, validating their feelings and experiences and helping them to feel less isolated in their grief. These opportunities include sharing as well as a structured activity using art, music, storytelling, poetry, writing, and drama. All participants, regardless of age, are able to use the “I Pass” guideline, which means they get to decide when, and how much they wish to share with the rest of the groucounselors, and administrators are provided at school meetings, in-service trainings, and workshops. Presentations can be customized to the situational needs of the staff
Consultations regarding the needs of a grieving student, class or school
Workshops for educators and other school personnel are offered by MargaretAnn’s Place (contact us(mailto:[email protected]) for dates)

Resource and Referral

“Good Grief” School Resource Kit – A set of literature to be used by school counselors and teachers
Guidance for parents and teachers working with a grieving child
Professional referrals to social workers and psychologists in the community

Crisis Intervention

Assistance in developing a crisis plan
Assistance in informing students and staff of the death
Support for staff

MargaretAnn’s Place holds its Annual Holiday Remembrance & Worldwide Candle Lighting service held each year on the second Sunday in December at 4:30 Hansen-Lendman, Piasecki-Althaus and Proko. 

 MargaretAnn's Place extends this event to honor and remember ALL of loved ones at this time of year; regardless of age.  "Everyone is somebody's child."

 This event is held in conjunction with The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting.

 The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting unites family and friends around the globe in lighting candles for one hour to honor and remember children who have died at any age from any cause. As candles are lit at 7 creating a virtual wave of light, hundreds of thousands of persons commemorate and honor the memory of children in a way that transcends all ethnic, cultural, religious, and political boundaries.

 Now believed to be the largest mass candle lighting on the globe, the Worldwide Candle Lighting, a gift to the bereavement community from The Compassionate Friends, creates a virtual 24-hour wave of light as it moves from time zone to time zone. Hundreds of formal candle lighting events are held and thousands of informal candle lightings are conducted in homes as families gather in quiet remembrance of children who have died, but will never be forgotten.

 The Worldwide Candle Lighting started in the United States in 1997 as a small Internet observance but has since swelled in numbers as word has spread throughout the world of the remembrance.