Question 1

What services and supports are you currently offering?

Accepted Answer

Our program staff is available daily from 9 am to 5 pm to provide support for members remotely. For immediate emergency help, please contact 911.

At our organization, we are dedicated to providing comprehensive, trauma-informed grief support to meet the diverse needs of our communities. Here’s a look at the grief supports we currently offer:

One-to-One Peer Support Sessions: We offer up to 8 free, 30-minute sessions for adults (ages 18+) and up to 12 free, 30-minute sessions for teens, children, and adolescents (ages 6-17). These sessions can be conducted over the phone or via Zoom, with Zoom recommended for younger children (ages 6-13) to ensure a more engaging and comfortable experience. Please refer to our Individual Support Sessions page for more information.

Group Peer Support Sessions: Our group peer support sessions are a cornerstone of our support services. Please refer to our Adult Group Programs page for detailed information. We offer free ongoing weekly support groups and closed support groups throughout the year to foster a sense of community and shared healing. Most of our groups currently run via Zoom. We occasionally offer in-person support groups throughout the year at our main office location in Mississauga. These groups are offered based on demand, need, and availability of facilitators.

Events: We co-host (with our affiliate, Bereaved Families of Ontario - Toronto) two major annual events to honour, remember, and celebrate our loved ones. Our "Walk to Remember" fundraising event and the "Trees of Light" are opportunities for communal support and remembrance. Subscribe to our newsletter or check our Events tab for updates and details.

Educational Webinars: Throughout the year, we provide various 1-hour webinars featuring guest speakers. These free/donation-based webinars cover a range of grief-related topics. For example, past topics such as Sleep and Grief, Complicated Relationships, and Navigating Suicide Loss were covered. Our goal is to amplify voices, spread awareness, and support you in your healing journey.

Professional Workshops: Our "Navigating Through Grief" workshops are designed for professionals, schools, businesses, and organizations. These workshops offer practical tips and tools to support oneself and others in grief, with varying costs and topics tailored to different needs. Learn more by visiting our Workshops tab.

Through these diverse support options, we strive to offer the compassion, understanding, and resources you need during your time of grief.

If you would like to register for an individual phone support session or for a group support session, please see the rest of our FAQ and/or Online Intake Form.

Question 2

What are "GriefTalks"?

Accepted Answer

GriefTalks are our free, 1-hour webinars (via Zoom) designed to explore the many dimensions of grief, loss, identity, mental health, and wellness. These sessions aim to deepen your understanding of grief, including how it uniquely manifests in different communities and contexts, while providing a compassionate space for learning, reflection, and connection. Each GriefTalks features a unique topic and speaker, offering diverse insights, tools, and perspectives to support both individuals and professionals in navigating grief with greater awareness, empathy, and healing. Past topics have included Grief and Disabilities, Yoga, Breathwork, and Meditation, Grief and Complicated Relationships, and Grief in Indigenous Communities, among many others. We host GriefTalks throughout the year, with new and engaging topics offered regularly.

While these webinars are free to attend, we encourage donations when registering to help us sustain this programming, which is not funded. Your support allows us to continue offering these valuable opportunities for connection, learning, and growth.

Join us for a GriefTalks to expand your understanding of grief and discover new ways to support yourself and others.

Question 3

How much do you charge for your services?

Accepted Answer

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The Centre for Grief and Healing is a not-for-profit organization. All services provided and programs attended are free of charge, with the exception of ticketed events and our Navigating Through Grief workshops.

All donations (monetary and in-kind) are greatly appreciated and are tax-deductible ($20.00 minimum for receipt). We operate thanks to the generous donations of corporations, community groups, academic institutes, funders and donors like you!

How much does it cost your organization to run peer support services?
We’re often asked how our programs are funded and what it costs to operate our services. It costs approximately $300,000+ per year to run our programs and organization, including program delivery, volunteer training and support, coordination, supervision, accessibility, and the infrastructure required to offer safer, consistent peer support.

We are committed to transparency and are clear when a program is grant-funded or otherwise funded. Many costs, however, are not fully funded and rely on donations to sustain this work.

For those interested in learning more, we share some additional information about the cost of specific programs and core expenses on our CanadaHelps donation page. We also welcome questions — supporters are always encouraged to reach out to us directly if they would like more detail about funding, donations, or the cost of running our services.

Question 4

Do you provide counselling, therapy, or crisis services?

Accepted Answer

The Centre for Grief and Healing utilizes a peer support model. Our groups and one-to-ones are facilitated by adults who guide, listen and support each person while they express their thoughts, feelings and fears to help provide a new sense of normal and understanding.

None of the services provided by the Centre for Grief and Healing are counseling, therapy, or crisis sessions.

Question 5

What is a "Peer Support" model?

Accepted Answer

Click our Peer Support Self Assessment to see if peer support is the right fit for you.

Peer support is the help and support that is given to you by someone like you - we are the bereaved helping the bereaved. Our staff and volunteers are all trained grief facilitators with different educational backgrounds. We are not counsellors or therapists; we are people like you who have experienced a death in 
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our family/friend circle and have undergone a similar journey of learning to cope and live with our grief. We are survivors of our grief - we can provide you with experiential knowledge, educational information and support that was and is gained through our lived experience of being similarly bereaved. Self-disclosure is to be expected from the peer support worker and facilitators own experiences.

Our peer support provides hope, acceptance, real understanding, empathy, and freedom to express ideas. Peer supporters help to maintain and strengthen the continuing bond with your loved one as repeated conversations about them are allowed and encouraged. They provide information and share strategies to normalize grief experiences and give guidance (ex. how to cope with special days). Peer support is a great aid to clinical support such as therapy and/or counseling.

Clinical services such as counseling and/or therapy involves little to no self-disclosure from the helper; rather, they draw from objective knowledge. They support individuals and families who may have pre-existing challenges in social functioning or other areas (ex. marriage and relationship support, navigating family dynamics, trauma, domestic violence, mental health challenges, etc.). Additionally, they support those who have developed serious difficulties in their grief (ex. risk of suicide, homicide, prolonged effects on one's health, mental health, sleep, etc.). These helpers focus on the person's background, their history, family, belief systems, and so on.

Please visit psychologytoday.com (psychologytoday.com)if you find clinical support is more suitable for you.

Question 6

I don't live in Halton or Peel region. Can I still utilize your services?

Accepted Answer

Our organization does not deny the bereaved community from receiving our services and supports, unless otherwise noted (e.g., age limits). We are here to support you.

However, due to our increased demands and limited resources, we provide earlier dates and times for those that do reside within our catchment areas (Halton/Peel) and wish to receive one-to-one/individual peer support sessions. If you are only interested in attending our support groups, we are able to provide earlier dates and times for your mandatory group information session as no sequential individual support sessions are provided.

We highly encourage you to first seek support from one of our affiliates should they fall within your city/region. You can find the list of our affiliates here: https://bereavedfamilies.net/affiliates/. (https://bereavedfamilies.net/affiliates/.)You can also find grief supports near you by filtering your region at this website: https://www.thehealthline.ca/ (https://www.thehealthline.ca/.)and searching "Grief and Bereavement Support". https://211ontario.ca/ (https://211ontario.ca/)is a 24/7 resource hotspot that provides real-time resources you are looking for within your area.

Registered Charity #118803667RR0001

CENTRE FOR GRIEF & HEALING

Bereaved Families of Ontario -
Halton / Peel