Navigating Grief Together: Supporting Children After Parent Loss with Empower
South Florida becomes eighth region in the U.S. with Empower programs and welcomes a new era of healing and hope for grieving children
Boca Raton native, Jenna Mathis, lost her mom just a few years ago.
Similar to me, Mathis was an adult - already a mom herself - when her mom passed away while battling cancer.
“Losing my mother was the most traumatic thing I’ve ever been through. I immediately knew that the pain I was feeling would be too much to bear for any young person. So I read about Empower in a magazine and jumped in to help. I became a mentor to a young girl and slept better at night knowing that if I made even a small difference in her life, mine would be better too. I wanted to show her that someone who understood what she was going through would always be there for her,'“ said Mathis.
Mathis and I recently met while helping Empower kick-start a new chapter in Boca Raton to support boys and girls up to age 24 who have lost a mom or dad.
Empower Founder Cara Belvin started the organization ten years ago with a Mother’s Day event in Boston after experiencing the loss of her own mother at a young age.
“Empower started as an event series where we'd get together for fun. We'd have a sleepover. We would do yoga and meditation and go to dinner. We'd then go to cooking classes and jewelry making and an actors workshop. It was all these things aimed at their interest just simply to give them this reminder that there are other kids powering through their grief too,” said Belvin.
Under the leadership of founder Cara Belvin and CEO Jeff Kimball, Empower now offers a safe, non-therapeutic healing space for grieving children through a unique one-on-one mentorship program as well as through special year-round events, including Mother’s Day and Father’s Day gatherings. In the mentorship program, children are matched with adult mentors who have experienced parent loss, either at a young age or as adults, for continual support.
“A lot of people don't realize that when a parent dies your identity changes. As a kid, from that moment on, you're now the child whose mother or father died. What we need to let people understand is a lot of people go into that space because they're afraid to talk about death or loss and they back away. And that's really where we come in. We're like a warm hug for these kids. We're that sense of community. So if we do nothing else, we make sure that they're not alone,” said Kimball.
While Empower’s Luminaria events have taken place in Boca Raton and Jupiter for several years, the February 6 Empowering the Future event at Sixty Vines allowed for organizers to share their stories and explain what Empower is all about. As a local Empower ambassador, I had the honor of hosting the event and spoke about the pain of losing my mom. Fellow Empowering the Future committee member Ellen Dorfman of Boca Raton shared her own deeply personal story, reflecting on her own journey through loss.
“As if going through my pre-adolescent awkward stage wasn’t enough, I was different AND had something wrong with me all because my dad was killed,” Dorfman recalled.
“The children who participate in Empower see that their loss doesn’t need to define them or become their personality. They are able to see first-hand through the mentor/mentee relationship that it is okay to grieve but it is also okay to laugh and enjoy life. It is possible for two opposite things to be happening simultaneously,” added Dorfman.
The journey of grief is different for everyone, but Empower provides a community where no one has to walk it alone. Empower welcomes volunteers, mentors, and supporters who can offer time, skills, and compassion. Learn more and sign up to help by connecting with Empower at www.weareempower.org. Look for the newsletter subscription form for updates and the ‘Join’ form and ‘Support Us’ page to volunteer, help with events or to become a mentor.
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