Youth bereavement charity vows to do more for young people

CEO of UK’s first youth bereavement charity says more needs to be done and issues compelling statement to ensure no young person grieves alone. Fergus Crow, CEO of Winston’s Wish said:

 “In 2022, too many grieving children and young people have no voice, are invisible to services that can help, and just can’t access the support they need when, where and how they need it, including some of the most vulnerable in our society.

This means they may be suffering alone, or that their grief has such a devastating impact on them that it affects their mental health, their physical health, their education, their relationships and their chances of leading a full life now and in the future. That’s not fair, and it’s not inevitable. 

Our vision for the next 30 years is to do again what we did back in 1992 and help inspire a new era of open access bereavement support that consigns the postcode lottery of grief support for children and young people to history, one in which every child, young person and adult knows where to find the help they need when, where and how they need it. “

The youth bereavement charity have set out three ways they’ll work towards achieving this mission which they’ve shared below.

Amplifying the voices of grieving children, young people and young adults 

Our expertise changes lives, and we will continue to use our expert voice where it matters most. But the most important voices are those of the children and young people we support (and the silent voices of those we don’t). Projecting their voices out into the world, and the truths they tell us about what grief really feels like is the best way to build support, understanding and commitment to making things better. 

To be able to provide the services young bereaved people need, we will put them fully at the heart of our public voice and our decision making, and driven by our Youth Advisory Board they will have the power and the platform to shape the future of Winston’s Wish services. 

Children and young people at the heart of everything we do 

More and more children, young people and young adults expect to be able to get support on their own terms. We agree, but our services have mostly been geared towards children and young people accessing our help through the adults looking after those children and young people. 

That will still be true for younger children and some vulnerable groups, but we are now accelerating new support driven by digital that meets the needs of more young people and young adults directly and instantly which will allow them to have a greater sense of agency, control and community as they journey through the devastation of grief. By 2025 our ambition is to reach 40,000 children and young people a year through our range of direct and indirect services and support. 

From ‘hard to reach’ to impossible to miss 

Not every child, young person or young adult in the UK knows we are there for them. That’s not their fault, it is ours. We have been too hard to reach. Now, any child, young person or young adult under 25 can come to us for support, no matter who has died, no matter when. It is our job to help, full stop. 

We are on a journey towards making our services equitable, inclusive and accessible to all, and prioritising how we reach out to find those who need our support either on our own or (much better) in partnership with others. It is hard enough to suffer the pain of grief – it is hard enough to find support. We may never be a household name, but our goal is to be a name that can be found by every household. 

These are ambitious goals, and these are challenging times. But 30 years of experience tells us that together it is possible to achieve our dreams and much more, and that nothing could be more important for the grieving children and young people of today, and those that will face the heartbreak of grief tomorrow. 

 

To find out more about the charity’s new vision follow this link

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