Adventures through Grief Program - Blue Ridge Hospice

About This Project

Summary

Blue Ridge Hospice’s Adventures Through Grief uses a customized tabletop role-playing game (RPG), adapted from Game to Grow, to support bereaved teens and young adults. In facilitated 10-week cohorts, participants creatively navigate imagined adventures guided by grief counselors. Funded by a $340K New York Life Foundation grant, the program trains partner sites to replicate this innovative, play-based therapeutic model.

Goals & Objectives

Objectives: provide an engaging, low-barrier grief intervention for socially isolated youth; equip grief centers with facilitator training and materials; pilot and research the therapeutic efficacy of RPG-based grief support across multiple partner sites.

Results & Impact

Adventures Through Grief successfully launched at Blue Ridge Hospice and expanded to 7 national partner sites. Dozens of facilitators were trained, hundreds of grieving youth engaged, and formal evaluation is underway—positioning the model as a scalable national innovation.