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9 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,F ebruary 3,2022 insidehalton.com 905-469-3232 1459 Nottinghill Gate, Oakville delmanor.com Discover the Delmanor Difference, Choose your Suite Today! Oakville-based charity Kids' Health Links Foundation (KHLF) was started in 2004 with the aim of socially connecting youth undergoing major medical treat- ment with each other and professionals. KHLF recently received a grant from the Ecclesiastical Insurance Office (EIO) to help further develop its technological platforms that help kids deal with grief. "We created a unique island for grief called Grief Island," KHLF chair Basile Pa- paevangelou said. "What we needed was users. So we had to hire grief and bereavement specialists ... and also to put in place a research program to explore the impact of the peer-to-peer engagement and moderation by the grief bereavement counsellor on the kids." In 2002, Papaevangelou's daughter Christina fell suddenly ill with toxic shock syndrome. She was given the treatment she needed, but there were other related "side-effects." She felt disconnected from family and friends and risked falling be- hind on school work. Not long after Christina recovered, her friend Katy McDonald was diagnosed with cancer. McDonald eventually died, but during treatment had stayed in touch with family, friends and teachers. Her teachers even created class websites for her, allow- ing her to submit assignments. This spurred the Papaevangelou father and daughter to create Upopolis in 2007, an online platform that helps kids going through medical treatment connect with each other in a safe and moderated way. KHLF also offers Upedia, a child psychoso- cial information resource, and Umind, an international online community for child and youth mental health professionals. Grief Island is a platform within the Upopolis network that does the same for kids dealing with loss. "A lot of people were dying in the early days from COVID," Basile said. COVID-re- lated programming had been happening for some time at KHLF, but a real need for addressing youth grief was identified. "We connected that with the impact of COVID and grief and bereavement on ado- lescents. (Grief Island) is what this appli- cation is intended to fund," he said. "We are looking to partner with organi- zations where the projects are going to benefit vulnerable people, under-re- presented people and youth across Cana- da," EIO spokesperson Sally Turney said about her organization's criteria for judg- ing grant applications. "They really deliver programs that are targeted at youth and teens, and they em- power these groups living with things like grief, mental health issues and other chal- lenges." EIO awards grants through its Commu- nity Impact Grant program, which Turney said was doubled in 2021 in the wake of the pandemic. "We had our traditional grant, and we also gave double the amount to COVID-re- lated requests. So they were things like ex- panding the services of food banks, ex- panding the services of shelters," Turney said. CHILD BEREAVEMENT PROGRAM GETS HELP TO FURTHER DEVELOP The Kids' Health Links Foundation has received funding for child bereavement support services. Desmond Devoy/Metroland MANSOOR TANWEER mtanweer@metroland.com NEWS