Darcie Sims and daughter back to lead fourth annual seminar on communities supporting grieving families on Oct. 20

GOSHEN, Ind. – Darcie Sims and her daughter Alicia Sims Franklin, nationally-recognized experts on grief, will offer an all-day seminar, “Communities Supporting Grieving Families: YOU Can Make a Difference,” at Goshen College on Oct. 20. The event, scheduled for 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Church-Chapel Fellowship Hall, marks the fourth year that the Goshen College Social Work Department and Ryan’s Place are partnering to host this annual grief seminar.

This seminar will provide information, tools and skills for the development of community strategic interventions and support systems for families coping with change and loss. Sims, who has spoken at two previous Goshen College and Ryan’s Place grief seminars will be joined by her daughter to speak at this year’s gathering.

“Sims and Sims Franklin experienced the death of a son and brother in a time when you were to ‘suck it up and bear it,’” said Aileac Deegan, executive director of Ryan’s Place and 2006 graduate from the Goshen College social work program. “Their family struggled and, as a result, the Sims’ have become leading authorities on coping skills for grieving families. They train professionals and lay people who work with families trying to establish new norms in their lives.”

Sims is a bereaved parent and child, a grief management specialist, a nationally certified thanatologist, a certified pastoral bereavement specialist and a licensed psychotherapist and hypnotherapist. Sims Franklin is a certified grief management specialist, a clinical social worker, a bereaved sibling and a certified hypno-behavioral therapist. The mother and daughter co-authored “A Place for Me: a Healing Journey for Grieving Kids,” “Footsteps through Grief,” “The Other Side of Grief” and “Finding Your Way Through Grief.”

The seminar is open to the general public and Continuing Education Credit is available for social workers, mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, law enforcement officers and funeral home directors.

Space is limited for the seminar so early registration is important, no refunds will be issued after Oct. 13. Registration is $60 for professionals and $15 for students and retirees, which includes lunch, snacks, a resource notebook and a continuing education certificate. Morning registration begins at 8 a.m. To register or for more information, contact Marge Brandeberry at (574) 535-7400 or margemb@goshen.edu. Online registration is available again this year through the Goshen College Social Work Web site: www.goshen.edu/sowk.

Darcie Sims and Alicia Sims Franklin will also speak the evening before, Oct. 19, at a free presentation for the public sponsored by Ryan’s Place from 7 to 9 p.m. in Goshen High School Auditorium. This program is open to anyone who has been affected by the death of a loved one, or those who are interested in the topic of what we as a community can do to wrap ourselves around grieving families and help them through this most difficult of times. Tim and Jennifer Ginther from Elkhart, who lost three sons in an auto accident several years ago, will also speak. For more information, contact Ryan’s Place at (574) 535-1000.

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a four-year residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.