Grieving is hard, and no one should have to do it alone.
Uplift's programs include:
• Virtual Grief Groups: Uplift provides peer support groups for children ages 6-18 who have experienced the death of someone close to them in a private Zoom meeting room. Youth are divided into age-appropriate groups, which are facilitated by master's-level trained clinicians and volunteers. Uplift also offers concurrent caregiver support groups, and Come Together groups for children in kindergarten through 2nd grade to attend with their caregivers.
• In-School Grief Groups: Uplift provides 6-week grief support groups for children enrolled at public, private, charter, and religious schools in the City of Philadelphia.
• Acute Community Loss Support: Following the death of a member of a school or community organization, Uplift can support youth, staff, and the larger community with age-appropriate activities, resources, and/or virtual acute loss support groups as needed. Additionally, Uplift can help create a plan in cases of terminal illness to help prepare a community for an anticipated death.
• The Philly HopeLine: A free, confidential helpline, the Philly HopeLine offers telephonic support for students and caregivers. Caregivers, counselors, and frontline professionals may also use the Philly HopeLine to refer families to services such as grief groups or drop-in programs. The Philly HopeLine is staffed by Uplift clinicians, who offer callers support after a death in their school community, a loss in their personal lives, or with the collective traumatic experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Uplift offers these services to professionals:
• Professional Development and Training: Uplift provides education on grief, bereavement, and trauma through school-wide professional development, training for clinicians, social workers, and counselors, and workshops for community members and caregivers. Our training sessions can be modified to be relevant for the role of attendees, as well as for the desired focus, such as survivors of homicide, suicide, or substance-related deaths.
09/08/2025
Thank you to everyone who joined Uplift on August 28th to celebrate our 25th anniversary and inaugurate our Uplifting Legacies tribute donation windows! Your support helps expand access to free grief support services for youth and caregivers navigating some of life’s most difficult moments.
The Uplifting Legacies campaign will continue through the end of 2025. Make a donation of any amount in recognition of a beloved person or milestone event at upliftphilly.org/legacy
08/18/2025
Join Uplift on Thursday, August 28 from 5:30-6:30 PM as we commemorate our 25th anniversary and National Grief Awareness Day. This celebration is free and open to the public.
In recognition of Uplift's mission of creating space for loss and educating youth, families, and communities about grief, we've selected National Grief Awareness Day, observed every year in late August, as Uplift's birthday anniversary.
During the celebration, you will have the opportunity to meet Uplift's team, view artwork from grief groups, and make your own keepsake. Uplift will also share all tribute donations made as part of our Uplifting Legacies campaign and will hang stars in the windows of our office. Light refreshments will be served.
How to join us: Arrive at the Sterling's lobby (1815 John F. Kennedy Blvd) between 5 and 5:30 PM, where Uplift's staff will es**rt you to the office.
08/14/2025
: Uplift is proud to be one of 22 community-based organizations receiving a grant through the City of Philadelphia Government Overdose Prevention and Community Healing Fund (OPCH). The OPCH Fund uses national opioid settlement dollars to repair the harms inflicted on communities across Philadelphia as a result of the opioid epidemic and overdose crisis.
Together with our fellow grantees, Uplift will receive technical assistance training through workshops and consultation with experts at no cost. The OPCH Fund aims to invest in overdose prevention by centering community voices, prioritizing equity, and creating new opportunities for grantees to build capacity, share strategies, and work together toward sustained neighborhood recovery.
The Overdose Prevention and Community Healing Fund uses national opioid settlement dollars to repair the harms inflicted on communities across Philadelphia a...
07/24/2025
appreciation to Friends of Uplift volunteer Bonnie Stright, First Book, and Action Karate for making this book donation possible 🔱 🌊 🏛️
"Percy Jackson and the Olympians" is a favorite book series for many young people, especially justice-involved youth attending grief groups at PJJSC. This donation of several copies of the complete series guarantees that every youth participating in an Uplift grief group can read it!
07/23/2025
Read "A Day at Kittenland" by Miraclé, one of Uplift's grief group participants, and listen to an original song based on her story!
The Sing Me a Story Foundation gives children in need the opportunity to write and illustrate stories about anything they want. Those stories are then shared with songwriters, who turn the stories into songs and share them with their young authors.
This song was written and recorded by Kelsi Towle and inspired by the story A Day at Kittenland by Miracle, Age 8 from Uplift Center for Grieving Children. T...
07/19/2025
On Thursday, June 26, Uplift held a free Family Art Night at Public Health Management Corporation's space in The Provident Campus in West Philly. Thank you to our fifteen participants who joined us to make masks and do a balloon release (and a special thank you to Ms. Wortham for being our PHMC liaison for the evening!)
: Thank you to the Philly Goat Project for letting Uplift table at your Summer Grief Walk! We were glad to share this free program with Uplift's families and friends. Pictured from left to right: Mark Leeper, Naila Francis (This Hallowed Wilderness), Uplift clinician Teresa Méndez-Quigley, and Uplift intern Marquita Alston.
07/10/2025
appreciation to Action Karate Fairless Hills for their community give-back event supporting Uplift on Saturday, June 21. After outdoor karate lessons, Coach Cam involved all youth students in assembling care bags with snacks, books, and toys for Uplift's in-person youth grief groups. Thank you again to Action Karate's staff, students, and families for your generosity!
07/08/2025
Did you know that the Philly Goat Project holds free seasonal grief walks? This upcoming Sunday (July 13th) from 12-2 PM, meet Uplift’s clinicians for a program led by grief coach Naila Francis (This Hallowed Wilderness). Together with the PGP, we'll take part in a guided meditation, a thirty-minute walk through Awbury Arboretum's nature trails (with optional goat companionship), and and open sharing with light, cold refreshments. All are welcome to join, regardless of loss and regardless of time since the loss.
07/07/2025
Great news! We’re featured in Target Circle™. Show your support for Uplift Center for Grieving Children and vote for us in the Target app now through September 30. To vote:
Step 1: Choose ‘My Target’ in the Target app or ‘Account’ on Target.com
Step 2: Tap ‘Cast votes’
Step 3: Find us & vote
06/26/2025
Uplift Center for Grieving Children and our Philly HopeLine are closed from Friday, June 27 through Friday, July 4. Regular summer hours (Monday-Thursday, 9am - 5pm) will resume on Monday, July 7 as we begin our new program year. All messages to the Philly HopeLine and non-emergency messages to our main line (267-437-3123) will be returned on or after July 7.
If you or a loved one need emergent support during Uplift's closure, please visit upliftphilly.org/philly-hopeline.
06/18/2025
Uplift's office and our Philly HopeLine are closed on Thursday, June 19 in observance of Juneteenth. We will reopen on Monday, June 23, and will be open through Thursday, June 26.
For helpful resources, including a list of helplines and crisis lines, please visit upliftphilly.org/philly-hopeline.
Address
1819 John F Kennedy Blvd., Suite 460 Philadelphia, PA 19103
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Contact The Practice
Send a message to Uplift Center for Grieving Children:
Uplift Center for Grieving Children helps children grieving a death heal and grow through their grief, while strengthening families, communities, and professionals’ understanding of how best to respond to their needs.
Our vision is to ensure that every child in the City of Philadelphia has access to free support after the death of a parent, sibling, or close loved one. Grieving is hard and no one should have to do it alone.
Our Services:
Family Services Grief Groups Uplift provides peer support groups for children, teens, young adults, and their caregivers who have experienced the death of someone close to them. Divided according to development and age, groups are facilitated by master’s-level trained clinicians and volunteers. While the children’s groups meet, we offer concurrent caregiver support groups. Groups meet in East Falls, West Philadelphia, Lower Northeast Philadelphia, and South Philadelphia.
In-School and Community Grief Groups Uplift recognizes there are barriers for families to get to grief groups at our main and satellite sites. In-School and Community grief groups function as mobile versions of our Family Services grief groups, allowing services to reach grieving children directly. Uplift provides 8-week grief groups for students in public, private, and charter schools across the City of Philadelphia as well as justice-involved youth programs and community organizations/groups.
Post-Crisis Intervention In the aftermath of the sudden death of a student or teacher, Uplift utilizes best practices to support school communities requesting assistance, often collaborating with the school district and other community organizations.
Trainings and Workshops Supporting grieving children can be difficult for many adults who work with youth. Through focused seminars and workshops, Uplift provides professionals and caregivers with the knowledge and tools needed to understand and respond to children’s grief.
