The Compassionate Friends offers over 500 chapters around the country. In small towns and large cities, bereaved parents, siblings, and grandparents meet together to talk, listen, share, and provide each other emotional support after the devastating death of a child. When you attend chapter sessions, you won’t find professionals running the meetings and giving advice. We are not therapists and we do not provide counseling. Everyone will be just like you – someone who is going through the natural grieving process.

As we meet together, we learn from each other through our shared experiences. You will find people attending the meetings of all ages from young adult to 70 and 80 year-olds. You will find people mourning the loss of an adult child and others who are mourning the loss of a child who never had an opportunity to take their first breath. You may find people whose child died 30 years ago and others with a loss so fresh their pain is measured in days and weeks.

No one comes to judge another. You will find that children are being mourned who have died from all ages and all causes. The pain is the same—that of the loss of hopes and dreams that will never be realized.

Come and join with others who understand much of what you’re feeling—certainly not everything—but a lot more than most people, simply because we’ve been there. Know that there will be sadness and tears as we talk about our loss, but there will also be joy and laughter as we remember special times with our children. You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to, but you will certainly be given that opportunity.

We ask but one thing from you—that you attend at least three meetings before you decide if The Compassionate Friends is right for you.

The mission of The Compassionate Friends: "When a child dies, at any age, the family suffers intense pain and may feel hopeless and isolated. The Compassionate Friends provides highly personal comfort, hope, and support to every family experiencing the death of a son or a daughter, a brother or a sister, or a grandchild, and helps others better assist the grieving family."

"We need not walk alone. We are The Compassionate Friends. We reach out to each other with love, with understanding, and with hope. The children we mourn have died at all ages and from many different causes, but our love for them unites us. Your pain becomes my pain, just as your hope becomes my hope. We come together from all walks of life, from many different circumstances. We are a unique family because we represent many races, creeds, and relationships. We are young, and we are old. Some of us are far along in our grief, but others still feel a grief so fresh and so intensely painful that they feel helpless and see no hope. Some of us have found our faith to be a source of strength, while some of us are struggling to find answers. Some of us are angry, filled with guilt or in deep depression, while others radiate an inner peace. But whatever pain we bring to this gathering of The Compassionate Friends, it is pain we will share, just as we share with each other our love for the children who have died. We are all seeking and struggling to build a future for ourselves, but we are committed to building a future together. We reach out to each other in love to share the pain as well as the joy, share the anger as well as the peace, share the faith as well as the doubts, and help each other to grieve as well as to grow. We Need Not Walk Alone. We Are The Compassionate Friends." (Compassionatefriends.org)