Our Impact

During the past year and a half, we have continued to expand the resources we offer, focused on driving more traffic to our website, continued to match parents in our peer support program, and made connections and partnerships with like organizations to expand our reach.

From January 2022 to June 2023, we interacted with 92 parents who requested to be a part of our “A Parent Like You” peer support program. We also saw an average of 750 visitors to our site each month, with the traffic increasing month after month.

Just Enduring continued to expand it’s partnerships and connections with local organizations. We partnered with Hutchens and Baue funeral homes to provide resources and care packages to bereaved parents; we partnered with the Ollie Hinkle Heart Foundation in a joint effort to promote each other’s services to grieving families; and we joined Ella’s Umbrella and Love Like Jackson to provide resources to families for grieving siblings.

Just Enduring is proud to now offer care packages to funeral homes and hospitals in an effort to reach parents in the early days of their loss. These care packages include not only information about Just Enduring and the services we offer, but also comforting items such as tea, hot chocolate, chocolates, a photo keychain, and a coffee mug. We even include a card letting the parents know the choice of what they do with their mug is up to them – enjoy a warm beverage or destroy it into many pieces, whichever helps them grieve better. We are currently partnering with several locations and are always looking to expand our impact.

We are excited to announce that we have created a Step-by-Step Grief Guide for parents called “Navigating Child Loss”, which can be found on our website. This guide provides a checklist as well as detailed information on what to do after the death of a child, from the early days to months and years later.

We have also created “A Parent’s Guide to Helping Children Grieve the Death of a Sibling“. This guide is meant to help parents learn how to help their living children cope with the death of their sibling, as well as inform parents about the unique ways in which their children might be grieving their loss.

As the pandemic let up, we began expanding our community involvement efforts through events and media. We participated in the “Always Andy’s Mom” podcast (episodes 143 and 144), where four of Just Enduring’s founding members share their stories, and we were featured in an article for the UMSL (University of Missouri – St. Louis) Daily Publication. We are grateful for the privilege to be featured and hope it continues to raise awareness about the resources we offer.

We also participated in Thinksgiving, a Saint Louis event ran by Filament for nonprofits to collaborate with local businesses to creatively problem solve and focus on future endeavors. During the event, the Just Enduring team focused on automating grief experiences for those we serve, as well as focusing on collaboration with funeral homes to reach more parents in need.

Finally, Just Enduring organized the first of many events that that fall within our “A Kid Like You” program. This event was co-sponsored by Ella’s Umbrella, another nonprofit dedicated to helping siblings in their grief journey. The event included a book reading about sibling loss, gym play, face painting, crafts to remember siblings, and therapy dogs. It was very successful and a great beginning to the program.