Today we’d like to introduce you to Jenny Kaplan Schreiber.
Jenny, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
When I was 13, my 17 year old brother Jeff died unexpectedly. I had a very close-knit family- my parents and 15 year old brother Rick- as well as my extended family and incredible friends and a caring community- yet we struggled tremendously and each felt alone in our grief. My family was very community minded and I always knew I wanted to go into a helping profession. As a social worker, one of my first jobs was working in healthcare in Dallas, TX, and my great-uncle, a retired pediatrician, introduced me to the Founding Director of The WARM Place, a center for grieving children and families in Fort Worth. I began volunteering with kids whose siblings had died, and I fell in love with the courageous families, compassionate volunteers, and the overall mission of the program- to provide a safe space for children and families to share their grief journeys and be with others who “get it”. I knew that I needed to continue to be part of this community. I spent that year volunteering and learning how to start my own program, and a couple of years later, with the help of a dynamic and dedicated board of directors, I founded FRIENDS WAY, a similar program in Rhode Island. Almost 10 years later, through the support and commitment of our incredible board of directors and our partnership with Temple Shir Tikva in Wayland, MA and Experience Camps, I founded Jeff’s Place. It has grown tremendously and I am truly indebted to the generosity of spirit that has allowed us to expand our programs so that we can provide the highest quality therapeutic services for grieving children, teens and families and add our voice as a national leader in research related to childhood bereavement.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Nothing in grief can be described as a “smooth road”, and I believe that the same can be said of the creation of any nonprofit organization. We often use the metaphor of a spider web or a knot to describe feelings related to grief. Feelings are messy, they tend to be hard to decipher, and they are fluid and overlapping. Just as we try to help our Jeff’s Place participants identify and untangle some of their mixed up feelings, our path to do so as an organization can be unclear. The obvious struggles include people power; finding the right people to lead our programs as well as our nonprofit organization – and of course, obtaining the funding so that we can insure that we meet the needs of our grieving community. Some of the less obvious struggles include knowing that we can’t be “everything to everyone”, or more specifically, that we need to stay true to our mission and be the best providers that we can in the areas of our expertise. It’s easy to get lost in wanting to help in ways that we do not have expertise in, and our board of directors and staff help us to stay focused.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Jeff’s Place story. Tell us more about the business.
Jeff’s Place is the only independent program in MetroWest that provides comprehensive bereavement support services for both children aged 3-19 and their families. We facilitate healthy integration of loss by helping families feel connected with each other and less alone in their grief journey. Our free grief support groups provide a safe and supportive place for members of the community to heal and integrate their loss in a healthy and meaningful way, and they are uniquely effective because our clinical model guarantees that every group is co-facilitated by a licensed clinician and an extensively trained volunteer. We also provide individual and family therapy for participants presenting with mental health diagnoses and/or complicated family systems, along with crisis intervention and professional educational trainings on childhood bereavement for local schools and organizations.
I am the Founding Director of Jeff’s Place (named for my older brother Jeff who died on a family vacation when I was 13). I am a bereaved sibling, licensed independent clinical social worker, designer of a unique bereavement group outcome measurement tool (my PhD dissertation research) and Adjunct Faculty member at Simmons College School of Social Work. I am also the Founding Director of FRIENDS WAY in Rhode Island, the only children’s bereavement center in the state, and the Founding Clinical Director for Experience Camps, weeklong overnight camps for grieving youth in California, Georgia, Maine and New York.
I started Jeff’s Place in a small space in Wayland, MA in September 2010 with 6 families/9 children. We have now served over 500 participants from 38 towns and cities and opened offices in Framingham in 2013 due to the growing demand for bereavement services in the MetroWest area and beyond. This past year, Natick, Medway, Newton and Marlborough schools have each asked for Jeff’s Place counselors to be at their schools after a student or teacher died, and we are currently operating a bi-weekly grief group at a Framingham Middle School where more than 10 parents and students have passed amongst a student body of just over 400. Our track record is strong and Jeff’s Place visibility and recognition in the MetroWest area is at a point where we are continually being contacted by families, school systems, therapists and organizations as the go to organization for childhood bereavement services when a death has occurred in their communities. The need in our community is demonstrably there, and we are proud of the fact that we are making substantial strides as an organization to meet this community need via a unique clinical model that has brought us professional praise and strong evaluations from our participants – 97% of whom reported feeling better after participating in Jeff’s Place programs.
We primarily help children and families through our free evening support groups that each meet twenty times during the school year. Two nights a week the group is centered on parental loss and one night a week on sibling loss. We run afternoon programs called Kid’s Club for families with children between the ages of 3 and 9. Our clinical model is designed to provide consistent support, reassurance and resources, which are crucial immediately following a death. Peer based therapeutic groups can help children process complex emotions and validate feelings. It allows children to talk openly about their feelings and ask questions about death and grief in a safe environment and provides support and guidance for the caretaker or family. Jeff’s Place also offers individual and family therapy when needed along with crisis intervention and professional educational trainings on childhood bereavement for local schools, colleges and organizations.
Three things make Jeff’s Place UNIQUE among bereavement centers, which usually only work with children and primarily utilize volunteers;
-Our focus on the whole family since all members attend groups together. Our sessions have a direct, profound, life-changing impact on the entire family system.
-Each group is led by two specialists, a Licensed Clinician and an extensively trained Volunteer, assuring that families get professional service and the most out of their time at Jeff’s Place.
-Jeff’s Place identifies best practices in the field by leading an international research study on youth coping with grief that measures program outcomes for grieving children and teens.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
The role of luck is a really interesting one. One of the first things I say to someone I meet because of the work I do is that “I’m sorry to be in the position to meet you, but I’m glad for the opportunity to be here with you”. Grief is a club no one wants to be in, but I’ve met the most amazing, courageous and inspiring people because of it…. and I’m referring to our entire village of family participants, volunteers, staff, donors, vendors… you name it. We meet the best of the best when it comes to human souls who are part of Jeff’s Place. Is that luck? I don’t know, but I’m certainly grateful. As for my own story, there is not a day that goes by that my family and I don’t miss Jeff.
Sometimes my heart still aches for my oldest brother. But most of the time my heart soars when I think of him because I feel him with me- his spirit lives within my heart so I can always access him. And he would be so very proud of his legacy. One of Jeff’s Place kids was asked in a game “What famous person would you meet if you could?” He asked if the person has to be alive or “how famous” he has to be. When told he could choose anyone, alive or dead, he answered “I wish I could have met Jeff so he would know how many kids he’s helped”. A resounding yes… call it what you will… luck, fate, belief, hope. It’s all part of our story here at Jeff’s Place, and yes, we feel lucky and blessed.
Pricing:
- All of our support groups are free.
Contact Info:
- Address: 34 Deloss Street
Framingham, MA 01702 - Website: http://jeffsplacemetrowest.org/
- Phone: 508-879-2800
- Email: info@jeffsplacemetrowest.org
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/jeffsplacemetrowest
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JeffsPlaceMetrowest/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/JeffsPlace
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