Circle of Care - Groups & Services

 

Circle of Care offers a variety of support services to children and families including families impacted by a life threatening illness such as cancer or other illness, or death of a parent or sibling including sudden loss.

 

Peer Support Groups
Our peer support groups enable children and adults to share their stories and to give and receive support from one another. We have several groups available to family members who are coping with either illness or bereavement. The entire family can attend a support group night together and break off into their respective group. Groups run on semesters September-Jan (Fall Semester) and February - June (spring Semester) There are approximately 7-10 groups per semester as groups are every other week.

 

For kids, we offer separate support groups; Littles (ages 4-5), School Age (6-12) and Teens (13-18). Theme based art and play activities for managing stress and coping strategies are integrated into the kids groups supporting them in developing skills to process their feelings and challenges.

 

For adults, we offer to parents & caregivers groups to meet with other adults and work through the same themes as the kids through talk, and some expressive arts. Often the adults share their feelings, as well as personal challenges and practical parenting strategies, and create community and connection through these meetings.

 

Groups are facilitated by a core of 35-45 EBAC volunteers and interns who are trained in supporting children with honoring and expressing their emotions. Volunteers work with children and adults to facilitate connection with other families as they assist in developing the necessary skills needed for coping with their challenges around illness and loss. Many of our volunteers bring with them their own personal experiences of illness and loss and that is what motivates them to give back. They contribute more than 3,000 hours every year of their time, energy and heart providing compassionate services to our families.

 

Ongoing Support groups: Living with Illness & Living with Loss

• Living with Loss Peer Support Group Flyer (pdf)
• Living with Loss Peer Support Group Flyer - Spanish (pdf)

Groups meet every other week from 6:30-8:00pm, and are typically held on Tuesday evenings in Hayward and Thursday evenings in Oakland. A pre-enrollment intake interview is required before beginning services. Support Group fees are set on a sliding scale, and no one is ever turned away due to an inability to pay.

 

PLEASE NOTE: Living with Illness Support Groups - We are currently not offering this group but will be working with families who are impacted by terminal illness to provide resources and supports and intake appropriately for them to join our Living with Loss groups as appropriate.

 

Resilient Parenting for Bereaved Families Workshops
This series of workshops is a new service we are adding for families in our support groups.

 

The 10 week module (every other week). Details here or contact us at Circleofcare@ebac.org if you are interested in enrolling. Each semester we offer several cohort of RPBF Workshops. We begin enrolling families in our Fall RPBF Workshops from April to July with workshops starting in August, and we begin enrolling families for our Spring RPBF Workshops from September-January with Workshop starting in February. We will work with your family at intake to determine which type of service we offer will best support you and your family's needs.

 

Family Consultation
Families who would like support on a 1-2 time basis may arrange for a 90 minute consultation. An intern or graduate student will provide information or and referrals to help parents or caretakers.

School and Community-based Consultation and Counseling Services
Circle of Care provides telephone consultation schools and community groups where children are dealing with the death of a loved one. Arrangements can be made to provide time-limited, on-site intervention programs, support groups or workshops for families, students, or staff dealing with these crises. For information please contact circleofcare@ebac.org.

 

Our partner, the National Alliance for Grieving Children, has many helpful resources to help you support a grieving child.

• About Childhood Grief
• 10 Ways to Help a Grieving Child
• FAQs from Parents/Caregivers raising bereaved Children
• Supporting Children During the Holiday Season
• When Someone Dies: A Child-Caregiver Activity Book

For information please contact circleofcare@ebac.org or call us at 510-531-7551