In October 2010, Jim Schwartz founded the first widowed-to-widowed grief support group in the Phoenix, Arizona area which currently meets weekly.

Mission Statement – Our local support group is composed of widows and widowers, resolved to create and provide a compassionate and safe environment for individuals who have lost a spouse or partner. This environment supports and encourages each individual’s unique path through healing from their loss. We are especially sensitive to the newly bereaved. We focus on comforting and supporting the newly bereaved through their healing from loss in the weekly meetings. Healing includes accepting the loss, feeling the feelings, adjusting to life without the loved one, and moving forward. Often, while we wish we did not have to go through the suffering, we do successfully heal.

Description – Our group is a support group only. Facilitators are peers and not professional counselors or therapists. Because we are a peer-to-peer group we don’t diagnose anyone and we don’t provide advice. The group is strictly for support of each other in a variety of ways. For example, we maintain a Buddy Call System where certain members will call other members between meetings to check in with them. Beyond the group meetings, members are becoming friends, exchanging phone numbers, going to dinner, movies, and attending other social events.

“This group really makes me think and take action in my life.”

“Great meeting once again, love to see new faces and the sharing of their experience, strength and hope, good topic guilt.”

“Couldn’t get through the week without it.”

“Comforting to spend time with people who get it. It’s a lonely journey…the meeting gave me a chance to not feel alone for a few hours.”

“This was a good week. Discussing the emotion anger brought a lot of good discussion. Nice to see new faces and all the others here.”

“Love this group….it’s so good for all of us and I look forward to it every week…”

“This is a good group of people. Almost like a family gathering…Although our talk is about loss, I have got something positive that has helped me at each meeting I’ve attended.”

Join us on Meetup.com where we maintain our schedule for weekly support group and social events. If you are local to the Phoenix area, it is highly recommended you join our Meetup.com group to allow us to track who is attending future meetings. Our Meetup group is titled Widowed-to-Widowed Grief Support Group and can be found by searching the term “widow” or “widowed” in the Phoenix area.

A free Starter Kit is available for anyone wanting to start their own group. The Starter Kit includes:

• Facilitator’s Guide – This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to start your own group including where to find meeting space, how to advertise, meeting agenda, ground rules for the group, a list of potential topics for discussion, and much, much more.
• Sign-in Sheet.
• Flyer example – used to post in public areas or email to anyone.
• Mission Statement.
• Handouts for new members – these handouts includes a number of articles dealing with grief, assessing grief, secondary losses, and more.
• Agenda example – at our Tempe group the facilitator always prepares an agenda for each meeting to help with the flow of the meeting.

We recommend you make available the book, Widow to Widow by Genevieve Davis Ginsburg in your new support group. It is one of the highest rated books on Amazon.com and covers many important topics. It is a great resource for support group topics.

To acquire your own FREE Starter Kit or any of the needed documents to run a meeting, please click the button below.

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