About Us
Lion's Heart Children's Grief Center
Lion's Heart is a nonprofit growing from a heartfelt idea that came from a Child Life Specialist and a Pediatric Medical Social Worker, working together in a Children's Hospital in Spokane, WA. These women worked with children and families going through the impossible situation of saying goodbye to their family members for a variety of tragic circumstances. It became apparent that children's grief support needed to be present outside the hospital after the shock of the acute loss, and into their neighborhoods where they could continue their grief work. Many mid-sized and major cities have a dedicated Children's Grief Center, and somehow this has never existed in Spokane. Lion's Heart is answering the call, and envisions becoming the go-to resource center for child and family grief in our region.
Our Story
Back in 2015, Krista Reeder and Maggie Rowe started researching what it would take to bring a children's grief center to Spokane, reviewing other local models, and gathering inspiration. They discovered that the nearby major cities of Seattle and Portland had very established programs, but even smaller cities like Kennewick, WA, Lewiston, ID, and Missoula, MT also had children's grief centers! The need for Spokane was clear.
Before the project really got going, the Covid-19 pandemic hit. During the international crisis, Krista was a health worker on the front-lines, supporting young grievers every day of her work. Unable to put off the project any further, she collected an advisory team that started meeting in 2021. She gathered therapists, Child Life Specialists, business professionals, realtors, school counselors, and parents with direct loss experiences to put their heads together around this goal.
Lion's Heart Grief Center officially earned 501(c)(3) status in August of 2023.
As of 2024, we are focusing on delivering 1:1 grief counseling to children and teens, and offering parenting education and support through our partners at Wellness Therapies.
We are also working on offering high-quality education events on children's grief topics for professionals.
As we grow, we envision starting age-appropriate support groups and day-camps that will be free of charge and on-going.
Though this has been a dream for a long time coming, there is still much work to be done. Please consider joining us in our mission of creating Spokane's first comprehensive grief support center in Spokane, WA.
Our Name
As a general rule, grief is not talked about very openly in the United States. Discussing any topic that leaves us breathless and vulnerable feels like a LOT to most humans, however sharing our stories is one of the only things that seems to help.
Grief is a lot of things. It can be noisy or quiet, tragic, sad, serious, sometimes funny, and is usually very, very messy.
To get through it, we need the courage of a lion to be brave enough to face it. We want to model to children that it's OK to talk about the person who died- the good memories, the bad, and the messy in-between. We have courageous conversations with children, because the only way through, is through.
