The Compassionate Friends is a self-help organization offering support and understanding to families who have experienced the death of a child. You need not walk alone through your grief journey. 
We are not here to treat, fix or lead, but to listen, share and companion through the grief journey. 
We are The Compassionate Friends and are here to walk with you.
MISSION  
The Mission of The Compassionate Friends: When a child dies, at any age, the family suffers intense pain and may feel hopeless and isolated. The Compassionate Friends provides highly personal comfort, hope, and support to every family experiencing the death of a son or a daughter, a brother or a sister, or a grandchild, and helps others better assist the grieving family.

(Adopted by the Board of Directors February 25, 2012)

VISION
The vision of The Compassionate Friends is that everyone who needs us will find us and everyone who finds us will be helped.
CREDO 
We need not walk alone. We are The Compassionate Friends. We reach out to each other with love, with understanding, and with hope. The children we mourn have died at all ages and from many different causes, but our love for them unites us. Your pain becomes my pain, just as your hope becomes my hope. We come together from all walks of life, from many different circumstances. We are a unique family because we represent many races, creeds, and relationships. We are young, and we are old. Some of us are far along in our grief, but others still feel a grief so fresh and so intensely painful that they feel helpless and see no hope. Some of us have found our faith to be a source of strength, while some of us are struggling to find answers. Some of us are angry, filled with guilt or in deep depression, while others radiate an inner peace. But whatever pain we bring to this gathering of The Compassionate Friends, it is pain we will share, just as we share with each other our love for the children who have died. We are all seeking and struggling to build a future for ourselves, but we are committed to building a future together.  We reach out to each other in love to share the pain as well as the joy, share the anger as well as the peace, share the faith as well as the doubts, and help each other to grieve as well as to grow. We Need Not Walk Alone. We are The Compassionate Friends. 

©2007 The Compassionate Friends
SEVEN PRINCIPLES
  1. TCF offers friendship, understanding, and hope to bereaved parents, siblings and grandparents. 
  2. TCF believes that bereaved parents, siblings, and grandparents can help each other toward a positive resolution of grief. 
  3. TCF reaches out across society's barriers to all bereaved parents, siblings, and grandparents. 
  4. TCF understands that every member has individual needs and rights. 
  5. TCF reaches out to the bereaved primarily through our community of local chapters and secondarily by
    website, social media, and conferences. 
  6. TCF chapters belong to their members. 
  7. TCF is coordinated nationally in its support to its chapters, bereaved parents, siblings, and grandparents.