Virtual Connections: Survivors Gather Online

2016 was a big year for fostering special connections among survivors through the Online Community. As an online gathering place, survivors can get involved in chat sessions for real-time conversations, message boards that provide a space for questions and comments and peer-based sharing groups. The Online Community provides hope and support for our TAPS family.

This year, over 400 new survivors joined the Online Community, and we held more than 140 chats. The Online Community introduced a new video chat option for survivors to communicate face-to-face and added additional chats for a variety of survivors, including those five years from their loss, survivors who live in the Midwest and surviving men.

"I was in the chat room last Thursday with other survivors and I walked away thinking 'I can do this!' I'm gonna make it," one survivor said. "Everyone just helped so much. It feels good just talking to someone who knows exactly how we feel."

In addition to our new video chats, we also rolled out a new text chat platform, along with "meet and greet" chats. Our new meet and greet chats allow survivors who are attending one of our many seminars to get to know other attendees before they arrive at the Seminar. By building friendships prior to the event, survivors are able to support each other throughout the event as they focus on their grief work.

We hope you'll join us at one of our new chats or participate on our online discussions in 2017.