YoloCares to host inaugural grief camp for children and families
YoloCares, a regional leader in end-of-life care and grief support located in Davis, CA, will host an inaugural grief camp for bereaved children and their families. Camp Hope, a unique therapeutic weekend-long event, will host ten local families who have experienced the significant loss of a loved one in September 2024.
Thanks to $85,000 in funding from Sutter Health to support grief counseling, grief groups, and community outreach, and a $15,000 grant from the Kelly Foundation, Camp Hope will be free to attendees, helping to reduce financial barriers for families who are seeking grief support services.
“With this line of funding, we are so pleased to be able to expand our grief support programs to include impactful and healing experiences like Camp Hope to families who would otherwise be unable to access it. This is a wonderful gift to our community,” says Elisa Stone, coordinator of the YoloCares for Kids.
Camp Hope will unite 20 families in a weekend retreat that will focus on nature as a way to address loss and sorrow. Set in the beautiful redwoods of the Sonoma Coast in Occidental, CA, families will enjoy their own cabins, all meals, and daily activities that will help participants memorialize and process their losses while having fun.
“We often underestimate the power that nature has in restoring our peace and equilibrium. Families who are in the midst of a deep and profound loss can find themselves in a prolonged state of dysregulation. Our wish is that Camp Hope acts as a path back to connectedness for families by offering space for each unit to honor their loved one and reprieve from their day-to-day routine,” says Chris Erdman, director of Center for Loss & Hope.
Camp Hope is the newest offering from YoloCares for Kids, a bereavement program that is offered through YoloCares’ Center for Loss & Hope. Serving 150 families annually, children and teens of patients served by YoloCares can access one-on-one counseling that is culturally sensitive and developmentally appropriate. Support groups for children and parents, as well as grief workshops for parents and guardians are also available free of charge to the community.
Rosalia Dominguez
I want to thank Cynthia for her dedication and hard work for CAMP HOPE. It was an amazing expierence. The COMPLETE staff was sincerely empathetic, loving, kind, patient, and engaged with everyone. They truly showed how much, they love what they do. The staff was/ARE A GREAT GROUP OF FOLKS! 🫶🏼🫵🏽!
I don’t know what came over me, to do the zip line. I can’t wait to do it again & AGAIN! After I gave it thought. I did it did it for Monica. I wanted her to feel a drop of the PROUDNESS she gives me. I am BLESS to be her grandmother. I was blessed to be her personal nanny, cook, since birth and homeschool teacher from the age of 3, (when I saw she was ready to learn.)-until May 2025. When she moved to her FOREVER HOME with Marisol. That is where she belongs. She is happy and free to be a happy child with no worries about her future. I moved to Yuba city, with my cousin, temporarily, until I find MY forever home.
When my momma died in 1967. I was all of 8yrs old. Mourning back then was inhuman. Now it would be seen as abusive. My father/traditions would not allow us to have any happiness aka tv, birthdays, celebrations of any form. Christmas included. Our television was covered for the entire year.
My expierence with death started when I was 6, my cousin Mario died in Vietnam. Then my maternal grandfather died at work. Then my momma died, followed by my maternal grandmother and then a maternal aunt. Each death equaled a year filled with ZERO HAPPINESS.
I can remember the day my momma died as if it was an hour ago.
Untrue when people say “words will never hurt me.” Besides the cold hearted mysteriously ride home (we always walked the 10 blocks) from being pull out of school early. Having my aunt turn around and say “kids your mom just died”. The worst words were from my father. As he pounds on the arch way I clearly heard him say in Spanish “oh god why couldn’t you have taken one of my children. I have seven children. I have only one wife”. Those words, that scene is fresh in my mind.
No embrace, no nothing. Just a house full of family and a father who was stuck with 7 kids. It gets worse.
I’ll keep it short. We can have a visit for the “in between” ugly childhood, the father demanding I walk alone for ten blocks (yes that’s ten intersections at the age of 5, crying all the way. DV 30yr marriage, breast cancer 2018, 2022, & ? But so far I have survived. IT ALL.
My dream ALWAYS was to win the lottery and create a grieving center dedicated to children. Wow, dreams do come true. Sometimes in a different way.
I have won the lottery. My granddaughters, grandson, daughter and myself have the grieving center I wished I had had when my momma died. In adulthood it’s been two adult sisters & two brothers. Those yes were sad. Besides my mommas death. The death of my first born grandson, Marcos at the young age of 13. Now my daughter Monica unexpectedly in January.
I would share stories with my granddaughter Monica, about the life I survived without a momma. Never would I had thought she would be living without hers. She keeps my heart beating.
She is always caring about my safely. If we’re walking in a group, she will slow down and walk back to walk WITH ME. I am bless to be her grandmother.
can not thank you enough for the wonderful loving time we ALL had at CAMP HOPE.