Solutions for Schools & Community Groups
Strategies for Mental Health,
Emotional Well-being & Peer Support
When it comes to mental health,
delays can be costly. Don’t wait any longer.
Act decisively today to ensure optimal well-being!
A trusted partner in well-being & peer support
Mental health is just starting to get the attention it deserves in our schools and in society.
Increasingly, school and community leaders are beginning to recognize the importance of addressing pertinent issues as they arise, before they snowball and become bigger roadblocks to staff and student well-being.
However, mental health and well-being initiatives must go beyond stress management talks and the like, which tend to touch on symptoms and are quick to suggest coping strategies, without actually addressing the real issues.
Understanding the issue of loss and grief is a critical piece of the puzzle, because unresolved grief often leads to depression – affecting student and staff performance, classroom and team dynamics, and school / community spirit.
Our Education & Community Clients
Our clients trust us to deliver sound programs and quality support to school and community leaders, educators, parents, and student / community peer support leaders.
With our track record and specialised expertise in grief counselling, consultancy and pastoral care, Whispering Hope is well-positioned to serve your institution and community with empathy, discretion and sensitivity.
Signature Programs
Strategic Prevention, Timely Intervention
A brief introduction to our key solutions for schools and community groups, fully customisable to your unique needs.
Managing the Aftermath: Post-Incident Intervention
Unexpected incidents in the school or community can cause a sense of shock, loss and grief, adversely affecting student / staff / resident well-being.
We come in to help affected parties:
- Understand why they feel the way they do
- Create a safe space for processing their thoughts and emotions
- Regain their sense of equilibrium and well-being.
We do this through talks, engagement circles, peer support leaders training, and group or one-to-one sessions – a combination of all or any of the above.
Peer Support Training: ‘First Aid’ for Emotional Well-being
We empower peer support leaders to support their community through tough times, with the goal of optimising individual well-being and improving team morale. We also support them to thrive in their roles, and serve as the specialized resource they can tap on, beyond the initial triage or ‘first-aid’ response.
Coaching for Trusted Adults: Helping Children & Youth Grieve
When something adverse happens, trusted adults hold the key. So we coach adults to listen intently, to hold space, and to model a healthy response to the situation – so that they can come alongside children and youth, and support their emotional well-being and growth.
With our unique empathy, experience and expertise in loss and grief, we empower educators and parents to play a key role in supporting student well-being and health – enabling them to help their young charges bounce back and thrive despite the crises and the losses of life.
WHAT CLIENTS SAY
ACADEMY OF PRINCIPALS
The professional body that brings together senior educators in Singapore
“DEFINITELY HELPFUL”
by Mrs Belinda Charles, Academy of Principals
“We invited Whispering Hope to speak to 40 principals on ‘Looking At The Whole Person’, to raise awareness and learn ways to journey with staff who may experience losses in life, which could affect their mental health and impact their work.
Principals attending the talk found the topic unusual and different, but definitely helpful. It alerted them to the need for well-being in different areas, not just about stress in the workplace.”
SILVER RIBBON SINGAPORE
A non-profit organisation focused on promoting mental health
“EXPERIENCED, HELPFUL, PRACTICAL”
by Ms Porsche Poh, Executive Director, Silver Ribbon Singapore
“I could tell that Whispering Hope is experienced in helping people out of grief. They gave very helpful insights about the common myths we usually believe about grief, and the practical things we can do to support our family and friends who are grieving.”
“Gracie Mak spoke as a panelist for our recent online forum on the topic, ‘Finding peace and stillness in the midst of disappointment and grief’. The session was conducted in Mandarin.
I look forward to collaborating with Whispering Hope to help more Singaporeans bounce back from grief and attain positive mental health.”
HOLLAND VILLAGE METHODIST CHURCH
A religious organisation
“COMPASSIONATE & INSIGHTFUL”
“Our Women’s Society of Christian Service (WSCS) committee is pleased to recommend Whispering Hope as a resource partner in equipping the church to be more compassionate.”
“We wanted to help our leaders and members understand the nature of loss, and how to extend compassion in times of loss. We did the session over Zoom and received great feedback from our participants! They found the session by Joan Swee of Whispering Hope helpful and insightful.
Our members now have a better understanding of loss, what the normal grief process looks like, what to say and what not to say — so as to better support those who go through life’s transitions and curved balls.”
Responding to the River Valley High School tragedy
by Ms Shiao-Yin Kuik
Executive Director, Common Ground Civic Centre
I worked with Whispering Hope to co-facilitate ground-up online Citizen Circles to support anyone needing to process their feelings after the River Valley High tragedy. - Shiao-Yin Kuik
Citizen Circles: The River Valley High School tragedy
I worked with Joan and Gracie of Whispering Hope to co-facilitate ground-up online Citizen Circles to support anyone needing to process their feelings after the River Valley High tragedy.
Citizen Circles: On Pandemic Losses & Gains
I also collaborated with Whispering Hope to co-facilitate ‘What Happened To Us’ Citizen Circles for interfaith community leaders as well as corporate leaders & HR professionals needing safe spaces to process the multiple losses and gains they experienced under the pandemic.
Through Common Ground’s mission of creating whole communities, we believe that there is a need to create space for public conversations and support our citizens in processing and making sense of what happened to us before 2022 ends with pandemic restrictions lifting. In Singapore’s pandemic years, we believe that there have been many small and large losses that we might have barely begin to process. As we rush to embrace the endemic Next Normal, we may soon forget what we saw and learnt in that crisis season.
Through what we named as “citizen circles”, we wanted to:
- capture individual rich insights into what was lost, what are the emerging challenges and what are the new things that must be done,
- make sense of the emerging patterns from each of the demographic groups, and
- identify common patterns and experiences to help shift public conversation & perception.
Following up on that desire to hold space to process what happened to us, I first reached out to Common Ground’s resident partner, Whispering Hope, a grief consultancy, to explore what processing our gains and losses under the pandemic together could look like. Together, we kicked off the first two ‘What Happened To Us’ Citizen Circles in June and July 2022 for religious leaders and HR professionals respectively.
In the spirit of collaboration, this then led on to six other Citizen Circles in partnership with our other resident partners.”
Whispering Hope is doing much-needed work supporting people in the difficult work of acknowledging, accepting and moving forward healthily through losses. Whispering Hope's speciality in grief recovery is necessary not only for individuals, but for groups and organisations as well.
- Shiao-Yin Kuik
THE PROBLEM:
The hidden cost of grief
Grief often exacts an unseen and unheard burden on schools and community groups.
Loss and grief are part and parcel of life. When students and educators find themselves coping with major disruptions and crises in life, they struggle with loss and grief, impacting their well-being.
This can result in:
- Loss of enthusiasm and morale
- Disengagement
- Higher absenteeism
- Inability to focus on work
- Lowered productivity
- Poor physical, mental and emotional health
- Impaired decision-making
- Workplace and road accidents.
THE REALITY:
Grief: Not just death & bereavement
There are more than 40 major losses in life.
Those most commonly affecting schools and community groups include:
- Loss of Friends or Colleagues
- Suicide
- Failure & Disappointment (Loss of Opportunities / Preferred Future)
- Abuse (Loss of Trust, Safety & Security)
- Loss of Loved Ones
- Divorce & Break-ups
- Miscarriage & Stillbirth
- Health Losses
- Pet Losses.
Why is pre-emptive action necessary? Because unresolved grief simply doesn’t go away on its own. When left unresolved, it often spirals into depression. That’s why dealing with loss & grief is so critical for maintaining mental and emotional health.
Let us be your facilitator and guide as you take leadership in addressing and processing grief as a community.