This Bereaved Parents Month, we're standing with parents who shoulder the unimaginable loss of losing a child. Observed every July, Bereaved Parents Awareness Month exists because the world moves on faster than a grief this heavy ever does, and no parent should be left to carry it alone.
At Empathy, our name has been the compass for our mission, product development, and reach, and nowhere is that truer than in the households where the loss of a child upends a family’s entire sense of normal. A parent carrying that loss often still has other children to raise, a household to keep running, and obligations to meet.
How we think about family grief, especially for parents who have lost a child
Our research across more than 6,000 people in the US, UK, and Canada found that family remains the first place people turn in grief — ahead of therapy, faith communities, or any digital tool. But showing up for families isn't the same as giving them what they actually need. Only three in ten people said they had all the support they required. The rest were left short, most often on the things hardest to manufacture on demand: emotional closeness, time, and presence, which is exactly what a bereaved parent has the least capacity to give when grieving (especially if they must care for other children).
That gap is not new, but it is widening. The informal infrastructure that used to catch families in these moments — extended relatives nearby, a tight-knit community, a congregation that organizes meal trains and childcare — is thinner than it used to be for many families. When that infrastructure erodes, the weight of a loss lands on fewer shoulders, often a single, exhausted parent's.
What we choose to build for
We believe closing that gap requires an ecosystem: organizations reaching families in different ways, at different moments, doing what each does best. Empathy's role is to build the infrastructure that carries families through the practical and emotional weight of loss, at scale. We also look for organizations already doing exceptional, complementary work, and stand behind them where we can.
One example is Experience Camps, an organization we're proud to support as a sponsor. For more than two decades, they've given children who've lost a parent, sibling, or primary caregiver a free summer camp built around their grief, paired with a year-round community that stays close and keeps showing up long after camp ends. A surviving parent is often navigating their own loss while trying to help a child navigate theirs, frequently without the words, the training, or the bandwidth to do both well. When an organization like Experience Camps helps a child grieve alongside people who understand, it eases some of what parents often carry alone, especially after the loss of a child.
What continues after July
Bereaved Parents Awareness Month gives the grief parents are too often forced to carry alone and in silence a moment of visibility. But grief doesn't run on a schedule. Empathy exists to offer support for all of the hard moments, especially the unexpected (and unfathomable) ones. For this month and all that follow, we’re standing with those dealing with loss and grief.