FRIENDS WAY is the only free nondenominational children's grief center servicing the state of Rhode Island and neighboring communities. We run a peer-based support group which meets bi-monthly on Tuesday evenings from 6-8:30pm. Children are divided into 4 age-appropriate age groups while the care-givers go into their own support group. Each group begins with dinner and ends with song. Expressive art therapy is used to help give voice to the inner feelings, whether articulated or expressed artistically. Volunteers from the community are recruited and professionally trained to work with the children in addition to our professional staff. Our families have access to a full library of bereavement issues and the community at large has access to our circulating Caring Kits.

FRIENDS WAY opened in October 2000 and has since tripled in attendance. The organization and it's programs are modeled after The Dougy Center in Portland, Oregon and The Warm Place in Forth Worth, Texas. Initial groups were held at Trinity Church in Cranston but currently meet at 146 Duke Street in East Greenwich, RI. Currently we have 5 part time employees. We receive our funding from grants, fundraising events and individual donations. We are a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization goverened by a board of directors.

Check out their volunteer needs at Friends Way. Be sure to recommend www.vcri.org as the place to go for your friends and family to find volunteer opportunities in our community.