Camp Erin is back in 2024
Camp Erin offers participants a safe environment to explore their grief, learn essential coping skills and make friends with peers who are also grieving. Camp Erin will be held June 7-9, 2024.
Support for families grieving an illness or death
Bridges provides a safe place for you and your child to grieve. We support families with children between the ages of 4 and 18 who are grieving the death of a family member. Bridges also offers the Discoveries Program to support families who are coping with a serious diagnosis of someone close to them.
We offer services for children because they grieve differently than adults. Children grieve over the course of their whole development. It’s vital they feel supported as they come to understand the illness or death of someone close to them.
Our services
We believe that every family who has experienced a loss should be able to grieve in a compassionate, informed environment. Through age-appropriate support groups led by trained facilitators, we provide a safe place for children and families to heal.
In addition to support groups, we also offer a free weekend bereavement camp for youth as well as educational resources for the community. Explore our services below.
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Discoveries: Illness support
Families faced with a complex illness often struggle to meet the demands of care and help children cope with difficult emotions. Discoveries helps the whole family manage the stress of an illness and ensures that children have access to support. Children and the adults who care for them attend concurrent support groups. Our Discoveries support groups are held at the Mary Bridge Children’s Health Center – Tacoma.
Visit our Discoveries page to learn more about the program as well as other topics, including how to talk to children about illness, how to cope and more. You can also download the Discoveries brochure.
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Bridges: Bereavement support
This program is for children who have experienced the death of a parent or sibling. Adults caring for these children are also welcome to attend a concurrent support group. We help children, teens and adults, coping with the death of someone in their family due to an illness or accident, as well as those grieving a loss related to suicide or violence.
Our Bridges support groups meet in both our Tacoma and Puyallup locations. Learn more about our support groups by visiting our FAQ page. You can also download our Bridges brochure.
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Feelie Hearts: Pocket-sized comfort
Feelie Hearts are pocket-sized fleece hearts our volunteers make for our support group participants. These items provide a tangible source of comfort for participants that they can carry around with them throughout the day. Over the years, we’ve handed out more than 100,000 Feelie Hearts. Visit our Feelie Hearts page to learn more.
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Camp Erin: Youth bereavement camp
Please note: Camp Erin is back in session June 7-9, 2024.
Camp Erin is a free weekend bereavement camp for youth grieving the death of a significant person in their lives. Children and teens ages 6 to 17 attend a weekend camp experience that combines grief education and emotional support with fun, traditional camp activities. Led by bereavement professionals and caring volunteers, Camp Erin offers participants a safe environment to explore their grief, learn essential coping skills and make friends with peers who are also grieving. Camp Erin is held at Camp Seymour, located 22 miles west of Tacoma.
The largest national bereavement camp program for youth, Camp Erin is sponsored by the Eluna Network, a nonprofit formerly known as The Moyer Foundation. Visit the Eluna Resource Center to find a variety of grief resources, including articles, videos, activities and referrals to local programs.
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Community education and training
We believe it’s important for members of the community to understand how to support grieving families. Our staff members are available to speak at events for service organizations, churches and social service agencies. For a fee, we also conduct trainings about how to work with families experiencing loss and grief.
Our history
Bridges was established in 1988 to support children in our community struggling to reconcile the serious illness or death of a family member. Lack of support and feelings of isolation can result in unresolved grief, which adversely affects children’s health and emotional well-being. It’s our aim that no child grieves alone.
Part of the continuum of care offered by Mary Bridge Children’s, we offer one of the only bereavement programs in the Pacific Northwest. Since opening our doors, we have served more than 10,000 children from more than 5,800 families, with around 40 rotating groups every month.
Our staff
Lisa Duke, MSW, Program Coordinator
[email protected]
Mat Ledin, MSW, Family Support Coordinator
[email protected]
Contact us
For more information about Bridges Center for Grieving Children, call 253-403-1966.
Bridges – Tacoma
Mary Bridge Children’s Health Center
311 South L St.
Tacoma, WA 98405
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Mailing Address:
PO Box 5299
MS: 311-1-BRID
Tacoma, WA 98415
Bridges – East
Mary Bridge Children’s Therapy Services – Puyallup
402 15th Ave. SE
Puyallup, WA 98372
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Make a Gift
Please consider a gift to Bridges to help us continue to support grief-stricken children.
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