supporting bereaved children & young people
25th September 2020
For Immediate Release
UK leading bereavement charity, Grief Encounter, hosted their first ‘in-person’ fundraising event last week since March 2020, with over 300 socially distanced golfers teeing off over three days, in aid of bereaved children and young people.
The Golf Days, played at The Shire London, Barnet, saw a total of £30,000 raised, of which 100% will go towards funding vital, accessible support services for children, young people and their families experiencing grief during these unprecedented times.
Richard Fogelman, CEO, comments, “It was a fantastic couple of days and we so appreciated the many players and teams who turned out to help support us. £30,000 will go a long way to help fund the extremely important bereavement services we are offering at this time. Demand is ever increasing, as donation sharply fall, so this event came as a much welcome boost at such an uncertain time for charities.”
The annual event saw famous faces including legend Les Ferdinand, football star Jermaine Jenas and Eastenders’ Jake Wood stop by to say hello.
Established over 15 years ago by Dr Shelley Gilbert MBE, Grief Encounter provides free therapeutic support services to children and young people who have experienced the death of someone close. Their wide range of services include individual one-to-one counselling, group workshops and family remembrance days; Grief Encounter also provide best practice bereavement training for schools, organisations and professionals.
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Grief Encounter have transferred all of their services online, focusing on providing immediate support and advice via their national freephone helpline, grieftalk. They are also utilizing e-counselling and telephone check-in services to regularly keep in touch with clients, and make sure they continue to receive grief support, even in lockdown. Grieftalk, Grief Encounter’s helpline, has received a 97% uplift in calls since March 2020, supporting families newly bereaved by Covid-19, and also those who have been unable to continue to see their counsellors due to lockdown restrictions. They have also extended their reach to all frontline key workers, and all those impacted by grief as a result of Covid-19.
From October, their online grief groups will launch, allowing bereaved young people to connect online with a professional counsellor, and each other, reducing the isolation that is being felt so acutely across the nation.
-ENDS-
For more information and to request spokesperson comment, please contact our Press Officer:
sam@griefencounter.org.uk
0208 371 8455