New Hope, 'New Normal'
Long Beach Business Journal
By Thyda Duong, Senior Writer
In 2005, there were approximately 3,500 deaths reported to the Long Beach Health Department, says Susan Beeney, founder of New Hope Grief Support. Each death, she adds, impacts at least 13 people.
"What you do the math, that's over 40,000 people in Long Beach who are walking around, all ages, grieving the loss of someone they love and not knowing where to go," Beeney says. "That's why we're here."
In 1986, Beeney began working as a hospice nurse on the cancer-leukemia ward at the VA Long Beach Healthcare System. While she was prepared to provide support prior to death and during the dying experience, she says she was not prepared for the grief that accompanied the loss.
"I began to question and say, ‘What is this thing called grief?'" she recalls. "What was happening was my own grief and losses were bubbling to the surface, so that I was experiencing those that I did not deal with [in] my past."
After attending classes and seminars and reading books about grief and loss, Beeney authored "Journey of Hope," a handbook for grieving adults, that same year. For the next 14 years, she provided grief support groups in her home one evening a week, while working full-time as a nurse. In 1999, Beeney quit her job and New Hope was incorporated as a nonprofit organization.
With the support of 11 boardmembers and more than 100 volunteers, New Hope last year held 29 weekly grief groups, in which trained facilitators led support sessions for adults, teens and children. And over the last three years, New Hope has partnered with organizations nationwide to assist families of the military.
With the help of volunteer Jo Anne Chung, New Hope expanded its services by creating a Kids Club to provide support to children at schools. In addition, since fall 2003, the organization has hosted therapeutic weekend camps for children ages 5-12 at Boy Scouts of America and Campfire USA sites. While the camp would normally cost roughly $275 per child, funding assistance from the Miller Foundation and other donors have allowed New Hope to make the camp available free of charge.