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About Our Auction
Bid to Give is an annual fundraiser for Bereaved Families of Ontario - Midwestern Region, created to raise critical funds for our grief support programs, education and outreach initiatives and community events.
We do not receive any government funding and rely on fundraisers like Bid to Give to ensure we can continue providing grief support free of charge.
About Bereaved Families of Ontario - Midwestern Region
Grief is a universal experience, yet it is often isolating and misunderstood. BFO-MR has been providing grief support and education in Waterloo Region since 1996, creating connection and community for children, individuals and families who are grieving the death of someone in their life.
Grief support:
We offer peer support groups for parents grieving the death of an infant or child, as well as a mixed-loss, open groups for adults grieving a death, and one specifically for individuals grieving a death by substance use. Volunteers who are themselves grieving a death facilitate these programs. Our Healing Little Hearts programs for children 4-12 are facilitated by therapists and feature a concurrent group for parents/caregivers. We also provide a group for teens 13-17 called Good Grief.
All of our programs are offered free of charge.
In addition to support groups, we host two memorial events during the year to provide an opportunity for our community to come together and honour their loved ones.
Education & Outreach
Our biggest area of growth over the last two years has been education and outreach. We've significantly increased our grief literacy work through partnerships with our local libraries and the launch of Grief at Work, an education program for businesses. We have also adapted our model to provide outreach programming in partnership with community organizations to support the clients with whom they work.
We serve anyone who is grieving the death of someone in their life who is looking for support. We create caring compassionate spaces for people to learn about grief, talk about their experience and the person who died, and to learn from and support each other.