WillMar Family Grief & Healing Center

WillMar Family Grief & Healing Center provides compassionate peer group support for families grieving the death of a loved one, and for youth, and adults living with a family member suffering from a life-changing illness or injury.

In addition to the safe, healing environment offered at the Center, WillMar also provides emergency on-site grief support, education, and training to schools and the community at large. WillMar Family Grief & Healing Center has grown to be Northern California's primary childhood bereavement expert. After ten years of serving grieving children and teens, WillMar Center expanded its mission to provide support to the families of the children and teens it serves. Using the peer support group model and emphasizing the expressive arts, WillMar Center helps children and teens ages 3 ½ to 19 and adults, as they progress through the healing process after a catastrophic loss. Over the last decade, WillMar Center’s mission has expanded to incorporate the Living with Illness program. These rich peer support groups provide children, teens, and their families with ways to express and cope with the changes in their daily lives, while living with family members who have life-altering illnesses or injuries.

WillMar Center's 14-year track record of excellence and innovation is recognized nationally by other grief centers, professionals and academics, and is the region’s primary provider of bereavement services for children. No other stand-alone nonprofit organization between Los Angeles and Portland has the expertise and experience of serving grieving children and their families through long-term peer grief support services, using the expressive arts as a healing modality. No fees are ever charged for children, teens or adults to attend WillMar peer support groups -- no one is ever refused services due to financial constraints. The Center’s programs rely entirely on donations from individuals, foundations, and service organizations. We do not receive government funding or insurance reimbursements.