Erie's Highmark Caring Place is a center for grieving children, adolescents and their families. Its peer support groups give children and teens a safe, caring space to connect with others their age who understand what it is like to experience the death of a family member. Adult family members participate in separate groups at the same time, allowing the whole family to receive support.
Groups are facilitated by trained volunteers and staff and are available for children of all ages, including infants and preschoolers. Highmark Caring Place also provides grief resources, school programs, educational presentations and support for professionals who work with grieving children and families.
How To Join a Support Group
To get started, call Erie Highmark Caring Place at 866-212-4673. You’ll speak with a team member about your family, learn more about the program and attend an orientation. If the program is a good fit, staff will help your family find an upcoming support group that works with your schedule.
All programs and services are offered at no cost. Families do not need Highmark insurance—or insurance of any kind—to participate.
Volunteer With Highmark Caring Place
Highmark Caring Place relies on caring adult volunteers to support grieving children and families. No special experience is required—just a willingness to listen and help. After completing training and required background clearances, volunteers may assist with peer groups, welcome families, serve meals or help with other meaningful projects.
Learn more about volunteering with Highmark Caring Place.
Business Review
'Always someone to talk and willing to listen'
One of the best things about the Caring Place was that we always had someone we could talk to, someone who was in a similar situation and was always willing to listen. My brothers and sisters and I became very close with the other people in our groups and with the volunteers who ran our sessions. Not only did we become more comfortable talking but we became interested in their stories.
The groups were also extremely important for my mother. With five of us to deal with, someone was always in some different stage of grief. With the parent groups, my mom had other parents who knew what was going on, who experienced the same situations and who could understand and reassure her that what we were all going through was normal.
-Melanie
'Made this long journey bearable'
Being in a room with kids my age who actually knew what it felt like to be missing such an important part of our daily lives made this long journey bearable. I never once felt out of place or different in my group, despite how different the backgrounds we all came from. The Caring Place made me realize I'm going to be different for the rest of my life and that I should embrace it sooner rather than later.
... As the old proverb says, "Just when the caterpillar thought life was over, it became a butterfly". The Caring Place allows everyone to feel as if they are the butterfly in the metaphor as they give each person the inspiration to live with grief. Because after all, everyone just needs a little HOPE.
-Cate
'A safe haven for my family'
... The Caring Place became a safe haven for us. A pathway of healing and rediscovery. A place of reinventing a new normal, while being supported, encouraged and benchmarked by people who truly felt our pain, and "got" us. A refuge for our broken hearts and dreams. A place where the girls and I felt "normal" even if only for two nights a month. A place where, when we walked through the doors, we were welcomed with open arms and open hearts.
It didn’t matter if we had puffy eyes or tear-stained faces. All who cared for us did so with smiles on their faces and open arms. It didn’t matter how small or large our issue. Those at the Caring Place supported us, listened to us, comforted us, offered counsel to us and "carried" us.
And as a single mom of three "babies," they gave me a break, a designated time and safe place where I could let down my guard and be "real," without judgment or critique. A place where it was OK to be "broken." A place where I could be a person, too.
In our darkest hours, the Caring Place offered our family somewhere to turn where we felt totally understood and accepted when life simply just didn't seem to make sense.
-Debbie
Read more from families affected by grief who have turned to the Caring Place.
