Michigan Center Needs Volunteers to Help Grieving Kids

When kids lose someone they love, they often express their grief through play rather than words, which is exactly why the Children's Grief Center needs more caring adults in the room.

The Children's Grief Center of the Great Lakes Bay Region is looking for at least 10 volunteers to help facilitate peer support groups for children and teens coping with the death of a parent, sibling, or close family member. The free program serves kids ages 5 to 18 across Midland, Saginaw, and Bay City.

Each session follows a comforting rhythm: a shared meal, age-appropriate activities focused on grief themes, unstructured playtime where kids connect with others who understand their loss, and a closing circle. Parent support groups run simultaneously, and caregivers must stay on site.

"We learn the importance of play with children in their grief, and a lot of times kids, when they are grieving, they get it out physically, and so they reenact things through their play," explains Gabby Gauthier, the Center's program director. The unstructured playtime isn't just fun. It's therapeutic processing disguised as games and connection.

With only four staff members, the organization relies heavily on volunteers ranging from their early 20s to their 80s. Many volunteers experienced childhood loss themselves and wish this resource had existed when they needed it most.

Why This Inspires

What makes this volunteer opportunity special is how it creates healing on both sides. Volunteers don't need special training in grief counseling or psychology. They just need compassion, empathy, and the ability to show up consistently for kids who need someone to see them.

The biggest fear new volunteers share? Saying the wrong thing. But the training addresses exactly that worry, teaching grief language and reflective listening over two sessions in late June. "Even if you do say something that doesn't hit home with a child, you can always recover if your heart is in the right place," Gauthier reassures.

After each group session, staff hold debriefs where volunteers can process their own feelings and reflect on the evening. For those who've experienced their own losses, it becomes a way to honor the person they lost while helping kids navigate similar pain.

The program runs twice monthly in each city from September through May, and volunteers commit to one year of service. For people curious but not ready for the full commitment, the one-day Camp Grit, Grief and Hope at Camp Fish Tails in Pinconning offers a taste of the experience.

Grief touches everyone eventually, but kids shouldn't have to walk through it alone.