Community Education

Community Programs and Lectures

The Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice and the Joseph T. Quinlan Bereavement Center offer professional and general community interest programs.

We share these lectures to further educate the general public, provide speakers for workplaces or special interest groups, and to offer learning opportunities for healthcare professionals. Many of the programs are free of charge, or request a small fee.

Healing Our Community (H.O.C.) Support and Empowerment Programs

The emotions and experiences which accompany grief may be difficult at times to explore and express through regular means of expression and release. Factors such as one’s individual patterns of reflecting, communicating and coping and the depth, and potentially challenging nature, of some grief-related emotions and experiences can impact one’s ability to use normal means of reflection, expression and coping.

Healing Our Community Support and Empowerment Programs offer opportunities for hospice families and community members to receive grief and bereavement support in an engaging, mutual-aid support group setting.

Using different types of external expressions (i.e. art, music, film, etc.) can aid in offering something more tangible to illustrate our emotions and experiences. These programs offer a variety of engaging activities to promote self-reflection, self-expression and psycho-education surrounding grief and bereavement.

Expressive Arts for Children

This four-week program starting October 6 and on Thursday’s through October 27  from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. utilizes expressive arts activities to provide youth an opportunity to reflect on and express their emotions and experiences from the loss of a loved one through death and to normalize their experience with, and expression of, death and grief.

Youth can have difficulty making sense of and verbally expressing emotional challenges and experiences related to grief. By using a variety of creative arts activities and supported discussion, they are provided with tools to promote reflection and expression.

Caregivers meet in a separate mutual-aid support group to receive peer support and to talk about the activities and discussions taking place in the youth program. Caregivers are encouraged to use the youth’s program activities and experience to engage them in a dialog surrounding death and grief and to enhance the caregiver’s ability to support them throughout their grief journey.

Please call 973-948-2283 with any questions you have regarding our Children’s Art Bereavement Program.

Location:

Joseph T. Quinlan Bereavement Center
5 Plains Road, Augusta, NJ 07822

Open to children age 6 through 12 who have
suffered a loss through death.

Registration: $100 (scholarship available upon request to qualified applicants)

More Information!

Adult Art Bereavement Program

This four-week program provides individuals an opportunity to reflect on and express their emotions and experiences from the loss of a loved one through death using the expressive arts.

It is meant to be supportive and educational in nature and serves to normalize their experience with, and expression of, death and grief.

Participants are introduced to concepts within art, drama, music, reading and journaling which promote the exploration of the supportive processes within creating and observing/listening to a variety of samples of expressive arts. Participants also engage in creative activities in order to experience the benefits of creative expression, peer support and engagement in a mutual-aid group setting.

Education surrounding grief and basic needs during bereavement is provided during the instructional component of this program.

Please call 973-948-2283 with any questions you have regarding our Expressive Arts Workshop for Adults.

Location: Joseph T. Quinlan Bereavement Center 5 Plains Road, Augusta, NJ 07822 Registration: $100 ​

Bereavement Facilitator Training

The Bereavement Facilitator Training is a one-day workshop which provides helping professionals and community members the information needed to develop and facilitate grief and bereavement peer-support groups. Topics presented include general grief education; how to develop, organize and run a peer-support group; commonly occurring challenges in the group interaction; methods for directing the group discussion and group facilitator self-care and self-awareness. This program also provides resource material for use while providing bereavement support and continuing education units by the National Board of Certified Counselors for licensed counselors within the state of New Jersey. 

Please call our bereavement center to speak with agency staff (973-948-2283) with any questions you have regarding our Bereavement Facilitator Training program or to receive instructions on how to register for our next available session.

Healing in the Classroom

Healing in the Classroom is a two-day training for school professionals, teachers, principals, school counselors, school social workers and psychologists to help them recognize grief in students and provide strategies to help them support students in their grief. Topics presented include general grief education, developmental theories for children in grief, interventions that can be implemented to support a grieving student, and the development and implementation of a support group within the school setting. 

This program also provides resource material for use while providing bereavement support and continuing education units by the National Board of Certified Counselors for licensed counselors within the state of New Jersey. Please call our bereavement center to speak with agency staff (973-948-2283) with any questions you have regarding our Healing in the Classroom program or to receive instructions on how to register for our next available session.

Need A Speaker?

Speakers for your workplace or community meeting

Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice professional staff are happy to offer free of charge speakers on the following topics.

  • Living Wills and Advance Directives:  What are they? How do you make one?
  • Hospice Care: What and where is hospice? How can hospice help my loved one? What do I need to know?
  • Bereavement and Grief Guidance: Is there support for me if I am grieving? What about children? They grieve too.

Please call us at 800-882-1117 to request a speaker or contact Anthony at agrigal@karenannquinlanhospice.org.