W Programs
HOW WE CAN HELP
After the initial shock and overwhelming grief, what’s next? How do we rebuild our lives?
Our programs, created by widows for widows, offer an ongoing and enduring connection to a trusting community of women who understand what it means to lose a spouse.Our unique peer-to-peer support provides a network to connect, educate, encourage, and empower women to move forward with new tools, understanding, and hope.
Currently, due to the pandemic, all our programs are conducted online via Zoom.
From the safety and comfort of your homes, our peer-led member meetings, are now held via ZOOM. We address rebuilding topics specific to widows. Our twice monthly virtual meetings are a safe place where members learn, listen, and share new skills. Together, we are widows helping widows rebuild our lives.
Our Wellness Webinars focus on the health and wellness needs of our membership–our physical health, our emotional/social health, and our financial health. Our Wellness Webinars are led by experts in their fields, with an opportunity for Q and A at the end of every presentation.
Our Wellness Workshops are designed to showcase some of the healthy healing strategies practiced by our members.
These monthly workshops are nothing short of inspirational, as we watch our members demonstrate their creative coping
skills and talents with one another.
Our monthly BYOB (bring your own beverage) informal evening chats provide a casual atmosphere for members to get to know one another outside of our more structured programming. Hosted by a rotating group of vibrant members who love to entertain their friends, this is a trusting, relaxed and fun chance to mingle with new girlfriends who get it.
We know that it is sometimes difficult to take the first step towards rebuilding our lives. Upon joining, every new member receives a welcome call from a First Connect volunteer, who introduces her to our services, answers all her questions and accompanies her to her first meeting. As a community of widows at different stages of widowhood, those widows a little further out are pleased to offer a welcoming hand to those more recent to their journey.
The Member Portal offers private access to our events calendar and our member roster, access codes to our peer-led Virtual Meetings, Wellness Webinars and Workshops and W Chat. Our monthly Newsletter brings our members up to date with news, stories and information. Together, they provide additional valuable resources to help our members Get Connected, Get Educated, Get Encouraged, and Get Empowered.
Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, The W Connection ran 12 separate chapters around the country…with additional cities in the planning stages. Monthly in-person meetings and organized social events were operating in full. In March 2020, we temporarily suspended all local chapter activities, and transferred all our meetings online. We will follow CDC guidelines to determine when in person chapter meetings will resume.
The value of new social relationships and activities cannot be underestimated. In order to overcome social isolation heightened by the pandemic, we formed a new social committee of member volunteers.
These activities are meant to be social and fun only- including book clubs, on-line outing to comedy clubs, game nights and the like.