March Newsletter * Tu Nidito

Dear Friends:

Can you believe it is almost Spring? I love this time of year as the days get longer and our Tu Nidito kiddos have more daylight time outside on the playground during group nights. It is such a joy to watch them connect and hear their laughter as they find moments of joy and blossom in their new-found friendships.

Our programs are blossoming as well. For the first time in a very long time we have a waiting list for our Children to Children program. It is difficult to tell families that they need to wait to join a group. I am proud of our team for finding innovative ways to serve these families as they wait for an opening. Whether it is a phone call to check in or providing an activity that can be done at home, we are letting these families know that they are not grieving alone.

Our Grief Education and Response work is growing, with trainings facilitated for school districts, individual schools and the County School Superintendent’s team. Our response team has recently been deployed to three incidents. We are always ready to help in these situations and hope that our presence provides comfort and understanding.

We have seen increased need for one on one support for children with a serious medical condition. Our partnership with Banner Diamond Children’s Hospital has become stronger as we are now able to return to the hospital for patient visits. We will be providing support during clinics, in the coming months.

Tu Nidito is blossoming, and we want you to know we could not meet the needs of our grieving community without you, our partners, our donors, our volunteers and our families.

Enjoy this beautiful Tucson time of year.

Yours,

Liz McCusker

Take a Look at What Tu Nidito Children Are Doing in March...

The Way I Feel Read by Sophia Dunne

“When Someone Dies, We Might Have

All Kinds of Different Feelings at Once.”

With Spring right around the corner, this month Tu Nidito is creating space for our children to reflect on their feelings. Our Littles are learning about feelings when reading “The Way I Feel” by Janan Cain and the Middles are reading “My Favorite Color is Blue, Sometimes.” By Roger Hutchison. Following the book, our group coordinators are facilitating a fun activity for our kiddos to visually express their big feelings through art. In our Teens group, we will be sharing how we cope through music. Our teens are asked to reflect on a song that relates to their grief, along with a song that lifts them up. Each teen will be given a chance to share with the group the songs that have helped them in their grief journey.

Tu Nidito Littles and Middles are creating spin art to visually show that we can have a lot of different feelings at once. In our talking circle, one by one, each kid will sit in the center of the circle. They will share 2 or 3 of their big feelings they have had since the death of their special person. Then, they will choose a color of paint they associate with each feeling. In a salad spinner, a facilitator will drop paint for each of the kid’s emotions onto a round disk. Then to create their spin art, we spin the salad spinner. After a few spins, they get to see their many big emotions come together to make beautiful art. We hope for our kids to learn that having all kinds of different feelings is ok and everyone is allowed to feel them.

Did you know?

Women are more likely to express their feelings of grief with other people. They may be more willing to seek out connections and accept the help of others. During grief, women may be more likely to:

-Feel isolated.
-Try to connect with others.
-Feel frustration with others’ inability to share grief.

Women may try to cope by:

-Talking about their grief.
-Seeking support.
-Creating new social networks.
-Questioning or blaming others.
-Expressing grief through writing.

There is no typical or “normal” grief response. It is common to have a variety of feelings and behaviors. For most people, some responses will be typical of gender. Others will not be. The important thing is that each person feels like their grief is accepted and supported by other family members.