The Compassionate Friends RVA is a local chapter of a national non-profit self-help organization. We offer friendship, understanding, and hope to families grieving the death of a child, of any age or cause. The Compassionate Friends is not a religious organization; we welcome families of any faith or belief. In existence since 1981, our chapter provides monthly support group meetings, a newsletter, resources, and special events. 

 

We are bereaved parents, siblings, and grandparents who meet together to talk, listen, share, and provide emotional support for families that are dealing with the devastating death of a child. Some of us are newly bereaved and others are further out from the raw pain of the early days. We are not therapists or counselors. We are simply working through our own grieving process. We learn by sharing our experiences. 

 

The Compassionate Friends is a national bereavement organization that was originally founded more than 40 years ago in England, and currently has a presence in at least 30 countries worldwide. TCF was incorporated in the United States in 1978 as a501(c)3 non-profit organization. Today, there are more than 600 chapters located across the United States, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico.

 

When a child dies, at any age, the family suffers intense pain and may feel hopeless and isolated. The Compassionate Friends provides highly personal comfort, hope, and support to every family experiencing the death of a son or a daughter, a brother or a sister, or a grandchild, and helps others better assist the grieving family.

 

Credo We need not walk alone. We are The Compassionate Friends. We reach out to each other with love, with understanding, and with hope. The children we mourn have died at all ages and from many different causes, but our love for them unites us. Your pain becomes my pain, just as your hope becomes my hope. We come together from all walks of life, from many different circumstances. We are a unique family because we represent many races, creeds, and relationships. We are young, and we are old. Some of us are far along in our grief, but others still feel a grief so fresh and so intensely painful that they feel helpless and see no hope. Some of us have found our faith to be a source of strength, while some of us are struggling to find answers. Some of us are angry, filled with guilt or in deep depression, while others radiate an inner peace. But whatever pain we bring to this gathering of The Compassionate Friends, it is pain we will share, just as we share with each other our love for the children who have died. We are all seeking and struggling to build a future for ourselves, but we are committed to building a future together. We reach out to each other in love to share the pain as well as the joy, share the anger as well as the peace, share the faith as well as the doubts, and help each other to grieve as well as to grow.   We Need Not Walk Alone. We are The Compassionate Friends.