Every year in the United States 145,000 infants, children, teenagers and young adults die. This figure does not include the miscarriages and stillbirths which occur in one of every seventeen pregnancies in the United States. The death of a child at any age is a shattering experience for a family.

The Compassionate Friends (TCF) is a national mutual assistance, self-help organization which offers support and understanding to families who have experienced the death of a child. Founded in Coventry, England in 1969, the first chapter in the U.S. was organized in 1972. TCF was incorporated in our country as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporate in 1978. National organizations have been established in 24 countries, including Great Britain, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and New Zealand. The first International Gatherting for TCF was held in Birmingham, England in August of 1994.

1. To assist in the positive resolution of grief following the death of a child or sibling, supporting the individual's efforts to achieve physical and emotional health.

2. To provide education and information about parental and sibling grief to families, professionals, and the community.

• Assistance in establishing new chapters and supporting the approximately 600 chapters which are presently active;
• Coordination of chapter activities;
• Information and refereal for newly bereaved parents, grandparents & siblings, as well as responses to professional inquiries;
• Development and distribution of bereavement publications and other resources;
• Management of national public relations and fund raising;
• Attendance and participation in national and regional conferences and meetings, serving as speakers, trainers and sources of information.

TCF has a national volunteer Board of Directors of thirteen, all of whom are bereaved parents or siblings. The Board of Directors meets three times a year, including once at the annual national conference held in various locations throughout the country. A separate Fund Raising Board was established in 1994.

The National Organization receives in excess of 14,000 telephone calls and letters from bereaved parents annually. Each is answered individually by a volunteer or staff member. In addition, the staff and volunteers respond to over 1,000 requests for information by professionals. This fulfills the secondary purpose of TCF, which is to inform and educate.

TCF has a very small professional staff. Board members, regional coordinators, chapter leadership and members are all volunteers.

TCF publishes We Need Not Walk Alone, the TCF national newsletter, and Stages, the sibling newsletter, on a quarterly basis. These provide members and friends with information about the organization's activities as well as articles on understanding parental and sibling grief. Another publication, Friends, Caring and Sharing, is distributed to the leadership of local chapters. The National Organization mails over 34,000 newsletters annually.

TCF maintains a large inventory of resources, such as books, brochures, chapter aids, and video and audio tapes, which are available to local chapters at nominal charges. Because materials on grief were so scarce when the organization began, TCF developed its own. The newest video, This Healing Path, Coping with the Death of a Sibling, was funded by Ronald McDonald Children's Charities.

In addition to holding regular meetings and providing resources to bereaved parents, grandparents and siblings, local chapters publish monthly newsletters which are sent to over 100,000 people.

Each chapter receives the benefit of the National Organization's tax-exempt status for fund raising in its local community. Some chapters have become members of their local United Way or the Combined Federal Campaign.

TCF volunteers throughout the country make upwards of 100,000 contacts with bereaved families annually through personal phone calls and letters. Members of local chapters reach out to approximately 30,000 newly bereaved families with support and information about bereavement and grief through meetings and newsletters.

TCF approved its first Strategic Plan in September of 1994. Goals to guide the organization through 1998 were also adopted. Both are critical for the organization to grow and to continue to meet the needs in local communities throughout this country.

The tragedy of the death of a child touches not only parents, grandparents, siblings and other family members, but also educators and schoolmates, friends, neighbors, and professional counselors. There are emotional costs and financial implications for employers and co-workers. Overloaded human resource departments and Employee Assistance Programs can look to TCF as a resource. The bereaved must find their way through a long process of healing. While they are doing this, support and understanding are critical.