Fatal Brooklyn Fire Shows Solidarity, Strength of Community

NEW YORK, April 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- When seven siblings were killed in a horrific fire last week, phones, emails, and texts sent the devastating news around the world. The children attended neighborhood schools in their Midwood neighborhood. The event left their young friends, peers, and parents struggling to understand and cope with the devastation.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150401/196084

Project CHAI, Chai Lifeline's crisis intervention division, opened its online and telephone Crisis Helpline as soon as the news became public. The first of more than 1,000 parents and educators contacted the three professionals within minutes.

INTENSIVE EFFORT REACHES CHILDREN, EDUCATORS, PARENTS

Within hours, Chai Lifeline released a 12 minute video offering suggestions on how to break the sad news to children and begin the healing process. In the first 24 hours, 15,000 people accessed it on Chai Lifeline's YouTube channel and the Chai Lifeline website. Project CHAI's professionals, who have several decades of experience between them, met with educators at the children's schools that morning as well. Principals, teachers and staff members appreciated the forum in which they were able to express their own shock and sadness while gaining valuable information on how to help their young charges cope with an unexplainable tragedy. The professionals, assisted by members of Chai Lifeline's staff, returned on Monday to meet with classes at the schools that had just lost beloved students and friends.

On Monday evening, Chai Lifeline and the Flatbush Jewish Community Council sponsored "Making Sense of the Tragedy," an evening for parents and community leaders. Simultaneously streamed on video and audio channels, the broadcast reached over 45,000 people in 25 countries as far away as Japan, Serbia and South Africa.

"A tragedy like this unites people around the world in their horror, sorrow, and shock," observed Rabbi Simcha Scholar, Chai Lifeline's executive vice president. "Chai Lifeline and Project CHAI focused on the people most directly involved… those who live in the community and whose families interacted with the Sassoons. But as our live streams showed, everyone felt the loss very keenly. To a great extent, we are all family when something like this happens."

Video and written material offering suggestions for responding to this and other traumatic events are available at www.chailifeline.org/live.

SOURCE Chai Lifeline