Lorna Byrne Children’s Foundation provides €10,000 in funding to the Children’s Grief Centre

Lorna Byrne funding for Children’s Grief Centre: Lorna Byrne, founder of the Lorna Byrne Children’s Foundation, pictured in 2019 during her first visit to the Children’s Grief Centre with centre director Sr. Helen Culnane and Richard Lynch, founder of I Love Limerick. Picture: Kate Devaney/ilovelimerick

Lorna Byrne Children’s Foundation provides €10,000 in funding to the Children’s Grief Centre

An exciting new bereavement education project has been launched this week which sees the Lorna Byrne Children’s Foundation partner with the Children’s Grief Centre. Richard Lynch of ilovelimerick was honoured to be bring the two charities together in October of 2019 to facilitate the connection and the birth of the project. 

Funding of €10,000 from the foundation will allow the Children’s Grief Centre to design, publish and roll out a specific Bereavement Toolkit for teachers in Primary Schools in the Mid-West.

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The Toolkit is being prepared by Rebecca Lloyd the Centre’s Schools Workshop Coordinator. Speaking about the project Rebecca said, “not all children need counselling, but they all need support. Teachers are well-positioned to provide this positive support and need to be well prepared in the instance that a child experiences a loss”

Founder of the Lorna Byrne Children’s Foundation, Lorna Byrne said, “What is so beautiful about this project is that we already know how important teachers are in the lives of our children but for a child who is grieving their teacher takes on a whole new role. Sometimes a teacher might not be sure about how to best help a child in their classroom with grief or a teacher themselves may have experienced grief and this might be difficult for them too.

Having first-hand experience of losing my husband while having young children I know how important other adults can be in the lives of grieving children, to encourage them, care for them and support them through their grief. We are so delighted to support this really positive project to make sure grieving children are supported in schools too.”

The bereavement education project will also include workshops for teachers on how to handle grief and loss in the school environment with the aim of helping prevent emotional and behavioural problems that could affect the child into adult life. Children’s Grief Centre Director and Founder Helen Culhane said, “We are so delighted to receive this wonderful grant especially at this challenging time for society. Teachers returning to the classroom will need our support more than ever. Many children will have experienced bereavement during this break from school and will need the support of the school community. We want to help schools and teachers as much as we can and thanks to this funding we can make a difference”.

This project was only made possible because of the generosity of the Lorna Byrne Children’s Foundation.

About the Children’s Grief Centre

 The Children’s Grief Centre is a free support service for children and young people aged between 4 and 18 years who have experienced a loss as a result of bereavement, separation or divorce.

About the Lorna Byrne Children’s Foundation

The Lorna Byrne Children’s Foundation believes that every child deserves to be happy, healthy and safe. They support amazing initiatives for children in vulnerable situations around the world whose lives have been affected by war, devastation, poverty or illness.

For more information about Lorna Byrne Children’s Foundation, click here. 

For more information about the Children’s Grief Centre, click here.

For more stories on Children’s Grief, click here.