Rainbows Newsletter- Winter 2020
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Red Thread
Makes an Appearance
During CPS Strike
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Jason Merel & Rainbows Facilitator, Dana Blumberg, are two educators behind the business Red Threads Chicago, LLC, founded
in August 2019 to sell clothes with designs supporting local teachers. Their designs were seen by many red-clad educators participating in rallies during the Chicago teachers' strike in October 2019.
Part of their vision for the business is to incorporate giving into the business model by partnering with organizations making contributions to education in local schools.
Currently,
Red Threads Chicago
has pledged to donate a portion of their proceeds to Rainbows. Dana is a school counselor and has a strong connection to Rainbows. She has been a Rainbows group facilitator for more than 10 years, and currently runs the program for grades K-8 at Ebinger Elementary School In Chicago. Red Threads Chicago hopes that partnering with Rainbows will raise money for the program and promote greater awareness of it with Chicago schools.
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Year of Kindness and Nonviolent Action Initiative in Evanston
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Rainbows decided to join this initiative because we encourage the idea of "paying it forward," showing kindness towards others, and believe in teaching empathy and compassion as ways to build resiliency. In fact, the final meeting of the Rainbows program discusses how participants can use what they learn in their support group to help others who might also be affected by loss. We firmly support the notion that kindness breeds kindness, and expressing compassion towards a fellow living being can be a way to feel better and help heal from pain and grief after loss.
These two articles help illustrate the connection between acts of kindness and healing after loss.
When Teens Need Their Friends More Than Their Parents
explains that teens can cultivate their power to help one another with kindness, empathy and compassion. In
Helping Kids Help Each Other
, a mom shares a glimpse into the interactions of two of her children as they walk together, and states, "
The world needs more hand holders, encouragers, [and] teachers."
In addition to being on the Advisory Council, Rainbows will also be hosting a "talk back" event on May 2nd at Piven Theater's play "Runaways" about homeless teens. We will also host a community-wide event to write letters of encouragement to children and teens who have lost a family member. We are excited to be part of this initiative, and hope it will continue beyond 2020 and spark other communities to also get involved.
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Generosity of the Chicago Bulls
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The Chicago Bulls (a.k.a. one very kind Bulls staff member/Rainbows supporter who prefers to remain anonymous) have been extremely generous to Rainbows, providing us with free tickets to some premium seats this season.
In December, we raffled off several of the tickets to our Chicago-area Rainbows facilitators, and three couples got to attend a free Bulls game! On January 22nd, some of Rainbows' board members, staff, interns and friends had a great time watching the Bulls beat the Timberwolves!
If we receive another round of tickets, we will once again be sharing them with our hardworking local Rainbows facilitators and other volunteers. Go Bulls!
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While for many, Valentine's Day is a fun day to celebrate love, for some it can unfortunately be a very difficult holiday. Particularly for children who have lost a family member, this is often a day that conjures up the loss and brings more grief. These are some suggestions of ways to help lessen the pain and support children and teens to find a way to celebrate the day while coping with the loss.
Activity:
Flap Book
A heart-shaped Valentine's
Flap Book
can be made as a memory book to commemorate the person missing from the child's life, it can be crafted as an activity demonstrating the importance of self-love, or as a gift to someone important to the child or teen.
- Light a candle in honor of your loved one.
- Bring Valentine’s Day cards to people who may not get any.
- Write a love letter to the person you lost and read it aloud and share it with the universe, or put it in a special place.
- Make a donation in the person's name to a homeless shelter or donate a book in his or her name to a library.
- Plant a tree or a plant in the person's memory and place a memorial plaque beside it.
- Post the person's picture on Facebook or Instagram and ask others to share their memories or photos with you.
- Go shopping for a Valentine’s card, and look for the perfect one---the one that the person would have purchased for you--and buy it as a gift for you from them.
- Go to a favorite place that both of you loved and spend time with your memories.
- Make the person's favorite meal and invite others to come share in love and memories.
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Notes for Rainbows Facilitators
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A big thank you to Rainbows facilitator, Sharon Aguilar, from Ridge Elementary in Plainfield, IL. She suggested reinstating a previously published Rainbows participant "Confidentiality Contract." We gave it a new look, and you can now find it with the "Group Materials" under Resources in both the
Facilitator Dashboard
and
Training Site
.
We are searching for Rainbows sites who see children and teens affected by the opioid epidemic for possible future funding. If you have a participant in Rainbows because of the abandonment, death, incarceration and/or substance abuse of a parent or sibling as a result of opioid use, please contact
Laura Lindroth
. All information will be kept strictly confidential.
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Please help us welcome our new Rainbows sites who joined since October 2019!
Clark County Schools--DuBois, ID
Condon Elementary School--Boston, MA
Ingraham High School--Seattle, WA
Notre Dame High School--Lawrenceville, NJ
Pleviak Elementary School--Lake Villa, IL
Sandoval Elementary School--Chicago, IL
St. Agnes Cathedral Elementary School--Rockville Center, NY
St. Ambrose Elementary School--Latham. NY
St. Patrick DCDSB--Ontario, Canada
Temple Chai--Long Grove, IL
We also welcome a new country addition in
Trinidad and Tobago
!
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