YoloCares recently rolled out a new bereavement program aimed at reaching the underserved demographic of young males.
The California-based hospice’s GriefBall initiative included a two-day basketball camp for bereaved boys and young men. YoloCares’ Center for Loss & Hope partnered with the Sutter Health Foundation and the Junior Kings youth basketball camp, which is affiliated with the NBA team Sacramento Kings.
The new bereavement care model is designed to address mental health challenges and unresolved grief in male youths who are often less likely to seek support, according to Chris Erdman, director of mission advancement of the Center for Loss & Hope at YoloCares.
“How do we reach grieving boys and young men who may never walk into a conventional support group?” Erdman told Hospice News in an email. “Something GriefBall can offer [is that] a team can become a place where young people learn to carry one another through good times as well as bad. Basketball gave us a way to engage boys and young men through their bodies and through something familiar and meaningful to them.”
Bereaved males between the ages of 7 and 25 were eligible to participate in the GriefBall program. Each cohort was organized into different age-appropriate activities and conversations. YoloCares’ bereavement professionals guided the grief discussions, while staff and volunteers at the organization helped facilitate activities.
Participants in the youth bereavement program learned basketball skills, received grief education and heard stories of loss from athletes. Junior Kings coaches led the basketball activities. The grief initiative also featured opportunities for teens and young adults to mentor younger basketball players. The program focuses on building emotional resilience, healthy coping skills and lasting peer connections.
Younger males are more likely to express unresolved grief through anger, isolation, depression or violence, Erdman said. YoloCares has sought ways to better reach this demographic in new, innovative ways.
Peer connection and shared activities are keys to building trust and emotionally safe spaces for youths to grieve, according to Erdman. YoloCares launched the GriefBall program as part of a larger bereavement initiative.
The hospice provider is seeking to expand the basketball grief program beyond two days into a “continuing pathway for connection and support,” Erdman said. YoloCares plans to develop a similar program for young women and girls.
“GriefBall is part of a larger effort to build bridges into grief that people often carry in isolation,” Erdman said. “We’ve learned that young people need communities where loss can be spoken about without embarrassment and where strength does not mean carrying everything alone. That kind of community isn’t always easy to find.”
Established in 1979, YoloCares provides hospice, palliative care and advance care planning across six counties in northern California. The nonprofit provides bereavement services through its Center for Loss & Hope.
The hospice provider also operates an adult day program at its facility, Galileo Place. The organization’s Center for Caregiving Support is designed to help address families’ practical, emotional and medical needs. Additionally, YoloCares opened a residential hospice shelter for homeless populations in 2024, branded as Joshua’s House.
The hospice’s Center for Loss & Hope measures the quality of its bereavement programs through participants’ feedback across four domains. These areas include connection and belonging, understanding of grief, emotional regulation and resilience.
YoloCares’ new youth bereavement program is a unique model, Erdman stated. Partnering with a regional health system and a professional basketball team fueled an innovative approach to grief support.
“What feels most useful for other hospices is the approach,” Erdman told Hospice News. “Begin with the people you’re struggling to reach, find a setting that matters to them, build relationships with partners who belong in that setting and ask what kind of growth the experience makes possible. In partnerships like this, hospice brings grief expertise, coaches and athletes bring movement and teamwork [and] a health system can help make the work possible and connect it across communities.”
Companies featured in this article:
