Please support Willow House this holiday season

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Hello <<First Name>>,

On behalf of those Willow House serves, we’re grateful for your past support and thank you for helping us continue to be the premier no-cost program for Chicagoland children and their families who are grieving the death of a loved one. Because our services are free, Willow House uniquely removes any financial barriers to receiving timely grief support services.

We continue to see a rising number of inquiries and have seen a 15% increase in families joining Willow House. To meet the increasing needs of bereaved families in our communities, Willow House is dedicated to expanding and diversifying our programming.

In 2023, we aim to offer all of our programs in Spanish and to expand staff capacity to proactively reach out to and serve more lower income communities. The rising demand that we are seeing reflects a recent study by The Childhood Bereavement Estimation Model that found that one in 13 children in Illinois will experience the death of a parent or sibling by age 18. *

Can you help us increase our impact with a tax-deductible year-end gift?

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Unattended grief in youth comes at a great cost. Studies show that youth experiencing unattended grief are five times more likely to die by suicide, nine times more likely to drop out of high school, 10 times more likely to engage in substance abuse, and 20 times more likely to have behavioral disorders. Willow House is a critical resource for our community.

We hope you’ll consider a gift of hope and healing for our children and their families, because “…Grief support means giving another person a chance at life.” Please click the button to donate securely online.

Wishing you a joyful holiday season,

David Scheffler
Executive Director

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“What I remember most about those first few years after my mother’s death is the crushing loneliness I felt. At the time, I didn’t know a single other person going through what I was – so I hid from everything and everyone. My father later enrolled me in a grief support group for youth and a few months later I began to feel like I could rejoin my teenage world again. Grief support means giving a person another chance at life.”

-Willow House board member on losing her mother at age 12

*Source: The Childhood Bereavement Estimation Model (CBEM)