Project
The Children’s Grief Centre is a registered charity and was founded in 2009 by Helen Culhane. Helen works full time at the centre, along with approximately eight trained part-time volunteers. The Children’s Grief Centre primarily serves the Mid-West regions of Limerick, Clare and Tipperary. The Centre provides a safe, non-judgmental space for grieving children and teenagers affected by loss through death, separation or divorce. The children who avail of this service range in age from 4 to 18 years
The demographic profile of families in Ireland has changed substantially over the past few decades and more children than ever before are experiencing the loss of a parent from the family home, primarily through separation. Census figures 2011 show that 19% of children are living in households headed by a single parent and in fact the highest rate of marital breakdown occurred in Limerick city, (CSO, 2012b). This service helps children to explore their experiences of loss and begin a process of healing with the support of friends, families and trained volunteers.
The director of the Centre, Centre volunteers and other students.
To date 1,000 children have attended the centre. Testimonials in the form of evaluation sheets completed by parents and children at the end of their sessions highlight the importance of the service to the children. The key response noted by children was that their attendance at the service provided them with an opportunity to talk about their feelings and being able to talk, made them feel better. Children’s Grief Centre is mainly funded by the Mercy Congregation. We have also received funding from the JP McManus Charitable Foundation and TUSLA.
Learning
Students will design the content and lay-out of an information brochure for the Grief Centre. The Information Booklet will be produced specifically for separated and divorced parents. Students will draw on current research on information available to parents/guardians of children around loss experienced as a result of parental separation and divorce.
This practical experience enables you to learn about the effects of parental separation and divorce on children and provide you with the opportunity to develop skills in project management and marketing. As such, you will engage in both independent as well as collaborative learning. You will learn from one another to reach creative solutions to practical problems. The module is designed to enable students to develop the capacity to apply curriculum-based knowledge in a real-world setting and self-assess and develop graduate attributes to work effectively as a member of a multi-disciplinary team in collaboration with external community stake-holders. Submission of reflective journals will allow you to reflect on your learning and to identify any difficulties encountered in conducting your project. Presentations will allow you to practice and refine your communication skills.
The Director and relevant staff in the Children's Grief Centre, peers from other university programmes.
Both formative and summative assessment methods will be used. Assessments will be designed to complement the interactive teaching and learning approaches. In particular, methods conducive to workplace assessment will be employed. These will include weekly reflection diaries, a group presentation, a reflective assignment and self-assessment activity.
Students will be expected to produce a community briefing report and present their project outputs and outcomes to their community partner.