What we do

The Compassionate Friends (TCF) is the UK’s only national charity providing peer support to bereaved parents, adult siblings and grandparents who have experienced the death of a child, sibling or grandchild. 

Our Mission 

The Compassionate Friends exists to make a difference by providing support, understanding, empathy and hope to bereaved parents, siblings and grandparents who have experienced the death of a child of any age (from 1 month old to an adult son or daughter) and from any cause.

We do this by offering high quality, accessible peer support services and information to bereaved parents and their families. We also provide information to professionals supporting bereaved parents.

Our Vision

Every bereaved parent, adult sibling and grandparent throughout the UK can find and access the lifeline of high quality, appropriate and safe peer support services.

Our Values

These basic principles guide all our activities and interactions:

• Empathy
• Compassion
• Respect
• Integrity
• Inclusivity

The focus of our work and who benefits from our services

“Every parent’s nightmare is to lose a child”.

This is a cliche. But, for many, many families nightmare tragically becomes reality. Each year in the UK 9,000 children and young people under the age of 30 years die (Office of National Statistics). This figure does not include the adults (87,000 in 2019) who die at the age of 30 or over many of whom leave grieving parents who have tragically outlived their son or daughter.

It is not an overstatement to say that the impact of child loss on parents and families – whether sudden or anticipated - is devastating. Grieving parents suffer deep trauma and intense and often overwhelming pain following a loss that is so out of the natural order. Both the physical and emotional impact of the death of a child of any age in the family is huge, intense, complex, and often long-lasting. Parents’ ability to cope with child loss can be exacerbated by the lack of support services and appropriate information. Many professionals or family and friends are not aware of the enormity and long-lasting impact of child loss on an individuals’ physical and mental health. 

Our volunteers – all bereaved parents, siblings or grandparents themselves - provide support, understanding and hope to those who have suffered the death of a son or daughter from any cause  - for instance as a result of road traffic incident, a short or longer term illness, sudden unexpected death, by suicide or through drug or alcohol use. We are the only UK-wide charity offering this vital peer-to-peer support to parents and their families. 

TCF has no religious affiliations - we offer support to all bereaved parents, adult siblings and grandparents both with faith and those with none. 

Find out more about our support here

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Planning for the future 2024- 2027

Our plan sets out 3 objectives which will direct The Compassionate Friends’ work over the period 2024-2027. The future is unpredictable – so our plan is a working document which will be updated annually, or more or less frequently as needed.

Objective 1- FOCUS ON FUNDRAISING
We will focus on all aspects of the fundraising mix to ensure that we have the funds available to continue and develop our work with bereaved parents and their families. This will include development of a fundraising strategy to continue the diversification of funding for the charity.

Objective 2 - FOCUS ON THE QUALITY OF PEER SUPPORT 
We will continue to develop and improve the quality of our peer support to reflect best practice.

Objective 3 - IMPROVE OUR CAPACITY TO SUPPORT
We will continue to develop infrastructure, staff and capabilities to widen and extend our capacity to reach out to and support a wide range of communities and locations.