Children’s Grief Awareness Month Highlights

Children’s Grief Awareness Month Highlights

Date: November 1, 2020

why I serve as a Center facilitator

For about seven years, Judi Slotsky has been facilitating with our Tender Living Care program (TLC), which provides peer support to children and their families when a family member is living with a life-impacting illness. For Judi, spending time each week with the teenagers is the most grounding and fulfilling aspect of facilitating. She has deep admiration for their maturity, their empathy, and “their ability to show incredible compassion toward each other.”  

As the Center transferred to online groups over the past six months, Judi has continued to be inspired by the teenagers.  Though the transition from “circles to squares,” from hand-holding and emotional intimacy to technological troubleshooting and Brady-Bunch-esque screen arrangements, has been difficult, Judi is encouraged by the teens’ increasing comfort with Zoom and steadfast presence for one another.  Peeking into homes, her group has not only continued in conversation and connection – they’ve had the chance to share pets and even to watch in real-time the feeding of a live cricket to a gecko!  “The young man involved thought that was the best thing ever!”

Judi praises the Center for making the most of remote programming – as she said, “The Center is a wonderful place, and I am so glad that this space still exists.” Whether on Forest Avenue or in her home, for Judi, volunteering is “an honor and a privilege” that “makes [my] heart swell.”

Why I Serve as a Center Office Volunteer