Ele's Place is a non-profit community-based organization dedicated to creating awareness of and support for grieving children and their families. Through our peer support group programs, Ele's Place helps children cope with the death or life-threatening illness of a parent, sibling, close family member or friend.

Description:
At Ele's Place, our primary goal is to provide a welcoming, supportive atmosphere where children can share feelings with their peers, and learn to cope with the challenges they face as a result of the death or life-threatening illness of a parent, sibling, or other close family member or important friend.

Since 1991, hundreds of mid-Michigan children and their families have participated in the Ele's Place peer bereavement support program following the death of a loved one. In addition, Ele's Place now offers support services for children who are coping with the life-threatening illness of a family member through the addition of our Together Learning to Cope (TLC) program. With the TLC program, Ele's Place can now respond to the full spectrum of a family's grief, from the point of diagnosis, through treatment, as the family learns to live with the illness. And in those cases where a death does occur, the families can transition to the Ele's Place bereavement support group program.

Because we understand that a child's grief and loss issues have an impact on the entire family, Ele's Place provides ongoing peer support groups for both children and their parents or guardians. These support groups are facilitated by clinicians and trained volunteers, under the supervision of Ele's Place professional program staff. The bereavement support groups meet weekly, and the TLC groups are currently meeting on a bi-weekly basis.
Both programs offer support groups for children ages 3-18. The groups are divided by age/school grade, reflecting developmental needs, and run concurrently with groups for the parents or guardians.
All of Ele's Place services are provided free of charge, to ensure that all families, regardless of financial means, are able to participate and benefit from our services.

History:
In 1991, Ele's Place founders recognized the need to provide a secure, caring environment for grieving children to share their feelings with other children experiencing similar loss. The Ele's Place children's grief support group program is based in large part on the pioneering programs established by The Dougy Center (Portland, Oregon)and Fernside
(Cincinnati, Ohio), two of the first children's grief centers in existence. Ele's Place now serves as a respected model for grief centers in Michigan and throughout the United States.

Contact people:

Gillian Maynard, Volunteer Coordinator, (phone), (email) Patrice Klein, Director Of Program Resources, (phone), (email)

Office fax number: (517) 482-6608

Address:

1145 West Oakland Lansing, MI 48915 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.elesplace.org