It Takes a Village: Community and Corporate Connections

In recognition of International Children’s Day on 1st June, St Francis Hospice Dublin is officially launching our newest publication, “Always in My Heart: A book for children about grieving.”

There’s an expression you sometimes hear, usually in relation to raising children, it takes a village, meaning the contribution of many different people is required. The phrase is an apt description of how this book came into being.

It began with a question. Our Noirin Concannon, Senior Social Worker, had been working with a little boy for some time, as he worked through his experience of bereavement. One day, he looked quizzically at Noirin and asked, “What IS grief?” Such a simple question prompted Noirin to recognise the need for a book to help children in the late primary school years to understand more about the process of grieving they experience when someone close to them dies.

Noirin’s post, one that is dedicated to just such bereavement work, was made possible thanks to a very kind donation by the Meath Hospice Homecare Movement in 2020, a wonderful illustration in itself of how it takes a village.

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To create the book, firstly the hospice village gathered, in the form of our wider social work team, other colleagues, and some of the families and children who were accessing bereavement support. The content for the book was written and honed.

Then the wider village gathered. We reached out to Joanne Reynolds of AWS in Communities, our corporate partners who had previously supported our book “Finding Your Way Through Grief: For teenagers and young adults”. They generously came on board to support this new book as well. Their support enables St Francis Hospice Dublin to make this book, like the previous one, available to anyone who might benefit.

With funding secured, we turned to our trusted graphic designers and printers in Shape Brand Development, led by Sharon Murphy, to turn our words into a visual storytelling tool. In partnership with the Shape team, we developed the book in a way that it is both visually appealing and an effective educational resource for children and their parents or guardians.

When our thoughts turned to launching the book, we recognised that among our “village” we had the ideal person. Sinead Kavanagh became a member of the St Francis Hospice family when we had the privilege of caring for her beloved Dad for a number of months, both in St Francis Hospice Blanchardstown and in his own home. Sinead works as a local primary school teacher, is mother to two young boys, and maintains a considerable presence online as social media influencer @thebeauttruth.

?Sinead says of the book, “As a mom and a teacher, I know how every child is different and experiences?difficult situations in their own way. This book helps to show children, no matter what they are feeling, it is all normal! It allows?them to see that even if the people around them are dealing with their?grief differently, they are not alone in how they are feeling. There is no one size fits all when it comes to grief after losing a loved one. This book also has a wonderful resource at the back of the book to help parents and guardians?guide the children through what is a very challenging time."

We in St Francis Hospice Dublin are incredibly grateful for our “village”, the community we are privileged to serve and the wonderful people and companies in it that answer the call when we look for support for initiatives and innovations like this book.

“Always in My Heart: A book for children about grieving” is available free of charge from www.sfh.ie/online-shop, thanks to support from AWS in Communities. Shape Brand Development has kindly provided a digital version of the book, which can be accessed on https://www.sfh.ie/st-francis-publications.

In order to support the bereaved children and families in our wider village, St Francis Hospice will provide copies of the book to all the hospice and palliative care services in Ireland, as well as each public library service throughout the country, children’s charities, and all primary schools in our catchment area.

It really does take a village.

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SHAPE Brand Development