Erin's House for Grieving Children, Inc.

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