PLATINUM2023

Erin's House for Grieving Children, Inc.

Building Hope. Healing Hearts.

Fort Wayne, IN   |  www.erinshouse.org

Mission

Erin's House provides support services for children, teens and their families, who have experienced the death of a loved one.

Ruling year info

1993

Principal Officer

Debra M. Meyer MNM

Main address

5670 YMCA Park Drive West

Fort Wayne, IN 46835 USA

Show more contact info

EIN

35-1884264

NTEE code info

Family Services (P40)

Counseling Support Groups (F60)

Counseling Support Groups (F60)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

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Communication

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Until recently children were seen as “non-grievers" in our culture. They were expected to bounce right back after a death in the family. We know that the impact of death on children, teens, and their families is timeless and that the family circle is broken forever. When parents are so deep in their own grief, they may have little energy left to help their children. The child may feel powerless, angry, abandoned, and confused.

Research indicates that children and adults grieve differently. While adults may be somber and need to cry or talk, children often cannot put into words how they are feeling. Most children display intense expressions of grief, closely followed by a period of laughter and playing. Children tend to “close" their feelings of grief: letting in only what they can handle the reality of death.

We help children begin to accept the changes and effects of grief by helping them understand their feelings and improve their communication.

Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

Erin's House - Grief Support for children, teens, young adults, and their families

Erin's House for Grieving Children (Erin's House) is the only stand-alone children's grief center in the state of Indiana.

Grief support groups are open at no cost to families, who have a child, teen or young adult grieving the death of a loved one.

Grief support groups meet onsite twice a month (Mon - Thursday), for ages 3-30 and for the adults in their life. There are three camps - Teen Retreat, Camp Good Grief and Family Camp, offered at no cost for the families.

Students, parents/ caregivers, and teachers receive crisis response debriefing, in a peer-support setting when tragedy and death affect their classrooms or youth groups.

Children and their parent(s)/ caregiver(s) are provided age and situational appropriate books and activity booklets at their orientation.

Telephone support is also available, free to grieving families, at 260-423-2466.

Children's grief awareness and education presentations are available to the community and educational settings.

The heart of Erin's House is the over 200 volunteer facilitators that go through 28 hours of grief training. If you are interested in volunteering for Erin's House please call the office at 260-423-2466 or www.erinshouse.org.

Erin's House for Grieving Children is a proud member of the National Alliance for Grieving Children.

Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Families

Where we work

Awards

Torch Award 2011

BBB

External assessments

Evaluated via the Impact Genome Project (2019)

Our results

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.

Number of clients who report that services/supports are available when needed, even in a crisis

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Children and youth

Related Program

Erin's House - Grief Support for children, teens, young adults, and their families

Type of Metric

Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

Number of individuals served in Northeast Indiana.

Average number of service recipients per month

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Type of Metric

Other - describing something else

Direction of Success

Increasing

Number of direct care staff who received training in trauma informed care

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Type of Metric

Other - describing something else

Direction of Success

Increasing

Number of children served

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Type of Metric

Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues

Direction of Success

Increasing

Our Sustainable Development Goals

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.

Goals & Strategy

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

Position Statement 1: Erin's House affirms its core commitment to the facilitation of peer-to-peer grief support for children and youth.
Strategic Priorities
a) Erin's House will seek to enhance its impact on its core population by providing training and resources for parents, educators, and youth workers.
b) Erin's House will broaden the scope of its work by seeking new venues for the delivery of its core services, based on the following considerations:
 Availability of staff to deliver the program in a quality manner.
 The presence of other grief support services in the area.
 The short-term and long-term financial implications.
 Existing relationships in the area.
c) Erin's House will explore alternative means for the delivery of resources and support, with an emphasis on the use of electronic media.
Position Statement 2: Erin's House affirms it commitment to providing services at no cost to its core clientele and will continue to pursue funding from foundations and individual donors.
Strategic Priorities
a) Erin's House will lessen its vulnerability to fluctuations in its major fundraising event by emphasizing the cultivation of individual donors.
b) Erin's House will explore opportunities for generating revenue through the provision of services to adult populations and other specialized cohort groups.

Erin's House will be recognized as the key provider of grief support, resources, and training in the region.
Strategic Priorities
a) Erin's House will strengthen relationships with current and potential referral sources to ensure that they understand the unique features of its program. Points of emphasis include:
 Peer-to-peer support in group settings
 Facilitators trained in the grieving process of children and youth
 Focus on building lifelong coping skills
 Availability of supplemental services (e.g., Camp Good Grief)
 Availability of services at no cost to families

The primary strategy driver defines the basis on which program and resource decisions are made and new opportunities are assessed. The three main strategy drivers for a nonprofit organization are:
Client-Driven, whereby decisions are driven by the unique needs of the target population.
Service-Driven, whereby decisions are driven by the opportunity to extend content expertise or specialized knowledge into new areas or to new populations.
Market-Driven, whereby decisions are driven by changing needs or priorities within the organization's defined domain.
Erin's House will follow a service-driven strategy, determining that its growth will be driven by the delivery of its core services to new populations, in new markets and through new methods of delivery.

Current Services:
All programs are offered at no costs to families to ensure that no child is prevented from receiving our support because of the cost. Current programs include:
Erin's House provides grief support services for children and teens who have experienced the death of a loved one. Specific programs include:
• Bi-weekly, on-site Peer Support Program Nights
• In-school Peer Support Programs: For children unable to attend on-site programs
• Crisis Response Team: Support to schools and youth-serving organizations after the death of a student, teacher, or member
• Camps and retreats: Camp Good Grief for youth ages 8 to 13; Teen Retreat for youth ages 14 to 19; Family Camp for families to work on grief together.
• Friday at 5:00: Peer support group for 19-30-year-olds at Erin's House.
• Training for adults working with children/youth: Educates first responders, social workers, teachers, and other adults how to respond to grieving children
• Family Stability Program: Family activities for families to interact with each other and other Erin's House families
• Community support and education: Telephone support, books, activity booklets to assist in the grieving process; community presentations to raise awareness of the grieving process for anyone in the community

How we listen

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.

done We shared information about our current feedback practices.
  • Who are the people you serve with your mission?

    Grieving children, teens and their families, thru peer support groups, schools, and various community locations.

  • How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?

    Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Paper surveys,

  • How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

    To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals,

  • What significant change resulted from feedback?

    We use this information for grants and to evaluate our service.

  • With whom is the organization sharing feedback?

    Our staff, Our board, Our funders, Our community partners,

  • Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

    We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive,

  • What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

    We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback,

Financials

Erin's House for Grieving Children, Inc.
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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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Connect with nonprofit leaders

Subscribe

Build relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.

  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
  • Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.

Erin's House for Grieving Children, Inc.

Board of directors
as of 02/08/2023
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board co-chair

Linda Jackson

WPTA - TV

Term: 2020 - 2024


Board co-chair

Andrew Schroeder

DuCharme McMillen & Associates

Term: 2022 - 2024

Dr. Raymond Dusman

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David McComb

D.O. McComb & Sons

Andrew Schroeder, CPA

DuCharme McMillen & Associates

Peter Adams

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Chris Gomez

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Kate Miller

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Marcus Heminger

Barrett McNagny

Travis Friend

Haller Colvin

Keven Linker

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Edmond O'Neal

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Mike Nutter

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Luke Squires

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Sarah Richmond

Katz Sapper Miller

Dr. Lesa Vartanian

PFW

Josey Seabolt

Katz Sapper Miller

Dr. Mark Daniel

FWCS

Justin Dunbar

Sweetwater

Natalie Eggeman

City of Fort Wayne

Nick Talarico

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Brian Ternet

Farmers & Merchant Bank

Board leadership practices

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.

  • Board orientation and education
    Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes
  • CEO oversight
    Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes
  • Ethics and transparency
    Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes
  • Board composition
    Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes
  • Board performance
    Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes

Organizational demographics

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 2/8/2022

Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.

Leadership

The organization's leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
White/Caucasian/European
Gender identity
Female, Not transgender (cisgender)
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual or straight
Disability status
Person without a disability

Race & ethnicity

Gender identity

 

Sexual orientation

Disability

We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.