Red Bird Ministries is Soaring Together to help teens dealing with the loss of a sibling heal through its first-ever online Catholic virtual support group.

Red Bird Ministries earlier this month held its first-ever session of Soaring Together, a Catholic virtual support group designed specifically to help teenagers heal, honour and foster connections with others while dealing with sibling loss. 

The program is an offering from the Louisiana-based Catholic grief support ministry serving individuals and couples who have experienced the loss of a child from pregnancy through adulthood. Now, teens aged 13 to 18 have their own unique, small-group setting to connect with peers in the same situation who understand their grief.

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Adding to the harmony and affinity of the program, Soaring Together’s weekly sessions are led by Jessica Wilfore, a certified child life specialist. While her professional expertise certainly lends itself to the ministry's newest offering, it's Wilfore’s personal grief journey that spawned the program. 

“ Sadly, two years ago, my son passed away at the age of three. That was how I found Red Bird, and it was a huge help to me being able to meet other moms and do the support groups that they offered,” she said.

“After I had a little bit of time to heal, I reached out to see if they had any Christian teen groups. Even working in this field for 13 years, I saw that there were no great Christian, especially Catholic groups. I told Red Bird Ministries that I would love to take my personal and professional experience and create something like this, and they were instantly supportive — so we took the idea and ran with it together.” 

The inaugural meeting of Soaring Together took place on June 2, with three teenagers participating. The group will meeting for an hour weekly throughout June for sessions that combine therapeutic activities and guided discussions on various key topics designed to help teenagers heal, honour and foster connections with others in similar situations. 

The second session built on the first, focusing on teenagers remembering their siblings and their relationships with them. The third week will talk about dealing with anger, week four about living despite the loss and week five working on legacy projects of remembering each sibling. 

Through each different topic, participants are invited to connect with each other and find that they have more in common than just their shared grief. 

For Wilfore, the importance of healthy relationships with siblings has long been an area she's focused upon, even before losing her son in 2023.

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“Being a child life specialist, I know how often siblings are forgotten, not just when their brother or sister dies, but even when kids are going through something chronic like cancer treatment. This mission of paying attention to siblings was always on my mind,” she said. 

Still, her personal experience would eventually reignite her lifelong passion for child and sibling well-being, and Wilfore uses her grief for a unique perspective on how to traverse that journey in a healthy and faithful way. 

“ I think unless you have gone through it, there are things about it that you don't fully understand. You don't understand the anger that you can feel at God, and why that is valid. It’s hard when people want to give you a silver lining of why someone really special in your life has died, and that God has a plan for you — sometimes, that just stings when you hear it. I know that pain,” she said. 

“I hope that I can have the most gentle approach and relate to them from personal experience on how hard this truly is, how it is okay to be mad at God sometimes and to reassure them that all of the emotions they are feeling are appropriate and okay.”

On June 16, Sr. Mary Grace of the Sisters of Life, who  lost a sibling herself, will share how her faith and prayer helped on her grief journey. It’s a welcome addition to the program, with its creator sharing how the Catholic focus is paramount to the delivery of Soaring Together.

“Something  really important for us is focusing on eternity and that the earthly separation from their siblings is just a temporary thing, it’s not forever. We are finding time to think about and self-reflect on what Heaven is like during our remembering week, what that moment will be like when you see your sibling again,” Wilfore said.

Wilfore is hopeful that, as one of the newer offerings from Red Bird, Soaring Together will eventually run twice a year, with a separate school-age group for children aged eight to 12 available as well. 

For now, she anticipates more frequent check-ins with the current class and hopes they stay in touch and become friends to lean on, an often forgotten yet critical aspect of the grieving process and something Wilfore herself took advantage of through Red Bird’s programs. 

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Despite being based in the U.S., the virtual delivery ensures teenagers can join the program from anywhere. Spots for this month’s program remain open (email Wilfore at [email protected]). 

“ Come as you are, even if you feel completely broken. We all understand how that feels, and we are right there with you.  We are always here whenever you are ready; you can bring your brokenness and it will be safe with us,” she promises.