SB: Would you give us a brief history of your organisation and your role in it?
AM: Tomorrow’s Rainbow was my vision, after a personal family tragedy identified a tremendous gap in services supporting grieving children in Broward County, Florida. In October 2005, Tomorrow’s Rainbow emerged as the only children’s grief centre in the county and began providing grief support programmes, free of charge, with the help of miniature horses. In eight years, Tomorrow’s Rainbow has grown to be a highly respected programme that receives referrals on a daily basis from schools, police departments, hospice organisations, mental health agencies, funeral homes and health care professionals. The programme originated with twelve children and now has grown to provide emotional support to over 500 children and their families annually.
SB: Your organisation’s mission is to provide grieving children, teens and their families an emotionally safe environment for hope and healing through guidance, education and support. Could you describe how you go about doing this?
AM: There are two major programe components to fulfilling our mission at Tomorrow’s Rainbow. First, onsite peer facilitated grief support groups for children ages 3 to 18 that are offered to any child that has experienced the death of a loved one. Support groups are also offered to the child’s caregiver. Because children grieve in their language, which is play, this includes therapeutic play in our sand box, water table, puppet theatre, role play hospital, dress up train, memorial garden, miniature horse interactions, musical garden, art pavilion, and more. The programme supports bereaved youth by combining the time tested best practice models of the Dougy Center for facilitated peer support groups with the EAGALA model for Equine Assisted Learning.
Second, community outreach activities and education through our Hopeful TEARS Institute (Teach, Empower & Advocate for Resilience and Success) ensure that all grieving children in our community have a safe place to heal. All programming is offered free of charge to support bereaved families which are, very often times, financially devastated.
SB: Would you give us examples of how a child’s life was changed through their participation in your programme?
AM:
Jami’s story: Jami came to Tomorrow’s Rainbow after the death of her father and grandmother. She thought that she was coming to support her younger sister, but quickly realised that their groups were on different days. Jami’s first day was filled with nerves and shyness. When she heard the other teens introductions, she discovered that she wasn’t alone in her grief. The camaraderie of the group was immediate.
Jami had suffered with self harming and one suicide attempt prior to coming to Tomorrow’s Rainbow. One Sunday evening, her pain became overwhelming again and she could think of no other options but to end her own life. As she began to take the steps toward suicide, she remembered that the next evening was her group at Tomorrow’s Rainbow. She didn’t want to miss group. She didn’t want to hurt her friends that she had made at the farm. She moved from hopelessness to hope as she made the decision to live.
Jami is now an adult in college studying funeral science. She knows that her journey can help others and she looks forward to a career in doing so. Jami will tell you that if it wasn’t for Tomorrow’s Rainbow, she would be on the shelf in an urn next to her father and grandmother.
Carlos’ story: Ten year old Carlos was devastated when his grandmother died. She was his safe place at home when his mother and her partner would fight the night away. When Carlos came to Tomorrow’s Rainbow the first time, he didn’t look up once. He didn’t smile at the horses or want to play in the play areas. He cried and cried not know how he was going to go on without his grandmother.
Carlos was identified immediately as a child that had complicated grief. It was interfering with his day to day life. Fortunately, a Tomorrow’s Rainbow Advisory Board member and Psychologist agreed to see Carlos without charging his family. Within weeks, Carlos was participating in groups at the farm, interacting with the horses and playing in the sandbox.
One day Carlos and a Programme Facilitator were grooming a miniature horse named Precious. The horse’s behaviour came into question, so the Facilitator explained that horses are the only animal to have the natural ability to mirror your behaviour. Carlos inquired, “If Precious can mirror your behaviour, then how does she know if she should mirror me or you?”
The Facilitator replied, “Hmm, what do you think?
Carlos thought for a minute and responded, “I think that Precious knows what a hard time I’m having, so she’s going to do me first. She do you later.”
The conversation that followed was Carlos sharing all of his worries and concerns for Precious and himself. He was worried because they both got angry, cry a lot, and didn’t have any friends in school. Carlos talked and talked and talked. Finally, he didn’t have to carry those yucky feelings around inside his body any-more. He left them at the farm with a little horse named Precious.
After that day, Carlos came to Tomorrow’s Rainbow filled with smiles and began helping the other children. He was discharged by his psychologists and is doing very well at home and school.
SB: What would you describe as your greatest achievements to date?
AM: Tomorrow’s Rainbow resides in Broward County, Florida with the 6th largest school district in the nation. Before we opened our doors, there was no children’s grief centre in the county. Creating a name for ourselves and being trailblazers by infusing the therapeutic use of horses into the Dougy Center Model is what we’re most proud of. Launching the Hopeful TEARS Institute is also a major milestone because it broadens our impact tremendously. And, Tomorrow’s Rainbow created the Rainbow Retreat, a family grief camp experience so that we can empower an entire family to support one another in their grief.
SB: What is your greatest need at present and what are the major challenges you face?
AM: Our greatest need is unrestricted operating funds. Because we have become so well respected in our community, more and more families are reaching out to us for support. Currently we have a wait list and the only way to eliminate it is with financial support towards increasing our capacity. We do a whole lot with a very modest budget, yet lack of funding is what interferes with us keeping up with the demand for services.
SB: What does the future hold for your organisation and the work that you are doing?
AM: Succession planning is so important to our future. We can’t rest on our successes. We need to ensure that Tomorrow’s Rainbow remains the safe haven for grieving children in Broward County long after its founder is gone.
Find out more about this extraordinary organisation at http://www.tomorrowsrainbow.org/
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