Young people and adults in Richmond Borough have a new bereavement charity. Space2grieve has a team of bereavement specialists who provide free and confidential support to anyone living in the local area who has experienced a loss.

 

Co-founder Jenny Harris believes the service is needed because while there are many national bereavement charities, Space2grieve is the only local one for Richmond Borough.

 

“When someone has been bereaved, they are vulnerable and sometimes very isolated and very lonely. Being in a community is hugely useful in terms of them getting the support that they need.”

 

“It is really nice for them and for us supporting them to be able to say here you go, the community is out there and if we’re local instead of a big national charity. We know what is available and how to support you.”

 

Space2grieve provides support with 8 initial sessions through phone calls, zoom meetings or in person consultations, where a bereavement specialist is on hand to offer listening support.

 

“What we’re finding post Covid is that when given these options almost all want to be seen in person, very few don’t.”

 

“The biggest thing we do is support them through someone listening to their story and truly hearing it. It is really key when someone hears what they have to say and that process can be enormously healing, having somebody walk in their shoes for a moment.”

 

Almost all of those working with Space2grieve are volunteers. Harris believes the reason for so many people wanting to help is either experiencing grief themselves and not getting the support they needed or seeing other people not getting the correct support.

 

“99.9% of them have had some significant bereavement and have realised what that means in terms of how that may affect someone. Whether they had good support, bad support they all want to ensure that other people get the right kind of support.”

 

One thing that is very important for helping someone through grief is forming a bond of confidentiality and trust which is something that is very much a focus at Space2Grieve.

 

“You are working with vulnerable people and part of building that trust is having a very robust confidentiality policy, you have to have robust boundaries.”

 

For further information about this charity, please access the following contact information.

 

https://space2grieve.org.uk/

support@space2grieve.org.uk

Space2grieve contact number: 0751 937 6363