Giving Tuesday: The Sharing Place

This Tuesday, December 3, is known as Giving Tuesday. After having a day of giving thanks, and two days of shopping deals, Giving Tuesday was created as a day to give back. It’s very simple: find a way for your family, community, company or organization to give back to the community.

The Sharing Place in Salt Lake City is a great organization that does so much for the community, and is very deserving of receiving on Giving Tuesday.

Founded over twenty years ago, the mission of The Sharing Place is to ”provide a safe and caring environment for grieving children, teens, and their families to share their feelings while healing themselves.” In 1993, Chris Chytraus searched for resources and help for her young children after the death of their father. Instead, she found that Salt Lake City had a lack of resources, and with the help of her children’s therapist, Nancy Reiser, they founded The Sharing Place.

The Sharing Place has been a great resource for my family. My nephew attended sessions there for years after the death of his father, and my cousin attended off and on with the death of our grandpa, and then again with the unexpected tragic death of our uncle. The Sharing Place was they key factor in in getting through the grief process.

I also love that The Sharing Place doesn’t put a time limit on the grief process. Children are allowed to attend sessions until they feel they don’t need them anymore.

“The Sharing Place is a non-profit grief support organization for children and their families after the death of a family member,” said Jill Macfarlane, Development Director for The Sharing Place. “Thank you for supporting these children and families during the darkest time of their lives”

The Sharing Place is supported solely through the contributions of participating families, individual donors, and businesses and foundations. They do not receive any federal or state funding. While they do not charge a participation fee for the services they provide grieving families, each family is asked to make a confidential monthly pledge based on what they can afford to contribute.

Connect with The Sharing Place to give back:

• Website
• Facebook
• Ways to give back to The Sharing Place

The Sharing Place is located in Salt Lake City at 1695 East 3300 South. You can reach them at 801-466-6730.