What is Rainbows

RAINBOWS IRELAND, a registered charity, is a peer-support programme to assist children, youth and adults who are grieving a death, separation or other painful transition in their family. Founded in Chicago, USA in 1983 by Suzy Yehl Marta, RAINBOWS was established in Ireland in 1988. Today RAINBOWS operates in all thirty two counties of Ireland.
 
 RAINBOWS helps by providing a safe setting in which children, youth and adults can share their feelings, emotions and struggles with others who have similar experiences. They are supported in this process by a trained facilitator.
 
RAINBOWS helps by providing materials: journals, story books, games and activities – which form a structured programme leading the participants gently through the grieving process.
 
RAINBOWS helps by:

 

  • Supporting children youth and adults to re-build their self esteem.
  • Enabling participants to name, understand and come to terms with the emotions they feel.
  • Reassuring participants who have anxieties or feelings of guilt.
  • Encouraging participants to move towards forgiving those people whom they feel have caused their pain. 

 

RAINBOWS operates in a site, that is a location that is registered to run the programmes. A site could be a school, parish, community centre, pastoral centre or other social agency. After deciding to become a site, facilitators are recruited and attend a training programme. On completion of the training programme, information and invitations are sent to anyone wishing to take part in the twelve week programme. When there are sufficient participants interested the programme is run.
 
Running RAINBOWS
 
The programme is divided into two blocks of six weeks, each of which is concluded with a “Celebrate Me Day”. There are weekly meetings of the participants with their facilitator. The facilitator needs to allow about an hour for each meeting, but very young children (5 – 7 years) spend about half an hour working in the group, while older children ( 8 – 11 years) spend about three quarters of an hour.
 
The facilitators also hold weekly meetings at which they reflect in a personal way on the theme of the next RAINBOWS session.
 
Facilitators are adults who care about the grief of participants, who are able to listen to what they say and who are supportive of them as they move through the grieving process.
 
Facilitators are trained to:

 

  • Listen to what the participants have to say without judgment or criticism.
  • Accept that they cannot solve the participants’ problems, put things right for them or take the pain away.
  • Listen to the participants’ pain, which can be expressed in many different ways such as anger, tears, or attention seeking. 

 

It is important to note that RAINBOWS is NOT a counselling or therapy programme – this requires professional skills. If a child is showing symptoms of severe grieving it is important that he/she is referred for professional help.
 
RAINBOWS maintains confidentiality within the group setting except when a child is deemed to be in danger.