Compassionate grief support, education, and community service for children and families navigating loss.
Healing through service and connection in your local community.
Students walk into school carrying more than a backpack.
Find programming for your school or camp to help them learn how to lighten the load with GRIT™.
Developed by a team of experts in mental health, education, and healthcare, the GRIT™ family of programs are designed specifically for students in middle and high school.
GRIT™ helps students gain the language, tools, and peer support needed to process loss in healthy, constructive ways.
Learn more below.
Grief can make the world feel smaller. Community makes it bigger again.
Our flagship therapeutic art program brings people together across schools, neighborhoods, and faith communities to support grievers everywhere, while finding hope for themselves.
Reflections, resources, and stories to support healing and resilience.
Today is the International Day of Peace, a day to celebrate the dream we all share.
To honor this day and a very special young woman, please enjoy this very special Heart of Hope, created by Meika Kawamoto, a volunteer from our Hearts of Hope Newtown Chapter.
Meika is a high school student and an AFS (American Field Service) foreign exchange student from Hiroshima, Japan.
Back home, she participated in The Peace Crane Project, which involves interviewing WWII survivors from Hiroshima to spread peace and hope through their stories. The Peace Crane Project`s mission is to spread peace in memory of Sadako Sasaki, a 12-year-old girl from Hiroshima who died of leukemia 10 years after the atomic bomb was dropped on her city. Sadako was inspired by a Japanese legend that folding 1000 paper cranes would grant a wish.
Her art, reproduced here on a Heart of Hope, is a beautiful gift you may want to share with others, or even keep as something special for yourself. Order at www.ourheartsofhope.org/shop
#InternationalDayOfPeace #HeartOfHope #PeaceCraneProject #SadakoSasaki #PeaceAndHope #AFSExchange #HiroshimaPeace #PaperCranes #YouthForPeace #PeaceArt
Remembering Russ
Saying "Happy Birthday, and Thanks 🧡" with our request for a $13.00 donation in honor of 13 years.
Russ Neil served Hearts of Hope for thirteen years. During those years, his wife died following a long battle with breast cancer. As her caregiver, Russ did all the selfless and extraordinary things caregivers do - cooked, cleaned, bathed his wife, changed her bandages from numerous falls, and diligently monitored her critical medications.
He also sang, read books, and composed poems for "my Lois." He read one, "Forever Lois," to his grief group in the early days. There was never a doubt that he loved her.
Following her death, Russ longed to be with family, and after months of deliberation, moved to Washington State. His brother and best friend lived there, and both were overjoyed.
This should be the end of Russ`s story and his relationship with Hearts of Hope, right? But, in Russ` words: "Nope..."
Within months of relocating from New Jersey to Washington, Russ officially started the Hearts of Hope Sequim, WA, chapter - in his home - along with participating local artists, neighbors, and many new friends who came to know and love Russ. It was a joyous combination of community, art, and service. Russ was now the proud "President, Hearts of Hope Sequim, WA, Chapter." As with everything Russ did, we all stood back and whispered: "Wow - just wow."
Will you please help us continue this "wonderful, exceptional, remarkable" legacy of hope with your $13.00 gift in his honor? Donate here: ourheartsofhope.org/donate/
#ForeverLois #HeartsOfHope #CaregiverSupport #BreastCancerAwareness #LegacyOfLove #CommunityCare #WashingtonState #GriefSupport #SupportAndHope #RememberingRuss #NonProfitCommunity
Remembering Russ
Saying "Happy Birthday - and Thanks 🧡"
Russ Neil served Hearts of Hope for many years throughout the last thirteen years of his life. To honor and commemorate his memory, we ask you to consider donating $13.00 for 13 years by visiting ourheartsofhope.org/donate/
All of us at Hearts of Hope were blessed by Russ` simplicity, generosity, kindness, and goodness. He had a quiet way of reminding us of what truly matters. He became our friend. He loved us, and we loved him.
Following Russ` death, we learned that he had generously remembered Hearts of Hope in his will. His final gift with a simple wish - that Hearts of Hope would be able to help more people.
Because of Russ, we have. Now, in his name, we wish to continue this legacy of love with your gift.
For those who didn`t know him, we`ll share our sweet Russ during these coming days. We`ll ask you to reflect and remember with us by making a generous gift of $13.00 to commemorate his thirteen years of service with us.
As Russ would say: "Your gift will be spectacularly, amazingly, extraordinarily wonderful." And we thank you.
#ForeverLois #RememberingRuss #HeartsOfHope #LegacyOfLove #DonateForHope #CommunitySupport #ActsOfKindness #InMemory #GiveBack #HelpingOthers #MakeADifference
Remembering Russ Neil (1948 - 2019)
Celebrate a Week of Hope, Gratitude, and Kindness with your $13.00 gift to commemorate Russ` 13 extraordinary years of service with Hearts of Hope as a client, a volunteer, and a valued member of our Board.
Russ was a simple, gentle man with an extraordinary heart. After losing his beloved wife, Lois, he came to Hearts of Hope seeking help. Instead, he helped us.
This week, we ask you to consider donating $13.00 to commemorate and honor this extraordinary man, our very special friend, on what would have been his 78th birthday.
All Russ ever wanted was to see the services of Hearts of Hope grow and grow, helping others as we helped him. Please help us honor his wish.
Donating is easy at https://ourheartsofhope.org/donate/
In the coming days, we`ll share more of Russ`s story. We think you`ll be as inspired as we have been.
#ForeverLois #RememberingRuss #HeartsOfHope #LegacyOfKindness #VolunteerSpirit #HopeAndGratitude #CommunitySupport #InMemory #ActsOfKindness #CelebrateLife #DonateForHope #HeartsofHope #HopeLivesHere
A message from our founder. 💛 💙
#heartsofhope #weremember
Today is World Suicide Prevention Day, reminding us of the power of the simple semicolon.
A semicolon (;) connects two concepts in a sentence. One thought introduces the story, and the semicolon signals a pause. That pause allows the reader to take a breath before considering the rest of the sentence.
Today, let`s take a moment to reach out to those we know are struggling - with thoughts of suicide, grief, depression and anxiety - and encourage them to take this pause, this important breath.
We want you here. You are loved, and the world is so much better with you in it.
If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available through the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. Help is here. Please stay.
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay #SuicidePrevention #MentalHealthMatters #YouAreNotAlone #EndTheStigma #HopeAndHealing #ReachOut #BreakTheSilence #MentalHealthSupport
Grief rarely looks the same from one parent to another. One parent may need to talk often about their child, while another may grieve more quietly. One may find comfort in keeping traditions alive, while another struggles just to get through the day. Neither response is right or wrong. Grief is deeply personal because love is deeply personal.
Read more this Bereaved Parents Month, link in bio.
#BereavedParentsMonth #GriefSupport #ChildLoss #GriefAwareness #GriefJourney #HeartsofHope
This week, our director, Judy Pedersen, was asked a question that stops Executive Directors every time: "How do you find funding to keep your charity going?"
She wasn`t trying to be funny when she quoted the name of one of our youth programs and said, "Like all the other directors out there, we raise money by sheer grit!"
By now, you`re all smiling and nodding as you read this. To all of you reading this, thank you for all you do to make life better for people who struggle – through your work, with your families, and through the causes you support.
2026 marks Hearts of Hope’s 25th year of "creating hope" for people through grief support, education, and community service.
On a day-to-day basis, we don`t look back often. But when we do, it is with wonder. 25 years doesn`t happen because one person made it happen.
Hearts of Hope Foundation is 100% volunteer-based, and it is impossible to count how many people have raised their hands and said, "Choose me."
That`s how we have achieved 25 years.
To celebrate 25 years, our very first volunteer, Kathie Grassi, created a beautiful work of art. We have reproduced it and crafted gorgeous commemorative hearts from it. It’s yours as a thank-you gift for every $25 you give.
If you can, please consider helping us further our mission of hope.
Overall, please check out what we do, celebrate 25 years with us, and let us serve you and your families so no one ever must grieve alone.
ourheartsofhope.org
#HeartsOfHope #GriefSupport #VolunteerDriven #CommunityService #HopeInGrief #25YearsOfHope #HealingTogether
