A nonprofit support center for grieving children and those who love them.
A Community Service of the Visiting Nurse Association of the Inland Counties
The Mourning Star Centers are dedicated to providing gentle and loving support to children and teens that are experiencing grief, often times resulting from the death of a parent or sibling. The Centers provide a supportive and safe environment which encourages the sharing of feelings to facilitate the process of healing.
Currently, the Mourning Star Centers provide grief support to approximately 250 children who are involved in age appropriate groups that meet bi-weekly. The Centers also staff an annual grief camp for children and teens from around the Inland Empire.
Activities of the Centers are supported solely by the community from generous individuals, organizations and businesses, and from several granting foundations and organizations.
The Mourning Star Centers are a community outreach program of the Visiting Nurse Association of the Inland Counties. Your gift may be tax deductible. Need not be present to win. VNAIC is a 501(c) non-profit corporation.
Tax ID# 95-1641973 ∙ www.VNA-IC.org
Mission Statement
The Mourning Star Center provides loving support in a safe place where grieving children can share their experience as they move through their healing process. The Mourning Star Center extends supportive services to the family, caregivers, schools, and the community.
Principles
The Mourning Star Center is founded on the belief that every child deserves the opportunity to grieve in a supportive and understanding environment. However, our society often fails to understand or support the needs of a child and family in grief.
Based on these beliefs, the principles of The Mourning Star Center are:
- Grief is a natural reaction to the loss of a loved one for children as well as adults.
- With the help of the community, each individual has the natural capacity to heal.
- The duration and intensity of grief are unique for each individual.
- Caring and acceptance assist in the healing process.
Goals
To provide professionally trained loving support in a safe place for children and their families to cope with life-threatening or chronic illness, or death, by sharing their grief with others who have had a comparable loss;
To increase the community's awareness of the needs of grieving children;
To increase the community's capacity to serve the needs of grieving children;
To extend supportive services to families, caregivers, schools, and the community;
To provide intervention services to schools and community organizations after a death;
To provide training and education in the area of children and grief; and
To maintain an organization that is financially stable and capable of providing quality services.
