Youth Services
Lumara’s Youth Services offer a compassionate place for teens and young adults to be met with understanding, connection, and meaningful support.
Whether you’re navigating illness in your family or coping with the death of someone you love, you don’t have to carry it alone.
Program Details
- Supports youth ages 13 to 29
- Services include individual and family support, peer mentorship, creative projects, special outings, and online connection spaces
- Offered year-round
- Includes access to Camp Kerry retreats and youth-only bereavement retreats
- Contact us for details or to explore options
At Lumara, we understand that life as a teenager can be extremely difficult, even at the best of times. The adolescent years are full of complex physiological, emotional, and social changes. When a loved one has a life-threatening illness or dies, that complexity becomes even more profound.
Experiences of grief and loss can be extremely stressful, turning a young person’s world upside down. Family dynamics may shift dramatically, friendships can change, and intense emotions can make it difficult to focus at school, stay motivated, or make decisions. Overwhelming fatigue and challenges with sleep and eating can also impact physical well-being.
Mental health research shows that youth who experience the death of someone significant in their lives are at higher risk for depression, anxiety, school difficulties, isolation, substance use, and self-harm. Yet despite their increased need for emotional support, many youth are difficult to reach through traditional counselling models. They may be reluctant to seek help, especially in clinical or office-based environments.
Lumara’s Youth Services have grown out of many years of successful work with young people in nature-based, camp, and retreat settings. We have repeatedly seen positive, long-lasting results. Many youth who came to us more than a decade ago are still connected today, with some now volunteering as mentors and leaders.
Through therapeutic and recreational activities, youth are able to connect with peers who understand, reduce their sense of isolation, express their grief in healthy ways, and build confidence and new hope for the future.
Lumara offers support to bereaved youth between the ages of thirteen and twenty-nine through individual and family meetings, peer mentorship, special outings, creative projects such as songwriting, recording, videography, and photography, and a private online social network. We also offer family retreats through Camp Kerry and youth-only bereavement retreats.
For more information about our year-round offerings for youth, we invite you to reach out.