Growing through grief
There are times in our life when we experience grief, loss, and change for a multitude of reasons, whether that’s the death of a loved one, a family separation or even moving to a new home. These emotions are common, but that doesn’t make them any easier to deal with, especially for children.
In 1995, the Anglican Parish of Gate Pā in Tauranga felt compelled to provide support to the children and young people of the parish who were facing these issues. They had nowhere to explore and resolve their feelings.
Over time, more parishes began setting up Growing Through Grief (GTG) services across the Anglican Diocese of Waiapu. The Diocese covers Hawke’s Bay, Tairāwhiti, and Bay of Plenty. Each service is supported by a paid coordinator and a group of dedicated volunteers, called companions.
Since the start, GTG has provided programmes to support children to explore and find ways of expressing emotions associated with grief, loss, and change. One of the programmes provided by GTG is Seasons for Growth®, which offers a peer-support group for young children, young people, and adults.
Seasons for Growth® is wholly owned by Good Grief Limited. The Catholic Archdiocese of Wellington manages and oversees the licence for Seasons for Growth® in New Zealand on behalf of Good Grief Limited.
Delivering a difference for children
Anglican Care Waiapu (ACW) is the social services arm of the Anglican Diocese of Waiapu. In 2018, ACW began delivering against a new strategy with the vision “Fulfilled Lives, Connected Communities”. One of the key outcomes of this strategy was ensuring that ACW could measure the impact services were having on their clients and communities.
ACW worked with staff, GTG coordinators, companions, and parish management committees to develop a set of desired outcomes to measure the impact of GTG:
People engaged with Growing Through Grief have improved confidence and self-expression;
Whānau across the Diocese of Waiapu have access to support for loss, grief and change regardless of their circumstances;
Communities are better informed about grief, loss, and change;
Whānau engaged with Growing Through Grief have improved wellbeing; and
People engaged with Growing Through Grief experience improved communication within their whānau.
To measure these outcomes, wellbeing questions were answered by participants before and after the programmes.
Giving young children the right tools to provide feedback was important. Providing simple graphics like face expressions (i.e. happy or sad faces) and simple sentences allowed young children to communicate their own feelings about their own progress. Even giving their reflections about how they feel is a big step for many of the children involved.
In 2021, the first set of data was available, and the results showed the positive impact Growing Through Grief is having on people that attend the programmes. The positive impact on children was clear. All measures of wellbeing increased in children aged 5 to 13 years. The results revealed that there was a 7.3% improvement in overall happiness with life, 12.7% improvement in confidence and 12.7% improvement in the ability to talk about feelings.
These results were echoed by the parents who responded to the survey. A remarkable 93% of parents reported that their child was more confident after attending the programme.
“If you’re feeling happy or sad or something is about change, it's OK.” – Tamariki
“Don't be scared to speak up” – Young person
“I learned that I can trust others with my feelings” – Young person
“You can make good choices, and learn about the consequences” – Young person
Our data journey continues
As this was the first year of systematically measuring the impact of the programme, how we collect data is still developing. There was not enough data collected for the programme aimed at young people aged 13 to 19 years old and the adult programme to provide statistically sound or conclusive results. However, the indicative results show similar patterns to the younger participants. For adults, weighted averages improved across overall happiness with life (11.6% improvement), confidence (20.7% improvement) and the ability to talk about feelings (18.6% improvement). This shows a positive increase for the adults coming out of a programme.
“Making sure I do NOT bury my grief, work through the process and get help if I feel I need it.” – Adult
“The privilege of hearing other’s stories. Also breaking down into the seasons/components helped reveal aspects I hadn't thought of - in ways I hadn't thought.” – Adult
Involving whānau
While Seasons for Growth® has made a difference to the tamariki and rangitahi who have attended, the impact on parents, whānau and caregivers is often visible.
Whānau members looking for guidance to support their children through their grief, loss or change experience can attend a short course: ‘Supporting Your Child’. In this course parents and whānau learn how to engage with their tamariki, finding constructive ways to kōrero.
With all 36 participants sharing that they felt they were able to understand change, loss and grief from a child or young person’s perspective, it’s strong support for continuing to provide this programme to whānau.
“Understanding a lot of things that the little people feel and ways of dealing for them and for me.” – parent seminar attendee
Moving Forward
The Anglican Diocese of Waiapu team is collaborating with an organisation called ThinkPlace. Through this collaboration, we are exploring new ways to extend the Growing Through Grief programme using co-design approaches. We hope to build on the success of the current programmes and find new ways to connect and support the needs of communities across the Diocese of Waiapu. While in the early stages of discovery, it’s an exciting step forward.
As with all change, it has been important to acknowledge and consider the past when thinking of the future. Just as the original service in the Parish of Gate Pā expanded, it’s clear that there is a growing demand for services like Growing Through Grief, especially in a post-COVID-19 world.