As we celebrate 12 years of serving families through some of life’s most sacred and heartbreaking moments, we also find ourselves looking ahead—with hope, with determination, and with a growing sense of responsibility. The need is greater than ever, and so is our commitment to meet it with compassion, integrity, and vision.
We’ve come a long way—but we’re not done.
This winter, we will officially launch our Legacy of Hope Children’s Grief Program—a long-dreamed-of expansion that will provide tailored grief support in our service areas for children who have lost a sibling (with a strong emphasis on infant sibling loss) or are facing their own terminal diagnosis. This initiative has been shaped by years of conversations, tears, and firsthand experience. We’ve seen how children often grieve quietly, overlooked in the chaos of medical trauma or loss. Legacy of Hope will create a space just for them—a place where they can process their emotions, feel seen, and build resilience through connection, storytelling, and healing.
But that’s just one piece of the path ahead.
Over the next few years, we are working toward placing at least one certified Grief Recovery Method Specialist in each of our service areas, ensuring families have in-person, trained support rather than only being able to rely upon our virtual offerings. These specialists won’t just be grief professionals—they’ll be deeply rooted in their communities, trained to walk with families through the long, winding road of loss and adjustment.
We’re also dreaming bigger when it comes to space. Our long-term goal is to establish an OAW studio in every major service area. A dedicated studio means more privacy, more control over the environment, and more opportunities to offer families an experience that is safe, gentle, and full of intentionality—especially for medically fragile children.
And of course, none of this is possible without a strong, sustainable team. Over the next two years, we aim to grow our staff to include a full-time executive assistant and a dedicated grant writer, and to ensure that our executive leadership team is supported with competitive, livable wages. Building capacity behind the scenes is critical to sustaining our impact in front of the lens.
We’re also thinking bigger about grief programming. In the years ahead, we envision larger-scale Legacy of Hope grief camps—not just in Springfield, but across multiple cities where we serve. These camps will create immersive, healing experiences for children and their families, built on creativity, play, and peer connection.
We’re also setting our sights on expanding our reach regionally, adding more city chapters in the states where we already operate. There are families—right now—who need us and don’t yet know we exist. That’s a gap we’re committed to closing.
Beyond direct services, we’re stepping into advocacy. On Angels’ Wings is now leading the effort to build a statewide coalition of organizations advocating for bereavement leave legislation in Missouri. Our goal is to see real progress on this critical issue within the next five years. Because grieving parents deserve more than sympathy—they deserve time, space, and support. Our advocacy work (which started in March 2024 with our first Capitol visit — see video) is part of a larger cultural shift: one that moves grief out of the shadows and into the light, where it can be acknowledged, honored, and supported.
We are not just serving families—we are actively reshaping the way our communities talk about loss, especially the loss of a child. Whether it’s through our Legacy of Hope grief camps, expanded service areas, or dedicated studios, we are building with intentionality—one partnership, one strategy, one family at a time.
But here’s the truth: none of this is possible without support.
Society often expects nonprofits to operate on shoestring budgets—stretching every dollar to its limit, doing more with less, and often sacrificing sustainability for the sake of optics. But truly serving families—and serving them well—requires far more than goodwill. It requires employees. It requires infrastructure. It requires time, space, training, and care. And yes, it requires funding.
We cannot build what’s next on meager provisions. We are dreaming big, because the families we serve deserve nothing less. But for those dreams to become reality, we need people who believe in this work to invest in it—whether through one-time donations, recurring support, partnerships, or advocacy.
If you’ve ever been moved by what we do, if you’ve seen the impact of our photos or our support firsthand, we invite you to help us take the next step. We are building something that will outlast us—something that will continue to serve generations of families walking through grief and uncertainty for years to come.
And we need you with us.
