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Date: 7/12/2018
WILBRAHAM – It was a perfect match of mission and potential supporter.
When Ken Furst, vice president and treasurer for the Board of Directors at Rick’s Place invited Congressman Richard Neal to come learn about the free grief counseling programs the non-profit offers local children and families, his goal was to raise awareness of the organization’s mission.
What he got was an immediate connection with someone who intimately understood the importance of what they do, and was in a position to offer help.
Neal, who shared he had lost both parents early in life himself, said he understood the emotional upheaval children who experience the death of a parent go through not only immediately, but as the months and years roll on.
“Oftentimes I go to funerals following tragic things, and I would think to myself afterwards, that family is going home alone,” Neal said. “For the rest of us that grieving kind-of stops, but for those families, it always stays with them.”
Neal and his staff spent more than an hour at Rick’s Place, listening to a presentation that outlined the free onsite and in-school child – and the onsite adult – grief counseling programs they offer, statistics about the growing need for youth grief counseling in the greater Springfield area, and the 11-year-old non-profit’s recently developed three-year strategic plan, which includes a relocation to a larger space in the Post Office Park complex late this summer.
Named for Rick Thorpe, a father, husband and Wilbraham native who died in the collapse of the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001, Rick’s Place is one of a handful of organizations nationwide that offers grief counseling specifically geared to help children cope with the loss of a parent, sibling or significant caregiver.
During the presentation, Program Director Diane Murray pointed out recent statistics show 5,100 children in greater Hampden County suffered the loss of a parent in 2016, a figure the organization expects will only increase in the face of the opioid crisis.
“We see a lot more families who are coming to us and talking about a substance issue loss and we’re getting a lot more grandparents who are coming with grandchildren often because one parent has died from a substance abuse issue and then the other one isn’t in a state where they can parent,” by Therese Ross, Rick’s Place program coordinator, explained.
From assuming new responsibilities at home to problems relating to peers and handling schoolwork, Ross emphasized how the death of a parent has a lasting impact on a child’s life.
Murray noted many of the non-profit’s young clients have reported being bullied at school, and Ross spoke to the lack of training teachers have in how to handle a grieving child, and often have unrealistic expectations regarding school performance.
“Three months, four months down the road, [teacher’s] don’t understand that [the child] is just beginning to come to realize how their lives have changed,” Ross said, adding, “Ninety-eight percent of teachers report they have never received training on how to help a grieving child.”
Highlighting the multiple school programs Rick’s Place hosted in the past year for students who could not travel to Wilbraham for counseling, Ross noted the organization hopes to expand this part of the program to include teacher training in the future, as well as expanding the number and types of in-house programs offered when Rick’s Place moves to its larger space.
Furst told Neal though Rick’s Place is now in a “much stronger financial position than in the past” thanks to aggressive fundraising, contributions from Catholic Charities and the United Way for in-school programs and the work of state Rep Angelo Puppolo – who last fiscal year secured $50,000 in state funding for the organization – the upcoming expansion and proposed addition of much-needed staff presents another hurdle for Rick’s Place to surmount.
“If you don’t have the ability to finance, you can’t do the work in the community,” Furst said. Despite the generous donation of renovation services by Post Office Park landlord Glen Garvey and the modest rent he is willing to receive for the expanded Rick’s Place facilities, Furst said the organization projects its $100,000 annual budget will need to expand to $160,000, possibly $200,000 to meet the anticipated growth in the need for grief counseling for children and families across the Pioneer Valley. And though the Board of Directors already has plans in place for the Rick’s Place Annual Golf Classic on Sept. 15, its Annual Appeal in November and the Run for Rick’s Place in May of 2019, Furst was candid in asking Neal if there were any way the non-profit could also approach the federal government for potential funding sources.
Neal said he would be happy to put the Board of Directors in touch with his Chief of Staff Lizzy O’Hara, who handles those types of inquiries for his office.
“We want to be helpful,” Neal said in closing.
Following the presentation, Murray told Reminder Publications the new budget, and plan to raise community awareness of the free services offered by Rick’s Place, was itself part of a recently completed strategic planning project funded by the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts.