Uplift's programs include:
• Virtual Grief Groups: Uplift provides peer support groups for children ages 6-18 who have experienced the death of someone close to them in a private Zoom meeting room. Youth are divided into age-appropriate groups, which are facilitated by master's-level trained clinicians and volunteers. Uplift also offers concurrent caregiver support groups, and Come Together groups for children in kindergarten through 2nd grade to attend with their caregivers.
• In-School Grief Groups: Uplift provides 6-week grief support groups for children enrolled at public, private, charter, and religious schools in the City of Philadelphia.
• Acute Community Loss Support: Following the death of a member of a school or community organization, Uplift can support youth, staff, and the larger community with age-appropriate activities, resources, and/or virtual acute loss support groups as needed. Additionally, Uplift can help create a plan in cases of terminal illness to help prepare a community for an anticipated death.
• The Philly HopeLine: A free, confidential helpline, the Philly HopeLine offers telephonic support for students and caregivers. Caregivers, counselors, and frontline professionals may also use the Philly HopeLine to refer families to services such as grief groups or drop-in programs. The Philly HopeLine is staffed by Uplift clinicians, who offer callers support after a death in their school community, a loss in their personal lives, or with the collective traumatic experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Uplift offers these services to professionals:
• Professional Development and Training: Uplift provides education on grief, bereavement, and trauma through school-wide professional development, training for clinicians, social workers, and counselors, and workshops for community members and caregivers. Our training sessions can be modified to be relevant for the role of attendees, as well as for the desired focus, such as survivors of homicide, suicide, or substance-related deaths.
