NHPCO NewsLine Summer 2018 - 23

Kylie Babeon first experienced grief
when she was 9-years-old. Her
grandmother had died after a
lingering illness, and Babeon found
the emotions related to that loss
confusing and frightening.
But Babeon had help navigating the
uncharted territory of childhood grief
when she became involved in
HopeWest Kids, a hospice griefsupport program for youngsters.
She attended a three-day camp where
she found common ground with
other grieving kids. She participated
in activities that helped her sort
through and understand her feelings.
She attended group counseling
sessions where she learned
techniques to cope with sadness. She
completed an equine therapy
program where she felt the power of
having a large animal mirror her
own emotions.
Babeon was so convinced of the
value of the HopeWest Kids'
experience that she returned, as a
15-year-old, to help guide younger
kids at Camp Good Grief. She also
became a driving force in her high
school to insure grief support services
are available to all students: one in
five students, according to national
statistics, experience the death of
someone close to them by age 18.
"HopeWest set me on a good path. It
put a lot of good role models in my
life. And it became a powerful thing
in my life," Babeon said. "HopeWest
became like part of my family."
Since HopeWest started grief

programs for kids in 1995, fully
funded by donations, more than
8,000 children, from kindergarten age
through teenage years, have taken
part in a growing range of programs
that encompasses counseling, family
support, grief support in schools,
camps and retreats, and equine
therapy. In just the past year, the
program interacted with 625 kids.
HopeWest founding President and
CEO Christy Whitney Borchard said
HopeWest began offering
bereavement support for kids more
than 25 years ago when she
recognized that youngsters were
being left out of services at the new
hospice organization. "I felt like kids
were always overlooked in hospice.
No one really knew how to talk to the
kids," she said.
She believed loss could be turned into
a strengthening life force for
youngsters, rather than a crippling
confusion that played out in
difficulties at school, physical
illnesses and negative behavioral
changes. She began by assigning a
social worker to focus on the kids in
families suffering a loss. By 1995 she
hired a nurse to work with kids' grief
programs in Florida and developed
the program.

...more than 8,000
children, from
kindergarten age
through teenage
years, have taken part
in a growing range of
programs...

Social Worker, Cathy DiPaola, began
by organizing a kids' grief camp as
the Director of Youth Programs. The
first camp drew six youngsters.
DiPaola, recently retired after leading
the youth program for more than two
decades, expanded the camps over
the years to include younger children,

Summer 2018 | NHPCO NewsLine

23

https://www.hopewestco.org/hopewest-kids/ https://www.hopewestco.org/camp-good-grief/ https://www.childrensgriefawarenessday.org/cgad2/pdf/griefstatistics.pdf https://www.childrensgriefawarenessday.org/cgad2/pdf/griefstatistics.pdf

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NHPCO NewsLine Summer 2018