A New Chapter: Introducing the Don't Forget To Breathe Foundation -E440

What began as one father's way of surviving the loss of his daughter has grown into something far bigger than a podcast.

In this special episode, Bruce Barker and Kristin Glenn announce the launch of the Don't Forget To Breathe Foundation, a nonprofit created to expand connection, conversation, and community for bereaved parents and those who walk beside them.

Bruce and Kristin share the story behind the foundation, the unmet needs they continue to see in the child loss community, and their vision for creating spaces where grieving parents feel heard, understood, and supported—whether their loss was recent or decades ago.

They also introduce upcoming initiatives including retreats for mothers, fathers, and couples, facilitator training, educational resources, support circles, and new conversation prompt cards designed to strengthen grief support groups.

You'll also hear about the foundation's first public appearances at the upcoming national conferences for The Compassionate Friends and Bereaved Parents of the USA, and learn how you can help ensure that no parent has to navigate child loss alone.

Whether you're a bereaved parent, family member, friend, professional, or someone who simply wants to support grieving families more compassionately, this episode is an invitation to become part of a growing community built on hope, authenticity, and connection.

Together, we're creating connection, conversation, and community—so no one has to navigate child loss alone.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Welcome to Don't Forget to Breathe. I'm Bruce Parker here with my co-host, Kristen Glenn. Today's episode is a little different. Over the last several years, this podcast has become something much bigger than I ever imagined. What started as a way for me to process the loss of my daughter, Kristen, has grown into a community of brief parents, family members, friends, and supporters all over the world. We've shared stories, we've shed tears, we've laughed together, we've spoken the names of our children, and perhaps most importantly, we've

Welcome And Big Announcement

SPEAKER_01 0:44

reminded one another that we're not alone. Today we're excited to share some news that's been in the works for quite some time.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

I'm so excited to be the one to say that we're introducing the Don't Forget to Breathe Foundation. This nonprofit is created because we just kept hearing the same thing from grieving parents. I wish that I'd known about support sooner. I wish there was a place for me. I wish someone understood. The foundation is now here to meet those needs. And Bruce and I could not be prouder or, you know, more hopeful to imagine where the future sends the foundation and us as the folks that are navigating it along with you all.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Absolutely. This podcast will always be at the heart of what we do, but the foundation allows us to expand beyond conversations and create even more opportunities for connection, support, education, and community. So today we'll talk about why we created it, uh what we're hoping to build, and how listeners can help us reach grieving parents who may be feeling completely alone right now. So, first big question why create a foundation? Well, when I started the podcast, I didn't know if anyone would listen. I simply wanted to tell the truth about child loss. And over time, parents began reaching out. So the foundation seems to be the natural next step. Wouldn't you say, Kristen?

SPEAKER_00 2:20

I absolutely do. It's just really kind of unreal that we're official. You know, getting that IRS letter and seeing our name, it's you want to frame it and you're so proud, and you're also wishing

Why A Foundation Now

SPEAKER_00 2:33

that there was no need because there shouldn't be any brief parents in the world. We would love to protect everyone from this loss. But here we are together. And we all know that grief is isolating, that parents often tell us how invisible they feel, especially after that initial support fades, which you and I have talked about. There's a lot of great organizations that want to collaborate, and we want to collaborate with them. We are not going to duplicate efforts, we're not going to replace the organizations that are having that collaborative attitude. We just want to complement those efforts and really help connect parents to the resources and to their specific communities.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

So, what would you say are some unmet needs that we're seeing among bereaved parents?

SPEAKER_00 3:22

I believe the podcast, as you said, to have a space that you're going to hear from bereaved parents, their truths, their authentic grief. It's not a step-by-step process. There's not a lot of advice. It really is just authentic storytelling. And it can be listen to it 2 a.m. when you are in the darkest times. I think the podcast is a beautiful outlet, especially in this world that is so technologically connected. And you

Unmet Needs And What Helps

SPEAKER_00 3:57

know, Bruce, I'm so so invested in doing the retreats. I feel like being in a separate space, away from your day-to-day to-dos and commitments, and going to places in nature for several days together, there's there's magic that happens there. And I just cannot wait to see what's next for us, how we can reach out to other communities, how we can travel to them, they can travel to us. Who knows? But the retreats and and I've always been a believer in education. So I feel like there's a lot of unmet needs in education to organizations, to parents themselves, to the supporters of parents. So I could go on forever, but I'll let you talk. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

So next question would be: what is the Don't Forget to Breathe foundation? Kristen, you want to share our mission statement?

SPEAKER_00 4:56

I'd love to. We worked hard on this mission, and I we we both believe in the intentionality of words. And so we really wanted to make sure that each word was selected and that the overall message was exactly what we intend. So our mission is creating connection, conversation, and community for bereaved parents and those who walk beside them so that no one has to navigate child loss alone.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

That says it.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

I

Mission Statement And Core Values

SPEAKER_00 5:27

think so. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

Yeah. I'll so I'll talk about our future initiatives and basically how this kind of breaks down. Obviously, podcast, production, and storytelling, so that still is at the heart. And we'll elaborate on each one of these retreats for mothers, fathers, and couples, educational resources, and that includes something that we'll be introducing later this summer, perhaps uh late summer, early fall. And those are facilitator prompt cards. So basically, this is an item that can help someone facilitating a support group with prompt

Programs Retreats Education Support Circles

SPEAKER_01 6:09

questions. So if the conversation slows a bit or whatever, you're you don't have to have all the answers as a facilitator. And those that are participating can simply pull a prompt card and it will ask the question. And then that's a discussion point. Those are going to be aligned for mom's groups, for dad's groups, couples. And we're also going to have a faith-based uh version that has uh scripture that's a that uh is assigned to whatever that prompt is. So those would be available and help um churches and religious organizations that also provide support. In addition to that is facilitator training. So we can do it in person, we can do it virtually and be able to train facilitators on how to actually facilitate a group. You don't have to be a licensed therapist or anything like that. But just from our experience being facilitators, we want to be able to share that. Uh conference outreach. And speaking of that, we have those coming up. We'll talk about those. They're coming up in July. We'll talk about those in just a little bit. And then parent support circles.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

Yeah. You know, I when you read those, I just didn't imagining where we'll be a year from now and how we can really live our belief of you know that we both share, which is that healing occurs when when we feel heard in all aspects of our life, but especially with grieving. These grieving families should not feel silenced. They should feel heard. It's one of the basics of treating humans with respect is to allow them to feel heard in their grief. And we want to find every opportunity to live, live that belief that you and I share.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

That kind of ties in with what I'm about to talk about, but you know, we're we're meeting parents where they are. So one thing that we've learned is that grief does not follow a timeline. Some parents are newly bereaved, and others are five, ten, twenty, or even forty years out from the death of their child. And yet they all still need connection. That's what remains. Our goal with the podcast with the foundation, this is not about personal gain. It's not about anything like that. We want to grow this to be able to reach more parents. That's it. That's the bottom line. So that they know they are not alone. We can provide resources to them, but there's so many parents that are out there that have no idea that there's a community of parents who have experienced child loss that want to want to be together with you and meet you where you are. That's that's really the purpose of this.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Yeah, I'm so excited to show up in those spaces. We're just really committed to serving parents exactly where they're at in their journey, not fixing their grief. We're not going to tell people how to grieve because you and I have had to navigate that in our own unique ways. And that's what we've witnessed with all the parents that you and I've supported over the years. We're just going to create spaces for people to show up exactly as they are.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Exactly. So I mentioned conferences earlier. Uh, we're excited to announce that the foundation uh will have a presence at two of the largest gatherings for brief parents in the country this summer. So, first, Kristen's going to be attending the Compassionate Friends National Conference in Baltimore. That's July 2nd through the 5th. Kristen, you want to speak to that real quick?

SPEAKER_00 10:09

Yeah, I'm so excited. I've never been to Baltimore. We're going to have a table in the resource village. I would love for anyone to stop by and meet listeners of our podcast,

Meeting Parents Where They Are

SPEAKER_00 10:20

meet other people that do podcasts, of course, brief parents there, volunteers, anyone that's interested in talking about what they do, talking about the foundation. Um, I think it'll be really a meaningful experience.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Definitely. And then later in July, I'll be attending the Brief Parents of the USA national gathering, and that's in Pittsburgh. And that'll be July 24th through the 26th. I'll also have a resource table there as well.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

We're just so excited to be with these organizations. We've had to be approved to be part of their resources, so it's really an honor. And they've been serving BRIVE families for decades. We're just hoping to

Summer Conferences And Why They Matter

SPEAKER_00 11:01

support the incredible work that they do throughout the country, really.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Here's an interesting little side note I'll toss out there is the episode just prior to this one being released is one where we have our guest was John DeDagis. John is actually speaking at both of these conferences. So I hope we see you there. And the the question comes up is why do conferences matter? And part of that, I think, is that the power of that face-to-face connection, because we would love to meet you if you're already a listener, and then meet new listeners.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Absolutely. And I think people can count on us to have an area that is created within these resource holes or areas that allows for some meaningful conversation. You know, this is not a vendor table where you go by and get the free swag. We are there because we want to hear what would be meaningful. Would you like to be on our podcast? What can we improve on? Would you like for us to be a bring a retreat to your community? I think there'll be a lot of listening. And I think that that's important for us to truly connect and know what we can do. When you have a new foundation, learning from others that have walked this journey, I think will be incredibly uh meaningful.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

So, Kristen, how can listeners help?

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Well, there's so many things. I think share this podcast. The more people that listen, the more connections are built. I think that's creating a network, as you've said, that can go from places in Europe to here in my little town of Port Collins to, you know, outreach in other communities. I think that's so important. Tell another grieving parent about us. We're really trying to engage and have a social media presence that's meaningful.

How Listeners Can Help

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Again, that it has great intention, like our podcast does. We really do want to have things that land with people and really are something that they can take away and reflect on themselves. Certainly volunteer as we start having outreach opportunities. We would love to come speak at different organizations, give presentations ourselves. We've both done that a lot and would love to be able to provide that for other organizations and certainly support the foundation. We're brand new. And um, if you're able to support financially, we need to build some resources so that we can support people that may not have the funds to maybe re go to a retreat or receive the services. And so that financial support is going to be really important for us to be sustainable.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

You know, every conversation we create and every parent that we reach begins with people who believe no one should have to navigate this journey alone. So that's you. That's the listener. That's all of us as a community. You know, when when my daughter Kristen died, I never imagined any of this. I mean, I certainly never imagined a podcast and definitely never imagined a foundation. But grief has a way of introducing us to people we never would have met and paths we never would have chosen. The Don't Forget to Breathe Foundation exists because of those connections. It exists because of the courage of parents who have come on our podcast and shared their stories. And it exists because every grieving parent deserves to know they are not alone.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

Absolutely. So if this is touching your heart because you are a bereaved parent, a sibling, a grandparent, a friend, or someone that's just walking alongside a grieving family, we thank you for being here. We thank you for helping us along this journey of our brand new foundation. And we really ask you to continue to help us create connection and conversation and community, which is again back to our mission that we we feel very proud of. So thank you.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

So thank you

Closing Thanks And Website Launch

SPEAKER_01 15:25

for joining us for this special episode of Don't Forget to Breathe. If you'd like to learn more about the foundation, visit our website. We're launching the new foundation website the first week of July. We'll have that information on our show notes. Follow us on social media. Uh, stop by and say hello if you're attending either of the conferences this summer. So until next time, take care of yourselves, take care of each other, and don't forget to breathe.