Community Corner
Local Organizations Help Residents Through the Grieving Process
The loss of a loved one is especially difficult around the holidays, so local houses of worship and community organizations have joined to help children and adults cope with their grief.
Loss is hard to take at any age, but it is especially difficult for a child, with the sense of loss becoming even harder to handle around the holidays.
The grieving process has become such a source of concern in and around Rye that the Rye Clergy Association and the Rye Youth Council have teamed with the Westchester Jewish Community Services (WJCS) and mental health professionals to put together a special upcoming community outreach program on the subject.
It is called "Helping Your Child Cope With Sudden Loss."
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It will take place Thursday, Dec. 16 at 8 p.m. at the Community Synagogue of Rye on 200 Forest Ave.
It is designed to offer an opportunity for people of all faiths to come together to express some of their concerns about the grieving process and to learn strategies on how to speak with one's child about sudden loss.
Find out what's happening in Ryewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Various members of the Rye Clergy, the Rye Youth Council and WJCS mental health professionals will give their insights—based on decades of experience—into how to deal with the complex grief surrounding loss, according to Judy Secon, executive director of the Rye Youth Council.
The experts will focus on how the grieving process affects children, but will also address how it affects the mental, spiritual and physical health of adults.
Panelists will include Rev. Canon Susan C. Harriss and Rev. Matthew Moretz, rector and curate, respectively, of Rye's Christ's Church; Rev. Daniel Houghton Love, Associate Pastor at Rye Presbyterian Church; Rev. Msgr. Edward O'Donnell, senior priest at Rye's Church of the Resurrection, and Rabbi Daniel Gropper of the Community Synagogue of Rye.
Secon said Jennifer Spitz, a mental health professional and social worker with the WJCS, will moderate the program along with her colleague, Linda Kurtz, and various advocates and social workers from the Rye Youth Council.
"There has been lots of job loss, even at least one suicide in the area in recent months, and that is especially hard for anyone to deal with, especially a child," according to Sarit Katzew, a rabbi's assistant at the Community Synagogue.
"We feel that public discussion about the grieving process with the focus on children as well as adults would be helpful to our community at any time really, but even more so around the holidays, especially when the discussion includes the participation of experienced clergy and mental professionals," Secon said. "The 'Helping Your Child Cope With Sudden Loss' workshop will really help fill a need in Rye."
For more information, call Judy Secon at 914-967-3838, ext. 104 at the Rye Y; www. ryeyouthcouncil@aol.com; or the Community Synagogue of Rye, 914-967-6262; www. comsynrye.org.
