Uplift Center for Grieving Children

Uplift Center for Grieving Children Grieving is hard, and no one should have to do it alone.

Uplift's programs include:

• Virtual Grief Groups: Uplift provides peer support groups for children ages 6-18 who have experienced the death of someone close to them in a private Zoom meeting room. Youth are divided into age-appropriate groups, which are facilitated by master's-level trained clinicians and volunteers. Uplift also offers concurrent caregiver support groups, and Come Together groups for children in kindergarten through 2nd grade to attend with their caregivers.

• In-School Grief Groups: Uplift provides 6-week grief support groups for children enrolled at public, private, charter, and religious schools in the City of Philadelphia.

• Acute Community Loss Support: Following the death of a member of a school or community organization, Uplift can support youth, staff, and the larger community with age-appropriate activities, resources, and/or virtual acute loss support groups as needed. Additionally, Uplift can help create a plan in cases of terminal illness to help prepare a community for an anticipated death.

• The Philly HopeLine: A free, confidential helpline, the Philly HopeLine offers telephonic support for students and caregivers. Caregivers, counselors, and frontline professionals may also use the Philly HopeLine to refer families to services such as grief groups or drop-in programs. The Philly HopeLine is staffed by Uplift clinicians, who offer callers support after a death in their school community, a loss in their personal lives, or with the collective traumatic experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Uplift offers these services to professionals:
• Professional Development and Training: Uplift provides education on grief, bereavement, and trauma through school-wide professional development, training for clinicians, social workers, and counselors, and workshops for community members and caregivers. Our training sessions can be modified to be relevant for the role of attendees, as well as for the desired focus, such as survivors of homicide, suicide, or substance-related deaths.

Beginning this week, Uplift will host free one-hour workshops for caregivers and community providers. All workshops will...
01/12/2026

Beginning this week, Uplift will host free one-hour workshops for caregivers and community providers. All workshops will cover how to support children and families affected by grief and are led by Uplift's clinical team.

Registration is not required. To join a workshop, please visit upliftphilly.org/WinterWorkshops

12/31/2025

Kevin Carter, MSW, LCSW served as Uplift Center for Grieving Children's Clinical Director from 2017-2022. During his 40-year career, he has worked at several human service and academic institutions across the country as a clinician, administrator, and educator. As a social work clinician, educator, and advocate, Kevin provides training in areas of grief, loss, and trauma for organizations and communities to create supportive and inclusive environments for children, families, and adults. He is also a private practice clinician providing psychotherapy for adults focused on grief, loss and trauma.

As Uplift's 25th anniversary year comes to a close, we are highlighting some of the Faces of Uplift who have helped us get to this milestone year. From now through the end of December, we'll be sharing video interviews with the staff members, program participants, volunteers, and local organizations who form Uplift's community!

To support Uplift, visit: upliftphilly.org/donate-now

12/29/2025

Elizabeth Leonard is a program coordinator at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, one of Uplift's longest-running community partners. In 2021, CHOP launched Healthier Together, an initiative for youth and families in West and Southwest Philadelphia together with Uplift and the Netter Center for Community Partnerships at Penn. In the first three years of the program, 1,348 youth and their families received Uplift's free grief services through GRIT (Growing Resilience in Teens).

As Uplift's 25th anniversary year comes to a close, we are highlighting some of the Faces of Uplift who have helped us get to this milestone year. From now through the end of December, we'll be sharing video interviews with the staff members, program participants, volunteers, and local organizations who form Uplift's community!

To support Uplift, visit: upliftphilly.org/donate-now

12/27/2025

Dave Lafferty became involved with Uplift Center for Grieving Children through his friendship with Steve Doherty, Uplift's founding Board Chair. Over his eight years on Uplift's board, he proudly watched and championed its exponential growth, including new leaders and increased services. "

As Uplift's 25th anniversary year comes to a close, we are highlighting some of the Faces of Uplift who have helped us get to this milestone year. From now through the end of December, we'll be sharing video interviews with the staff members, program participants, volunteers, and local organizations who form Uplift's community!

To support Uplift, visit: upliftphilly.org/donate-now

12/23/2025

The holidays are about showing up for one another. 🧡

Earlier this month, Philadelphia Federal Credit Union completed our 2025 Giving Tree with a donation drop-off to Uplift Center for Grieving Children, supporting children and families with financial support, food, toys, and winter items. We are proud of the generosity of our employees and Board of Directors for continuing to make a positive impact in our community.

Uplift's team will take a winter break from Tuesday, December 23 at 1:00 PM to Wednesday, January 1. Regular hours will ...
12/23/2025

Uplift's team will take a winter break from Tuesday, December 23 at 1:00 PM to Wednesday, January 1. Regular hours will resume on Friday, January 2, 2024.

The Philly HopeLine will also be closed during this period. Regular hours will resume on January 5 (Mondays-Thursdays 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.) Non-emergency between December 23 to January 1 will be returned on or after January 2.

We thank you for your continued support of Uplift and look forward to seeing you in the new year!

12/21/2025

Laura Watabu began volunteering with Uplift Center for Grieving Children in 2018. She had experienced the benefit of grief groups as a bereaved parent with a grieving child, and was interested in supporting a year-round program. Laura reflects on what advocacy for grieving families and youth looks like as someone who's been in their shoes. "I think it's difficult to talk about death as an adult...Uplift and other organizations are saying it's okay to talk about death."

As Uplift's 25th anniversary year comes to a close, we are highlighting some of the Faces of Uplift who have helped us get to this milestone year. From now through the end of December, we'll be sharing video interviews with the staff members, program participants, volunteers, and local organizations who form Uplift's community!

To support Uplift, visit: upliftphilly.org/donate-now

12/18/2025

Iris Ogando joined Uplift as a clinical intern in 2021. When she learned about Uplift while earning a degree at LaSalle University, it was her first time encountering an agency that specifically served grieving children. As an intern, volunteer, and translator, Iris worked with Uplift's team to translate and adapt the grief curricula into Spanish so it could be easily understood by Spanish-speaking Philadelphians. Her interview is presented in dual Spanish-English subtitles.

As Uplift's 25th anniversary year comes to a close, we are highlighting some of the Faces of Uplift who have helped us get to this milestone year. From now through the end of December, we'll be sharing video interviews with the staff members, program participants, volunteers, and local organizations who form Uplift's community!

To support Uplift, visit: upliftphilly.org/donate-now

12/15/2025

Kristine Grady Derewicz became involved with Uplift Center for Grieving Children as a friend and colleague of Darcy Walker Krause. In 2015, Kris joined Uplift's Board of Directors, which she chaired from 2019 through 2022. Her connection to Uplift's programs came from having "tremendous admiration for the work that Uplift's clinicians do, for the creative way in which they help children process and understand grief."

As Uplift's 25th anniversary year comes to a close, we are highlighting some of the Faces of Uplift who have helped us get to this milestone year. From now through the end of December, we'll be sharing video interviews with the staff members, program participants, volunteers, and local organizations who form Uplift's community!

To support Uplift, visit: upliftphilly.org/donate-now

12/11/2025

Darcy Walker Krause, MSW, LSW, JD led Uplift Center for Grieving Children as Executive Director from 2013-2022. During her tenure, Uplift expanded its services in Philadelphia and grew from offering programs at a few sites across the City to providing in-school grief groups at public, private, charter, and religious schools and forming city-wide partnerships. In her interview, she credits Uplift's strengths to its small but mighty team: "the thing that makes [it] the most special is the people that make up Uplift."

As Uplift's 25th anniversary year comes to a close, we are highlighting some of the Faces of Uplift who have helped us get to this milestone year. From now through the end of December, we'll be sharing video interviews with the staff members, program participants, volunteers, and local organizations who form Uplift's community!

To support Uplift, visit: upliftphilly.org/donate-now

Uplift Center for Grieving Children is proud to host the NACG National Alliance for Children's Grief 2026 National Webca...
12/10/2025

Uplift Center for Grieving Children is proud to host the NACG National Alliance for Children's Grief 2026 National Webcast! The webcast will be live-streamed on Zoom from Philadelphia to audiences across the US on Tuesday, March 3, from 1:00-4:30 PM ET.

Uplift clinicians Samantha Anthony, Sam Middleton, and Katherine Streit will present on "Trauma-Responsive Grief Support for Youth & Families Impacted by Homicide Deaths. The three-hour presentation will highlight:
• How historic and systemic oppression shape the homicide-related grief experiences of youth and families;
• Culturally and contextually responsive strategies for understanding and addressing stigmatized grief responses such as vengefulness, guilt, and shame among co-victims of homicide;
• Trauma-related grief behaviors that may emerge across the lifespan for survivors of violence.

Registration is now open to host the 2026 National Webcast in your community at nacg.org/webcast.

Address

1819 John F Kennedy Boulevard , Suite 460
Philadelphia, PA
19103

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

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About Us.

Uplift Center for Grieving Children helps children grieving a death heal and grow through their grief, while strengthening families, communities, and professionals’ understanding of how best to respond to their needs.

Our vision is to ensure that every child in the City of Philadelphia has access to free support after the death of a parent, sibling, or close loved one. Grieving is hard and no one should have to do it alone.

Our Services:

Family Services Grief Groups Uplift provides peer support groups for children, teens, young adults, and their caregivers who have experienced the death of someone close to them. Divided according to development and age, groups are facilitated by master’s-level trained clinicians and volunteers. While the children’s groups meet, we offer concurrent caregiver support groups. Groups meet in East Falls, West Philadelphia, Lower Northeast Philadelphia, and South Philadelphia.