A Caring Hand - April 2007 Charity-of-the-Month
 |
A Caring Hand, The Billy Esposito Foundation
2352 Legion Street
Bellmore, NY 11710
tel: (212) 561-0622
email: info@acaringhand.org
web: acaringhand.org
Our Mission
Our mission is to provide financial assistance for educational opportunities and bereavement counseling to children that have experienced the loss of a parent.
Statistics estimate that by age 15, over 3 million children in the United States will experience the loss of a family member. Moreover, research suggests that approximately 90% of students will experience the loss of a family member before finishing high school (Ewalt & Perkins, 1979). In 1983, research found that by age 16, one child out of five will have lost a parent.
A Caring Hand is a not-for-profit granting organization which raises funds to provide educational opportunities and bereavement counseling to children that have lost a parent and therefore, have lost the ability to afford a quality education. We plan on helping such children with educational levels from pre-school to graduate school. Education helps shape our children and prepare them to be our leaders. Without giving children the opportunity to obtain a quality education, we are jeopardizing our children's future. A child that loses a parent has already lost enough without having to lose the opportunity to receive a quality education.
The organization was launched as a direct result of the death of Billy Esposito on September 11, 2001.
Our vision is to help children that have lost a parent and, as a result, have lost the opportunity to receive the educational opportunities and bereavement counseling they deserve.
The mission of the Foundation is to provide financial support for educational opportunities and bereavement counseling to children that have lost a parent. Our hard work and effort has paid off, as we have contributed money to programs that have directly and indirectly helped over 600 children in the tri-state area and thousands more in Southeast Asia and New Orleans to help rebuild their schools and the learning system.
The A Caring Hand, Billy Esposito Bereavement Center
Program Summary
A Caring Hand, The Billy Esposito Foundation is opening a long needed, free standing, comprehensive bereavement center in New York City. The goal is to meet a child and family's needs in a caring environment. The program will focus on remembering, coping, and community building - the essential components of grief work.
It is hoped that all children and teens have a life filled with joy and happiness. Yet for some, their lives are forever changed at a young age when they experience the unfortunate death of a significant person from disasters such as fire, illnesses such as cancer, or human acts of violence. Following a death there is often sadness, confusion, isolation, guilt, or even shame. For some young people, grief left unaddressed can lead to hopelessness, acting out, and poor school performance. No child or family should feel they are alone in their grief or face the challenge of life without a cherished loved one alone.
The inaugural program at the center will provide services for children and teens whose primary caregiver has died. Future programs will help parents and children who are dealing with the death of children, siblings, extended family members and friends.
The new center will need help from all sectors of New York City to bring much needed services to the bereaved families in their midst. The program is being developed by, and requires the true partnership of, professionals and volunteers from the public as well as private and corporate communities.
The program components include:
- Outreach to individuals, schools, and organizations to provide information about services and recruitment of clients and group leaders.
- Education, training, and consultation to professionals and providers about grief and bereavement.
- Evaluation of bereaved individuals to assess how best to meet their needs.
- Eight week peer group support program for children and teens and their caregivers. The program will be curriculum based on common bereavement tasks and co-facilitated by trained volunteers and mental health professionals.
- Individualized services and referrals to meet additional needs of family members.
- Volunteer training and supervision for group facilitators.
- Professional supervision and training of mental health trainees.
 |
Bereavement Counseling
We have increased our support of children's bereavement centers by expanding funding programs beyond the World Trade Center Trauma and Bereavement Program to The Alcove Center for Grieving Children and Their Families and to the Hope Center. Each of these centers has trained mental health professionals that provide a range of crisis counseling and educational services that are helping these devastated children rebuild their lives. The programs at these centers also offer the opportunity for families to connect with others experiencing similar loss and have helped over 600 children.
Thousands of Children Have Been Helped Throughout the World…
A New Way to Work with Bereavement: A Caring Hand, The Billy Esposito Bereavement Center
A Caring Hand has determined that there is not a bereavement center in Manhattan and that there is a strong need for one. To speak to this point, our mission does not stop at funding educational opportunities as well as bereavement centers. We are evolving as a Foundation and regard having a hand in the delivery of direct services to children and families who have lost a loved one as one of our most important goals to date. The development of a bereavement center in Manhattan allows us to achieve this goal, build on our mission and bring our expertise to the place in which our current and potential clients reside, New York City.
The Center will facilitate activity-based peer support groups for children between the ages of 3 and 18. All services at the Center will be at no cost to the participants. Our funding will come from A Caring Hand, The Billy Esposito Foundation's public fundraising efforts as well as grants from other charitable foundations.
Working through grief is difficult for the eldest of men and women. Children struggle with grief for years. Often times they are mourning the death of a family member and have difficulty understanding the realities of death and of their own mortality. It is a heavy burden to carry for most children and they can feel isolated and alone in their pain. At a Bereavement Center, this same child has a group of peers going through the same experience, who are able to validate the pain and remove the isolation. Using peer group support experiences, children are able to understand and work through their grief together. The process of mutual aid, which occurs regularly in group settings, is cathartic in that children are helping children with their recovery process.
Educational Assistance
Many children who have lost a parent lose out on the educational opportunity they would have been able to have, had their parent not passed away. We continue to help numerous children afford the education they deserve.
To learn more about A Caring Hand or how you can help, please contact them directly.
| |
A Caring Hand, The Billy Esposito Foundation
2352 Legion Street
Bellmore, NY 11710
tel: (212) 561-0622
email: info@acaringhand.org
web: acaringhand.org
