Unlikely Collaborators Announces Continued Support of Dougy Center with New Two-Year Grant

Funding will expand access to peer grief support for children, teens, and families while
advancing innovative, community-informed programming

LOS ANGELES, April 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Unlikely Collaborators today announced its continued support of Dougy Center, a nonprofit organization providing a safe space for children, teens, young adults, and their families to share and process grief before and after a death. This new two-year grant reflects Unlikely Collaborators' ongoing commitment to supporting organizations that foster healing, connection, and emotional resilience during life's most difficult moments. Unlikely Collaborators has supported Dougy Center with a number of grants, including Spark Grants that involve similar grief-oriented organizations.

Founded in 1982 in Portland, Oregon, Dougy Center: The National Grief Center for Children & Families created the world's first peer grief support program for children and has since become a globally recognized model for bereavement care known as The Dougy Center Model. Named for Dougy Turno, a 13-year-old who sought treatment in Portland for an inoperable brain tumor, the organization has spent decades listening and responding to the needs of children, teens, young adults, and families who are grieving from all walks of life.

This grant will enable Dougy Center to continue growing the reach and impact of its programs while remaining responsive to evolving community needs. Priority focus areas include direct support of Dougy Center's world-renowned programming, including growing the Tapestries group - developed in partnership with Sakura Counseling to better serve Black and African American families who are grieving, increased resources and programming for youth in foster care, and increasing the number of volunteer group facilitators trained in The Dougy Center Model to support expanded group offerings.

"We are deeply grateful for the ongoing partnership and support of Unlikely Collaborators. Their generous championing of Dougy Center and our mission makes it possible for children, teens, and their families who are grieving to find care and community during some of life's most difficult moments," said Brennan Wood, Executive Director of Dougy Center.

As part of their ongoing collaboration, Brennan Wood and Donna L. Schuurman, EdD, FT, Senior Director of Advocacy & Education and Executive Director Emeritus, participated in a Spark Salon, the speaker series produced by Unlikely Collaborators. In the conversation, they explored how grief transforms identity, meaning, and connection, particularly for children and teens, and the importance of witnessing grief without trying to fix it. Drawing on decades of leadership and personal experience, they shared insights into what it means to be truly "grief-informed" and how honoring grief can deepen empathy and resilience. The Spark Salon can be viewed here.

Brennan Wood's TEDxPortland talk on grief and resilience can also be viewed here.

Unlikely Collaborators is a nonprofit organization, founded and chaired by Elizabeth R. Koch, dedicated to fostering transformative storytelling, developing human connection, and resolving internal conflict. Unlikely Collaborators' perspective, external conflict arises from unconscious, unresolved internal conflict within each of us. Founded on the belief that the way we perceive the world is highly subjective, Unlikely Collaborators supports projects that challenge assumptions, spark meaningful dialogue, and invite people into deeper self-awareness in community.

Central to this mission is the groundbreaking Perception Box™ framework developed by Koch, which explores the mental models we use to understand and navigate the world. Shaped by our beliefs, life experiences, education, values, and traumas–along with the meaning we have made out of those traumas, genes, physiology, and unconscious patterns–our box filters and distorts everything we perceive. When individuals begin to recognize this box, even briefly, the walls expand, giving us room to experience greater curiosity, tolerance for difficult emotions, and more generosity in relating to others.

For more information about Dougy Center, visit dougy.org. For more about Unlikely Collaborators, visit unlikelycollaborators.com.

About Dougy Center
Dougy Center provides grief support in a safe place where children, teens, young adults, and their families can share their experiences before and after a death. In addition to local peer support groups, Dougy Center offers training and resources nationally and internationally to individuals and organizations seeking to assist children who are grieving. As the originator of the world's first peer grief support program for children, Dougy Center continues to lead the field in compassionate, community-based bereavement care. To learn more about getting involved, view their #UnderstandGrief resources here.

SOURCE Unlikely Collaborators